Tag: rock

Geopark Poetry Map Prompt 11

~ sojourningsmith ~ Leave a comment

Today I want to highlight not so much a site, but a geological feature that characterises the MACGeopark region – glacial erratics – those huge boulders and pedestal rocks that we find, especially close to Cavan Burren Forest. But I also have to say it is not unusual for you to see one that, having been unearthed when building a new home, becomes a front garden feature roundabouts. Which makes sense since our earliest ancestors saw them as aesthetic objects made of rock. They use them as their palette for some of the earliest examples of human art on this island. In terms of geoheritage topics you cannot beat the beauty, mystery and mystique surrounding glacial erratics. Surely, some poet can sing a hymn of praise to these earthly wonders for our Geopark Poetry Map!

This is an example of a type of glacial erratic, whereby the huge boulder would have been
left behind as the ice melted and retreated at the end of the last glaciation. The fact that the
boulder is a different type of rock from the underlying bedrock gives rise to the name ‘erratic’. This type of erratic is known as a pedestal rock and these features are relatively rare landforms. However, there is a significantly high concentration of pedestal rocks within Cavan Burren Park where they are considered to be of international significance. In order fora pedestal rock to form, the erratic must be deposited directly on top of the limeston
bedrock. Other glacial erratics within the forest have no pedestal suggesting that they were
transported within a mass of boulder clay and therefore came to be deposited on top of the
boulder clay and not directly on to bedrock. It is thought that the deposition of the huge
sandstone boulder directly on top of limestone acted as a barrier to erosion, as limestone
erodes readily in weak acidic water such as rainwater. If this is the case, then the amount of
erosion that has taken place since the end of the last glaciation is easily estimated as the
height of the limestone pedestal is the height that all of the limestone would have been whenthe erratic was deposited.

Martina O’Neill, MACGeopark Development Officer, Partnership & Engagement

Within Cavan Burren Park there is also a rare example of what is called a ‘modified glacial erratic.’ Signposted as ‘The Boulder Tomb’ it is thought that cremated remains were deposited in the niche created by the modifications. There is also rock art at this location. A small spring can be found towards the bottom of the incline. I have to agree with local ceramic artist Jim Fee that this part of Cavan Burren Park has a special and very peaceful presence.

Enter the site and walk towards the huge boulder in themiddle. It is best to view this feature from below so walk downhill before stopping. This is another example of a huge glacial erratic. It displays evidence of alteration by man with rock art on the top surface. This is another example of a pedestal rock with the erratic beingsandstone and the underlying pedestal being limestone. In this instance the limestone has been carved and has been identified as a prototype tomb. If you look carefully at the sandstone you will see that the layers are contorted in places. This is probably due to some form of disturbance before it became lithified, when the wet layers of sand were disturbed causing the water to be released.

Martina O’Neill, MACGeopark Development Officer, Partnership & Engagement

All the Marble Arch Caves UNESCO Global Geopark sites are open to the public and now we are free to travel round the country. Northern Ireland has a bank holiday this weekend and the Republic will have one the first week of June. You may want to visit Cavan Burren Park and hug some of these glacial eratics to inspire some poems that will put them on our Geopark Poetry Map. Email GeoparkPoetryMap@gmail.com for submission guidelines. The closing date is 15th June 2021.

Glacial eratics in Cavan Burren Park
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Layers

~ sojourningsmith ~ 1 Comment

I am not feeling exactly on my game this morning. Either I have really bad hayfever, or I have a cold. This past week I guided local school children on a walk on the Cavan Burren. We are fortunate to walk on land that has been continuously, but gently, occupied for as long as humans have lived in Ireland. Most of these school children come from families with centuries long roots in this place that is very much on the map in the myths told about the first peoples of ancient Ireland. 

I was pointing out how rocks and trees were the big story of this place.  It is thought that high chieftains were inaugurated under a tree sacred to their clan. But we also have the inaugural stone for Clan Maguire not far from us.  The Tuatha dé Danaan are said to have landed first on Slieve Anieran, which is twenty miles or less from them, just over the boundary in Leitrim. The goddess Danu  is said to have married Bile,  the old Irish word for tree.  The school group in Glangevlin lives close to the Belavalley Gap, where the Tuatha’s smith forged their magical weapons. And then, because I have atrocious Irish pronunciation there was a brief discussion between the teacher and children about the word tuatha. Most often it is translated as the people, or tribe, or the children of Danu. But it also has a further nuance, which carries with it  the sense of it being the place, or land, of Danu. 

Which hit me like a big chunk of sedementary rock off of one of those glacial erratics in Cavan Burren Forest. Which also has its fair share of rock art cup and ring marks.


Layers


Once

land was the same word

for people.

It meant

belonging.

As a marriage

can be happy,

fruitful

as a tree –

bud

blossom, fruit

berry.

Just another

layer

of being,

many

and one,

but not

the same.

The land

is layer

upon layer-

sand,

granite,

lime and iron

in rock.

The first people

are the mother cup.

The rings

carve out

the generations

widening out.

Copyright 2019 Bee Smith

Memorial

~ sojourningsmith ~ 3 Comments

Those readers who will have seen my Armistice Day poem, Collateral Damage, last 11th November will probably have guessed I have a strong pacifist allegiance.  As one with early Quaker ancestors in my motherline  perhaps those tendencies are written onto some chromosome. In the land of my birth this is Memorial Day weekend.  Which led me to contemplate the memory in the word memorial as much as the monuments we make to the dead. Living as I do in a mythic part of Ireland that was home to megalith makers, my mind began to roll over a few rocks. (“What is it with you about rocks, Bee?!” I can hear My friend Mick query.) This is the Poetry Daily for Memorial Day weekend.


Memorial

What is it within us

so millenially deep,

this need to mark in stone,

to resurrect rocks to stand,

to surround and ground our dead?

Stone memory of them

who have become bone, ash, dust,

who have become the light

that once danced in falling star

that met magma, became man.

Here lies someone, who’s ours,

even those nameless remains

we remember, mark rock.

Stone makes us immortal,

takes us back to the cosmic.

Copyright 2019 Bee Smith