How to phrase the disappointment?
The Poulnabronne Dolmen was another one of those important historical sites of Ireland which I had never heard of until I picked up my guide book to Ireland.
Sadly for Poulnabronne, the guidebook somewhat over egged the Dolmen pudding.
Dramatically uplit and with a shot taken from below, LP show off the Dolmen as a towering example of megalithic accomplishment, magnificently dominating the surrounding countryside with it’s sheer enormity. Maybe not on the scale of the London Eye, but I was definitely expecting to be able to walk through it.
The reality was a little more, well, little.
Comprised of some grey stones balanced in a dip in The Burren, a landscape purely comprised of grey stones, I couldn’t even see the Dolmen until K pointed out a small cluster of people who were all taller than a tiny object lost in it’s surroundings.
In itself, the survival of this object is remarkable. The feat of engineering required in it’s time to lift these stones and balance them is also noteworthy. But LP’s decision to use photographic tricks to make it seem on a scale alongside the Arc d’Triomphe left me feeling a little underwhelmed.
K loved it, it has to be mentioned. But he was annoyed with all the highly speculative drawings describing in detail what the Dolmen was for and what it represented. Of course human sacrifice was posited. Maybe it was all that human sacrificing that the druids went in for which is why there is no one left to tell the tale?
The sad truth is that that is all lost to the mists of unrecorded time. And perhaps therein is the romance of the Dolmen.
Comments
Post a Comment