Lost in the Woods

I went off exploring today. One positive from staying within the 5km where I live is finding new places, or exploring old places. I parked in Glen Wood, which is a lovely forest walk but I was looking for the famine village that I visited previously with the Coolaney Drawing Group.

Before I went looking for it I took some photos of the Hungry Rock. There’s a lot of confusion about where it is, a lot of people think it’s the Hawk’s Rock (which is on the opposite side of the road), so I’ve done a little video that might help people find it. The Hungry Rock is said to have been named because many people died from the famine on that road. Legend has it that if you throw a stone at the rock you will never go hungry, there were several stones of the rock today and also some coins.

After that I headed up to try to find the village but I have absolutely zero sense of direction. One tree looks very similar to another so I ended up walking round in circles. I was also hoping to get to the summit of Doomore but I didn’t manage that either, I tried using google maps but it doesn’t help that people have named their houses the same name. I did see a beautiful view of Ballisodare Bay and Knocknarea though.

I felt like Sarah in the film Labyrinth, I could almost hear the ‘little folk’ saying “If she’d have gone that way she’d have ended up at the village.” You’ll only understand that if you’ve seen the film. I took the wrong way though and ended up with one foot stuck in a muddy patch, my shoe was fairly wedged down so after a lot of wiggling I managed to get free.

Phew, says I, until a few steps later I ended up down again, this time stuck in the bog of external stench (Labyrinth reference again!) I was stuck in the mud right up to my knee!

I really didn’t think I’d get out of this one, or that I’d certainly lose a shoe. I was now really imagining the little folk killing themselves laughing, at this stage. That’s what a couple of hours lost in a forest will do.

I kept calm and managed to hoist myself out. Albeit bruised, battered and covered in mud. Thankfully I head some voices below where I was so I had an idea where the road was and managed to get back down again.

It was an interesting morning, to say the least! Here’s a photo of the famine village from a couple of years ago because I didn’t find it this time around.