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Visited in April 2012, this site I found easily after getting chatting to a local...I parked on Henry St. in the town and walked up towards the town park, but staying to the left. At a red brick building ahead take a left and follow the lane up...you should be able to see a familiar brown sign pointing in the direction of the circle, which is to the right. When I got there, I discovered a sort of secluded oasis, fenced off from the surrounding outskirts of Kenmare by a ring of leilandai (is that how you spell it?) trees. To get to said oasis I had to walk past an unmanned garden shed, with a hatch which contained an honesty box asking for 2euros per visitor, and a sign saying 'You are being filmed on CCTV'....a glance upwards proved this to be correct...there was the camera...so I gave it a grin and a wave as I popped a couple of quid in...and gained entrance to the circle. I just happened to have caught a lovely sunny break in typically Irish '4 seasons in 1 day' weather as I arrived...and finding that there were no other visitors, spent a quiet hour watching a couple of blackbirds hop around the recently cut grass and trying to take satisfactory photos..(despite the ring of guardian leilandai being planted a metre or two too close to the stones in my opinion....I found it difficult to get a shot of the whole circle because I couldn't get far away enough from it!!) Grumbles aside, I was pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere at this circle, in a place I had previously associated with rampant tourism and 'Oirishness'...I'd reluctantly gone to Kenmare from Uragh, to find a bank at 4pm on a Friday afternoon...but found that this circle rewarded my unavoidable encounter with 'civilisation' in the end! Hurrah!
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Visited April 2012, this site is easy to find, being on the N81 south of Tullow. Access is through/over a gate that had a 'No Shooting' sign on it, on the left hand side of the road...the stone is visible from the road, depending on the growth of the hedgerows that is! No cattle were present (phew!) when I visited...I got the impression that a crop had just been planted...which means that visitors later in the year may have to keep a better eye out for the stone, as the height of the crop increases!! A lovely stone, with a strong presence....much taller than I first thought as I approached it....the grooves give it a more geometric grace somehow!!?! Nice.
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I visited the sacred omphalos of Uisneach in 2007...considering the fame of the place as the navel of Ireland...the plaque announcing it's presence in the area was typically discreet. At the side of the main road was a footpath and gate with huge 'Beware of the Bulls' 'Do not enter' and 'No Trespass' signs...but me being me...I just had to take a trip up the field to at least find the Catstone...so shoot me!
The Hill of Uisneach, I have to admit was a little confusing...as there was never a sense of actually cresting the hill...try as we did to get to the top before anyone spotting us! As we took photos near the Catstone..I spotted the landowner in a field down yonder, making his way to his jeep, keeping a keen eye on his quarry...us!! We just made it out of the field as he reached us on the road...with our best innocent looks on our faces.
I can safely say that to ensure a nice relaxed trip up here...one should try harder than I did to identify the landowner and beg for his permission to tread this site...the locals I asked just said 'Sure you'll be fine...work away'...I would be interested to find out if anyone has visited there since, and what their experience was!?!
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Wet feet to be expected when approaching this site...which is accessed over a stile from a back lane and a very discreet signpost. The gorse proves to be slight problem once you get close to the stone in that it obscures the opportunity of taking a good photo of the menhir in it's gorgeous surroundings. The stone itself is much larger than I anticipated from the view I had of it over the stile...the whole area had a lovely feel to it on this lovely Spring day.
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