My partner and I very recently moved to the Republic of Ireland for school, and have been staying in the Dún Laoghaire area, trying to see as many prehistoric sites in the area as possible. On a previous visit last year we learned about Glendruid but didn't have the opportunity to visit. We intended to remedy that when we arrived this time, and paid a visit to the Valley Of The Druid on August 8th.
Going up the Brennanstown road, we attempted to find the oft-mentioned 'Dolmen House' to request access like polite earth-worshippers, but either it has been renamed or taken under new management since the last reports because a home of that name was nowhere to be found along the road in the vicinity of the dolmen. Upon asking at a house which mapping programs assured us was the closest to the site of the dolmen, we were instructed by an unseen voice inside the house, via the medium of a "ring light," that we had to trek back and take the Lehaunstown road around to the other side of the eponymous valley in order to visit Glendruid. Alright, off we go!
Off we trekked down the aforementioned lane, intending to continue our streak of politeness and ask in at a nearby home for the best way to visit. The residents of the last house on the right before the Lehaunstown road passes over a tramway and veers away from the area of the dolmen, however, left in an automobile as soon as we arrived, and were unavailable for megalith-related inquiries. Using our natural-born smarts and sense of direction, we wandered a short ways back down the lane and discovered a break in the hedge where one might scramble over a low stone wall and gain access to the hinterland beyond and thereby draw closer to the dolmen. The opening was marked by a fetching purple graffito of a fish - future seekers are advised to keep an eye out for this! Beyond the wall, we passed through a small meadow before entering a moist and appealing patch of Irish Atlantic Rainforest, which, according to our mapping programs, hugged the edges of a headwater of the Laughlinstown River as it proceeded to river and onwards to the Irish Sea. Descending into the Valley, following a rough trail through the trees and ferns, we soon discovered a more established path following the water upstream towards the site of the dolmen. At a certain point there emerges an open spot in the foliage to the right of the trail, where one can spot a rocky ford. An elderly man with an expensive-looking digital camera was present here, and upon informing him of our mission to visit the prehistoric power site he let us know that the best way across was a short scramble over a tree nearby that had fallen across the waterway. Following this advice, we emerged...
...into Glendruid! The back of the house we had asked at earlier was visible on the hill immediately opposite the ford, separated from us by an apparently impenetrable boundary of ferns and dense, wild, green growth. Off to our right and down a short trail is the dolmen itself - grand, weighty, utterly massive, its capstone radiating earth energies, appearing to brood over the landscape. Previous photos of this site available on The Modern Antiquarian and Megalithic Ireland show the dolmen standing in a neatly-mown lawn of short grass - not so on our visit! The entire small valley, enclosed on three sides by rainforest and one side by steep hill, was filled with living and dead wildflowers, tall grasses, ferns, and "weeds," in some places knee-high, in others above our heads. The dolmen appears to emerge out of this, but does not seem to tower over the landscape as it would in more tamed surroundings. Rather, like some great stone tortoise, it hunkers down among the foliage. The chamber enclosed by the upright stones is impressive, easy to stand up and move within and able to easily accommodate a crowd of 5 or 6 stone-seekers. The capstone emanates a sense of unfathomable weight from underneath, but the orthostats (and concrete reinforcement, courtesy of the OPW) seem to handle it easily. All in all, a deeply affecting place, and one in which the journey of discovery figures heavily in the overall experience. The trip back out to Cabinteely by the same route we entered was less arduous, knowing the way.
A couple weeks later, on August 23rd, I made a solitary return visit to the Valley Of The Druid. On this trip, I was informed by some local adolescents that there is an alternate path to Glendruid that follows the river all the way from the Lehaunstown road. About a half-kilometer from the turn-off of the Brennanstown road, the Lehaunstown road crosses the river, and the water can be heard rushing by underneath the massive stone bridge. On the north side of the road here, there is an opening in the foliage that allows on to enter into the rainforest and, once inside, discover a track along the water that leads all the way to the fording site mentioned above. This trail leads through much denser and considerably more fae sections of the forest than that crossed in the trek from the meadow, and is well worth a look-see.
Safe stoning!
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Posted by mound-dweller
28th August 2023ce
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