The Wild ManPic: Wild Man on Facebook

The National Forest Wood Fairis taking place at Beacon Hill Country Park in Leicestershire this Bank Holiday Monday 2011 from 10 am till 4 pm. The Wood Fair promotes sustainable forestry and woodland leisure, showcases wood crafts and products and celebrates all aspects of wood, with fun activities and local food.Situated in Charnwood Forest in north-west Leicestershire, Beacon Hill Country Park  has over 135 hectares (335 acres) of mixed woodland, grassland, wildflower meadows and adjoining farmland.  This popular countryside area is owned and managed by Leicestershire County Council for peaceful recreation whilst conserving the site’s considerable historic and wildlife value.Visitors can explore an extensive network of paths, enjoy picnics and barbeques, and discover the many features of interest.

Something for all the family

• Don’t miss the live demonstrations of woodworking skills, craft displays and chainsaw sculpting.
• There’s plenty for children – stories from the Wild Man of the Woods, birds of prey, craft activities, coracle paddling and the brilliant climbing wall.
• Find out more about woodlands – from tree planting to felling. Talk to the experts and watch forestry in action including timber processing and horse logging.
• Take a break in the Food Area where you’ll find a great selection of delicious locally produced food.
• And that’s not all! There will also be an exciting lumberjack show, Bodger’s Corner and charity auction.

The Wild Man of the Woods

He has many other skills and characters which you can explore on Birch Tree – I hope to meet Barry oner day!

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Appbrain at http://www.appbrain.com/app/celtic-myth-show/tv.wizzard.android.celticmythpodshow841 or by using the QR code opposite.
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The Stone of Uisneach (‘Catstone’) Pic: Festival of Fires

One of Ireland’s greatest living historians, Ruth Illingworth, is to give a guided walk and tour of the Hill of Uisneach, formerly regarded as the centre of Ireland, at 2pm this Saturday August 27th 2011. This is a rare chance to hear the real stories of Uisneach whilst walking Uisneach. Meet at the lay-by at 2pm.

In Irish mythology, it was considered to be the omphalos or mystical navel of Ireland, upon which rested a great stone (Ail na Míreann, which means “stone of divisions”) which was said to indicate the meeting point of the provincial borders of Leinster, Munster, Connacht, Ulster, and Mide (which was once a separate, fifth province). Tradition tells that the Hill of Uisneach was a site favoured for Beltane fires and Druidical ceremonies, and as a ceremonial site it was regarded as second only to Emain Macha. In the poetic history Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of the Takings of Ireland), the Nemedian Druid Mide lit the first fire there. A fire was also lit on the Hill of Uisneach on the feast of Bealtaine. This fire could be seen from Tara, and when they saw it, they lit their fire. [Wiki]

We covered this story, which is usually known as “The Settling of the Manor of Tara” in Episode 18: The Judgement of Fintan. Fintan is called upon to decide how the land is to be divided and he gives his final decision or judgement by the Stone on the Hill of Uisneach at the Centre of Erin. This is the stone picture above – I would love to hear Ruth Illingworth tell the tale and what the Historians have discovered in the area!

The Festival of Fires and Uisneach

My impression is that the Festival of Fires organisation, recently formed and doing such worthy work in trying to restore the importance of Tara, Bealtaine and Fire in Erin, have arranged for this guided tour. They are certainly publicising it – if I’m wrong, I apologise and will happily credit the organiser(s). If you’re able to attend the tour, they have the following information and guidance:
It has been a very busy summer on the Hill of Uisneach and David and Angela Clarke and their family are to be commended on their courtesy and kindness to all visitors who check in with them before walking the hill. Uisneach is still very much a working farm so please follow the instructions on the signs at the parking lay-by if you intend walking it.

Hundreds of tourists from all over the world have visited the hill this summer and among those was the American musical group The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. In Ireland to play with Prince, they took time off their busy schedule to visit the centre of the country and learn some its history before they continued their world tour with Prince, playing to hundreds of thousands across the globe. The band are back in the country in the Autumn with Damon Albarn and they are always welcome back to Uisneach.

If you have never visited Uisneach with an expert then this Saturday is a must.

Ruth Illingworth was a key member of the team at Festival of the Fires, giving tours and talks throughout the three festivals to date, and in historic circles in Ireland she is among the highest rated and most passionate historians. A widely published author and expert on all things in the midlands, Ruth is also a Mullingar Town Councillor. She has served as mayor of Mullingar on two occasions and were it not for Ruth’s voice being on the Council, much of Westmeath’s history would have been lost forever.

