The Village

I paid a return trip to the village in Glen Wood. This village is really no more than two or three cottages, it’s hidden away in the middle of a forest and hasn’t really gained much attention until recently. The forestry are doing some work around there so the place has been opened up, no more scrambling up slippery rocks and getting attacked by brambles, no more watching squirrels dart by. It’s now a gravel road for the trucks to get up and down.

I’ve been going up and down to this place over the last number of years. Several times with the Coolaney Drawing Project and again with Sarah Sexton who is doing a wonderful project about the place at the moment, you can see her work here.

I used to always find a sense of foreboding at this place, like I wasn’t wanted or welcome. I believe that places hold feelings, and I felt that this place wanted to be left alone. I was there last year and I got completely lost (not a surprise I get lost everywhere) but I could almost here the little folk laughing at me. You can read more here: https://magnumlady.com/2020/05/30/lost-in-the-woods/

The last few times I’ve felt welcome there, and this was before the work began. I feel a sense of calm, it’s very different to how I felt before. The only thing I will say is that it always feels like a different atmosphere there, I felt the same on Knocknashee, I can’t explain it but it’s almost silent, otherworldly.

There are remnants of broken crockery and bottles, parts of shoes, all left above, what I would think to be a storage area, an older version of a fridge. They are all laid out now for visitors to see. It’s like a living museum. I wonder what the items would say if they could talk. What would their stories be? Who wore the shoes? It’s like we have been left half a story and have to figure out the rest for ourselves.

There’s an interesting Sligo Dark Tale here about the area, this may have been why I felt the foreboding: https://sligowalkingtours.com/sligo-dark-tales-the-perils-of-travelling-alone-in-the-18th-century/

This place is not far from the Hungry Rock, this is a flat rock on the left from Coolaney to the N59. It’s not the large rock on the right which is the Hawks Rock. Sandy posted recently on the Sligo, Ireland Facebook group that when you stood on the rock in the middle of the road which had the mark of a horse shoe/ the Devil and threw a stone onto the Hungry Rock if it stayed you’d never go hungry. The mark has been tarred over but people still leave coins and items on the rock.

To read more about the Glen Wood Walk you can visit the Sligo Walks website: https://sligowalks.ie/walks/glenwood/