June 21, 2004
Under repair
One of the events planned for the Aughrim Summer School next month is a tour of Clonfert cathedral. You might need a hard hat to do the tour, since the Cathedral is currently under repairs, and the famous doorway is covered by scaffolding.
I was chatting briefly to the lads working on the site – they had just put up the scaffolds – and it seems that the cathedral walls and tower are going to be repointed (presumably after they’ve scraped the old plaster off). The cathedral interior is blocked off at the moment – more scaffolding – but I presume that the plan is to have the work done before the tour in three weeks time.
A pretty big jigsaw puzzle. A newly rebuilt wall, which is part of a side chapel to the cathedral. As you can see, each stone is numbered, to help the reconstruction.
While I was there, I paid a visit to the remains of the Clonfert/Ballinasloe Canal. If you drive down the narrow land beyond the cathedral, you’ll find yourself surrounded by a large expanse of processed bog – last Monday was a hot sunny day, but there was a steady breeze that kicked up large brown clouds of peat dust. On both sides of the road, large tractors and caterpillar-tracked machines were lumbering across the brown velvety surface. Here and there were huge dunes of processed peat , heaped up beside the narrow-guage rail lines that crisscross the bog. The peat is shipped via rail to Shannonbridge power station, where it is burned to generate electricity.
I stopped at one of the rail-lines to chat to some of the workmen who were munching their lunch in the shade of one of the covered rail-wagons. Yes, it was possible to reach the canal remains from there, but it meant I’d have to drive across the bog via a boreen. Hmmm… given my past record of sinking tractors in bogs, I decided to take the long way round (if you drive back towards Clonfert and follow the signs for Kylemore until you run out of road, you’ll find it.) A few pictures here.
Posted by Monasette at June 21, 2004 11:31 PM