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can anyone identify these? (great blasket island)

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  • 28-06-2014 9:09pm
    #1
    Stressica
    Registered Users Posts: 363 ✭✭


    We were camping on the Great Blasket Island the last few days and we went round the walk along the cliff side (which btw- amazing!!)

    We came across a few structures which we weren't sure what they were.
    (Unknown 1)- was some kind of rectangular structure, almost grave like but very long to be graves?

    (Unknown 2)
    some kind of headstone? with rocks placed around in a circular formation.

    Also at the very top we met this structure which we later found out was some kind of look out. (unknown 3)

    and all around one side of the cliffs, near the lookout were these wedge shaped structures (unknown 4)


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    #2
    Ostrom
    Registered Users Posts: 3,483 ✭✭✭Ostrom


    4 could be a Napoleonic signal tower, it looks quite like the one on Clare Island. 1 could be the remains of a booly hut. Was it on elevated ground? Openfield systems often used herding huts to keep cattle away during the growing season.


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    #3
    superelliptic
    Registered Users Posts: 395 ✭✭superelliptic


    Ostrom wrote: »
    4 could be a Napoleonic signal tower, it looks quite like the one on Clare Island. 1 could be the remains of a booly hut. Was it on elevated ground? Openfield systems often used herding huts to keep cattle away during the growing season.


    What's a booly hut used for?

    Like a Bothy or some such?


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    #4
    Ostrom
    Registered Users Posts: 3,483 ✭✭✭Ostrom


    superelliptic wrote: »
    What's a booly hut used for?

    Like a Bothy or some such?

    Openfield systems often did not have permanent fencing. When the lands adjacent to the village were in tillage, livestock were herded away to mountain commonage to avoid trampling the crop. They were brought back in after harvest to graze the stubble and 'do what they do' to replenish fertility for the following year.

    Booley huts were used to temporarily house herders (often women and children), who were responsible for supervision and sometimes milking/butter making. They are well documented by historical geographers, and there are a few ongoing mapping projects (Donegal County Council is running one at the moment). They are usually found on higher ground, and openfield farming was quite common on the Islands - certainly on Aran, Clare, Gola, and Achill.


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    #5
    Blasketeer
    Registered Users Posts: 1 ✭Blasketeer


    Hi, the first photo, (low parallel walls) shows what is called a 'caiseal'; this is a stone structure, no mortar between the stones (dry-walled) which were put together adjacent to where turf was being cut from the ground by the islanders. The wet turf was stacked in the caiseal in order to help to dry it out and make it ready as fuel for the fire.
    The second photo, a small stone standing on two other ones is thought to be a relatively recent (i.e. less than 150 years old) creation, possibly done by the islanders or even by the English soldiers who once occupied the nearby Watchtower.
    The third photo shows a number of caiseals (or caisil) on the side of a hill, possibly 'Tóin an Phortaigh', the place of the bogs, on the north side of the Great Blasket Island. There are many individual caiseal speckled around the island including some created precariously some hundreds of feet down the cliff faces.
    The final photo shows the remains of the Watchtower, probably built in the 1800's when there was a there of an invasion by a Napoleonic fleet. The tower was rectangular or square in shape and, it is said, was destroyed by lightening probably in 1937. Cheers, Blasketeer.


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