OPINION (AN COLÚN): In touch with ancient rituals in a Slieve Bloom valley

THERE'S a valley in the Slieve Bloom Mountains where a strong case has been made that ancient rituals were once conducted there. In the tranquil valley of Glenafelly the marks of our ancestors can be seen in a number of places. People have been living there for four millennia. Now only a handful dwell in the glen but two millennia ago there were possibly hundreds.
A walk I've done countless times goes from the valley floor, beside a quick-flowing river, up a winding forest track to the summit of Cumber Hill. On the summit there's the remains of a hillfort, denoted by a wide, circular earthbank and ditch. The views of the surrounding hills and countryside are excellent. On Saturday, during the blissful weather last weekend, it was a heavenly spot.
Some scholars say that the function of hillforts is unclear. They think that some of them may not have served as defensive fortifications but rather as monuments for religious or funereal purposes. They were mainly constructed in two periods: the Middle to Late Bronze Age (1300 to 1000 BC) and Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age (800 - 600 BC). The rath or ringfort is different from the hillfort. Raths were mainly constructed from 500 to 1100 AD as farmsteads with limited protection, whereas many hillforts were considerably better defensive structures.
There are seven other ringforts in the Glenafelly area, one of them is on the top of Knocknaman (Hill of the women), and they were immediately adjacent to one of Ireland's main roads, the Slí Dághla. This road was one of five main roads emanating from Tara. It ran southwest through Meath, the Slieve Blooms and into Ossory in Kilkenny and was in existence about 2,000 years ago. In the Slieve Blooms it ran beside the Camcor River, past Castle Bernard, Coneyburrow Bridge, through Forelacka, past Cumber Hill and on through the Tulla Gap. It is surely no coincidence that seven hillforts in this small area overlooked this important road, though the exact connection is lost in the mists of time.
In Glenafelly there's also a large block of quartzite standing in a field. Quartzite is an anomaly in the Slieve Blooms. It was probably brought here by the glaciers of the last Ice Age. Quartzite held a ritual importance for the Bronze Age people and it's almost certain that this block, which is known as the Fiddler's Stone, was imbued with this significance. It is probably linked with a Bronze Age passage tomb two kilometres away and two pillars of limestone standing 200 metres from the tomb. Knocknaman may also have had ritual significance, as evidenced by the fire-marked stones discovered there. 4,000 years ago there were perhaps funeral processions taking place between the quartzite block and the passage tomb.
Descending from the hillfort on Cumber Hill I startled a pine marten, only five feet from me who sped away as fast as his legs could take him. Pine marten numbers have been rising in recent years. They feed on grey squirrels.
Further on I came across a herd of twenty fallow deer who also scattered when they spotted me, a very rare human visitor to their home.
The going was rough underfoot as I traversed a large expanse of the hillside covered in tree branches and tree stumps. I bashed my way through a big area of briars until I came to Glenafelly river, which I followed now for half an hour all the way back to the car, sometimes on the river bank, sometimes on the river bed up to my knees in the water. This is a delightful walk (albeit probably too adventurous for most folk) and I always feel great by its end. The woodland by the river is a mixture of birch, ash, hazel, beech and conifers. It is a place plentiful with a considerable variety of plants. There are also many animals here including mink, fox, badger, and the aforementioned pine marten and deer. I heard the call (which sounds like a "skraak") of a jay. Then I saw three jays. This beautifully coloured bird was once extensively hunted with many seeking its attractive plumage. It plays an important part in the regeneration of trees. It's associated with the spread of oak trees because it buries acorns and then forgets about them. It behaves similarly with cones of spruce and pine, beech mast and ash keys. In the Autumn they bury little stores of these seeds in the leaf mould on the woodland floor. Jays are known for their mimicry, being able to imitate the mew of the common buzzard or the cackle of the goshawk.