What is the Festival of Fires?

Festival of the Fires is a rekindling of Ireland’s oldest recorded festival, Bealtaine. The dawn of May will see Ireland illuminated as the festival returns to the Hill of Uisneach and selected sites nationwide.A cultural celebration on a national scale, the Festival’s epicentre is the Hill of Uisneach in Co. Westmeath. Started in May 2010, 73 other sites & communities joined in the main Uisneach celebration, with 14 international fires also lit in solidarity. In 2011 the festival is to grow, with a full weekend of celebrations planned…

The Fire Festiaval Pic: Festival of Fires

The dawn of May will see Ireland illuminated as Festival of the Fires returns with very special musical guests The Saw Doctors. From its Hill of Uisneach Epicentre, the festival will spread to communities across the country with over 100 hills all across Ireland uniting to welcome in the summer.

Celebration in 2010

The main festival takes place on the Hill of Uisneach, with a unique festival village featuring three musical stages, food & beverage villages, art installations, heritage trails, guest lectures, comedy, spoken word, debate, hundreds of horsemen and women, arts and crafts, and of course a spectacular night-time Fire Parade led by the multi-award-winning Luxe group from Donegal.

Musical guests will include the aforementioned Saw Doctors, playing their ONLY Midlands show of the year, and they will be joined by a diverse and exciting line-up which will be revealed over the coming weeks.

Tickets are on sale now from all Ticketmaster outlets and ticketmaster.ie priced €35. Camping tickets are also on sale price €40. Tickets are also on sale at selected venues throughout the midlands and major cities (see festivalofthefires.com)

Arts, Culture and Heritage – Reignite your passion with Festival of the Fires!

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Appbrain at http://www.appbrain.com/app/celtic-myth-show/tv.wizzard.android.celticmythpodshow841 or by using the QR code opposite.
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Extreme Sheep Herding

The Celts have always been renowned for their excellence, for taking their skills to exceptional levels and the modern Welsh shepherd has proven this still to be true in today’s modern ‘electrical’ age.

Watch the video above and have a giggle but also bear in mind that the links between modern Celts and the ancient warriors dancing along their chariots between racing horses may be stronger than we think!

Originally posted 2009-12-05 04:09:15. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Educational Visit Pic: The Clanranald Trust

You may remember a news post in the past about Russell Crowe  giving a prop Battering Ram from the set of The Robin Hood movie to the Charity  The Clanranald Trust. Well this weekend he is visiting  Duncarron Fort which is being built by the trust to help educate people on Scottish History.  The BBC reports : The actor is a friend of the trust’s chief executive Charlie Allan, after the pair met on the set of Gladiator.

Crowe announced his visit on Twitter saying:

“First time in Scotland, special.”

The star said he had  ”Scottish heritage”   in his family.

He is expected to arrive at the fort later, tour the site and meet those working on the project.

The Clanranald Trust is creating a motte and bailey, typical of a Scottish clan chief’s residence, where people will eventually be able to to experience the atmosphere of an authentic medieval working community.
The charity also provides extras for film battle scenes and the hope is that the site at Duncarron may be used as a filming location in the future.
Crowe has been supporting the trust’s work since meeting Mr Allan while filming Gladiator.

In 2009 he gifted a battering ram used as a prop on the set of Robin Hood to the fort project.

Last month he used Twitter to urge his 200,000 followers to support the work being done at Duncarron.

Work began to create the medieval village at Duncarron in 2008He also tweeted a “shout out” to First Minister Alex Salmond and other government ministers to thank them for backing the trust.
He said:

“Clanranald educating folks on Scottish history, also focus on helping the long-term unemployed and the criminal reform service, tough jobs.”

As part of a joint project between the trust and North Lanarkshire Council offenders on community service orders have helped with building and labouring work at the fort.
Chief executive, Mr Allan, who starred alongside Crowe in Gladiator and Robin Hood, said:

“Russell has always been interested in what we are doing ”He is the only guy on the planet I look up to. He is pleasant, generous and a great laugh.”

He added:

“His ongoing interest, support and encouragement in our project means an awful lot to us.”

