An Rath
This is a drawing of a tree in An Rath. An Rath is an “earthen ring fort” located near the village of Ballyvaughan in County Clare Ireland. I take my students on a walking field excursion to visit this ring fort. It is about a 1.5 mile walk from the Burren College of Art on a narrow road that allows its users a scenic view of the rural Irish countryside of rolling pasture areas where sheep and cattle graze. Students have told of strong impressions of this place as the following 2 excepts from student papers illustrate:
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tree at An Rath, Earthen Ring Fort, Graphite
BLOG ENTRY OF LINDA RZOSKA
Excerpt 1: “The first time I felt a sense of Ireland as an entity, as having a real soul that speaks to its inhabitants and visitors was one of the first field excursions we took. The An Rath ring fort gave me at first a very eerie sensation. It was enclosed in forest, and honestly gave me the first sensation I had of Ireland being “green”. Different hues and textures of the color were everywhere, and the appearance of the ring fort was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was obviously circular, nearly perfect in its layout and dimensions yet all the overgrown trees and the utter serenity that was exuding from the place gave it a strange combination of being man made, yet a feeling that it was put there for a purpose that the nature of the land was intricately involved in. It appeared to be built, and formed for man, yet was built in a way that it agreed with the nature of the land.
As we sat around the circle and took it in, I could feel a strange sensation that was not quite confusion, but more like I simply didn’t know what to make of the place at the moment. I cannot rightly say that I know what to make of An Rath even now, but I can say that it brought out a little something in me that I didn’t know was there. I felt welcomed by my surroundings, like it was known that I didn’t belong there yet I was free to experience it as I pleased.”
Excerpt 2: “An Rath - the given name to this particular earthen ring fort but no name can truly give weight to what it means to me. An Rath - the place where my life made sense for the briefest of moments. Here amidst the confusion of my world and the soul staining sensation of humanity there I sat - home for the first time. Unconsciously and eternally have I sought for this place. When things were not tolerable, when stress and sickness of thought overcame all that I am and all I wish to be I’d tell myself, “I want to go home.” not knowing where the place I called home was. And for once, in the shadow of the gnarled trees, the ring of earth piled hundreds of years before my current consciousness found its way here, I found home. The place I’d always dreamt of going. Never had I experienced something even vaguely religious but here is the closest I am likely to come. Without explanation of intellect I found a sense of great loss without An Rath. This is the place that welcomed me with warm and heaving bosom to Ireland and told me that for once in my life I had truly found my way home. Here, among tree, bramble, horse and earth was the place where my blood was forged and it cried out through every vessel of my existence to remain in that place. I had found Tir-Na-Nog and it wanted me to stay for all eternity.”
All Images copyright Linda Rzoska
Permission may be given for use of images.
