River Brosna and its catchment area explored at meeting of Historical Society

IT was with much delight that Chairman, Finbarr Spain welcomed Birr native John Feehan to Birr Historical Society, to talk about his new book ‘The River Brosna, An Environmental History’.

He stated that he has great admiration for John’s work as an environmental scientist and that John has a special insight into how he sees our bogs, rivers and the human heritage of our local landscape. His book, ‘The Landscape of Slieve Bloom’ first published in 1979 is now a collector’s piece. This recent publication is a beautifully illustrated book which explores all aspects of the natural, cultural and industrial heritage of the river Brosna and its catchment area.

John began his talk by drawing the audience’s attention to the story of the origin of the Brosna river, which is not like a textbook river, because it started off as a lake at the end of the ice age about 11,000 years ago.

The course of the river Brosna, rises in Bunbrosna in the centre of County Westmeath, flowing into Lough Owel, north of Mullingar and then to Lough Ennell. From there, the river flows south-westerly in the direction of Ballinagore, Kilbeggan, Clara, Ballycumber, Ferbane and Belmont before flowing into the Shannon at Shannonharbour. Some examples of detailed maps of the Brosna catchment area which John explained to the audience included, geology, ecology, bogs, settlements, townland boundaries.

The Story from Archaeology is a very interesting chapter in John’s new book and includes a wide range of subjects, such as Mesolithic artefacts, the Bronze Age (2000 to 600 BC) ringforts, crannogs, early Christian monastic sites along the margins of the Brosna floodplain.

The main focus of John’s talk to Birr Historical Society, covered the history of Lough Coura and the Dowris hoard. The audience were fascinated to hear the story about two men who were digging trenches for potatoes on the shores of Lough Coura in 1825, near Whigsborough, 8km south-west of Lough Boora, in the Parish of Eglish who found the Dowris hoard (they kept it hidden to themselves for 10 years). This 800 BC discovery is Ireland’s largest find of Bronze Age material.

John’s photographs of the known composition of the Dowris Hoard of just under 200 pieces show the skill of metal working at that time. For example, the cauldrons, axes, spearheads, swords. Part of the hoard includes crotals and it remains a mystery what they were used for. One suggestion is that they might have represented the bull’s scrotum ‘the virility of the beast’ in some ritual. The trumpets have holes in them, but it is not known what the intended musical sound they should make when played.

A number of papers have been published about the Dowris Hoard and John referenced an article published by Alison Rosse, Birr Castle in the Journal of the Roscrea Heritage, a paper by Thomas Lalor Cooke in 1853 and Rev. Dr Robinson, in The Dublin Penny Journal, 1833. Some of these amazing archaeological pieces are now on display in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.

John pointed out that Lough Coura lake is a story in itself. If you compare the landscape in the map of Lough Coura dated 1838, First Edition Ordinance Survey and the 1909 Second Edition Map, within 40/50 years the difference is very evident. The lake was drained and the open water has disappeared. In 1838, there was almost no forest and the Eskers were very significant. Over 2,800 years ago, during the Bronze Age, Lough Coura was an extensive lake.

John posed the question, “what was so special about Lough Coura?” It was chosen with care, but why choose there to hide bronze objects? These were a very sophisticated people. John pointed out that the Esker runs parallel to Pinnacle Hill. Eiscir na binne means, Esker of the pinnacles and this has a much broader meaning in the landscape as a whole.

By the end of the evening, John had brought the audience on a wonderful archaeological journey back in time to the secret hiding place of the Dowris Hoard, and illustrated the importance of the heritage of the River Brosna and its catchment area. He was optimistic that the new LiDAR technology (Light Detection and Ranging), shot pulses of lasers down on the earth’s surface would reveal more about our past.

Chairman, Finbarr Spain, thanked John for his excellent talk, on behalf of Birr Historical Society, his committee and everyone in attendance.