To Find out more about this exciting project visit http://www.clanranald.org

Source

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Appbrain at http://www.appbrain.com/app/celtic-myth-show/tv.wizzard.android.celticmythpodshow841 or by using the QR code opposite.
If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

The following report was made by the Scotsman back in 2008 when the Burnt Mound at Bressay was under threat of destruction by the forces of ersosion. It was a remarkable and highly educational task to reconstruct the burnt mound where it now stands along with its visitor centre and the above video was taken on the day of the Centre’s opening.

The Scotsman reported that a Bronze Age structure thought to have been used as a sauna has been saved from destruction by the sea after a team of archaeologists moved the entire find to a safer location.

But earlier this summer, because of the increased threat of coastal erosion, local historians joined archaeologists to launch a campaign to save the building and to move it somewhere safer. A third of the mound had already been lost to sea erosion.

The central structure was carefully dismantled and each stone numbered before being moved to a site a mile way next to Bressay Heritage Centre.

And today, following the completion of the unusual removal scheme, the Bronze Age building will be officially opened at its new location by Tavish Scott, the MSP for Shetland.

Douglas Coutts, the project officer with Bressay History Group, said the structure was one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever made in the Northern Isles.

The building was hidden in a mound of burnt stones and is thought to have been used for feasts, baths or even saunas.

The structure comprises a series of dry-stone, walled cells, connected by two corridors. At the end of one corridor is a hearth cell, thought to have been used for heating stones, and at the other end is a tank sunk into the ground which is almost two metres long, more than a metre wide, and half a metre deep.

Mr Coutts said:

“Burnt mounds don’t usually consist of very much more than a hearth and a tank and a heap of burnt stones. But in Shetland, we seem to have much more complex structures with little rooms or cells leading off from a main passageway which connects the hearth and tank.

“We have approximately 300 burnt mounds on Shetland but only four or five have been excavated and, of those, the Cruester mound is the most fascinating and complex. It looks as if it has been in use for anything between 500 to 1,000 years.”

He added:

“We think these cells may have originally been roofed over in a beehive shape.

“One theory is that these structures may have been used for cooking meat or tanning hides.

“But it is possible they could have raised steam by heating the water and that these little cells could have been used as saunas.”

Tom Dawson, a researcher at St Andrews University who also worked on the removal project, said coastal erosion was threatening thousands of archaeological sites around Scotland. He said:

“The local group here came up with a novel idea for dealing with the problem,”

“It is great to have had the chance to give new life to this particular site and make it accessible to future generations, while also learning something new, not just about Cruester, but about burnt mounds in general.

“This structure is important in world terms. There are thousands of burnt mounds in Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia but only a handful are known to have structures within them.”

Mr Scott praised the partnership between the local history group and outside archaeological bodies.

He said:

“This exhibition will be a great asset for visitors to Bressay and local people. The more we understand about the past, the better informed we are about the future.”

[Source]

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Appbrain at http://www.appbrain.com/app/celtic-myth-show/tv.wizzard.android.celticmythpodshow841 or by using the QR code opposite.
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Pic: Wiki

More than a decade since it was discovered on a Norfolk beach, a new course offers the opportunity to investigate some of the controversies surrounding Seahenge. It might not look too controversial, sitting at the centre of a Bronze Age display at Lynn Museum. But arguments raged after the circle was discovered on Holme Beach, in the winter of 1998, and archaeologists decided to dig it up to study its timbers.

For the next 10 weeks, students can explore the arguments surrounding the decision. Experts taking part in the course include Maisie Taylor, one of the archaeologists who studied the 4000-year-old timbers and oversaw their preservation. Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2009-05-04 09:24:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Longman Of Wilmington Pic: A Blog Of My Travels

The Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes (Wiltshire, England) has decided to extend its current White Horses and Hill Figures exhibition until February next year after the show of intricate landscape carvings at the Devizes venue witnessed ‘tremendous’ visitor numbers.

Plenty of guests visited the museum to explore the display of chalk figures depicted in hills, looking primarily at the white galloping horses and military badges stamped throughout the county and beyond.

Berkshire’s Uffington White Horse, Sussex’s Long Man of Wilmington and the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset are among the sites whose mystiques are unravelled, charting their creation, stories, legends and folklore as well as the work required to preserve them. Related ephemera, unseen items from the WHM’s collections and artistic interpretations of the designs also feature.

“We are so pleased to be able to give even more visitors the opportunity to see this fascinating and visually stunning exploration of some of the most beautiful and iconic features of the landscape. Later in the autumn we will be transforming the exhibition by adding a whole host of exciting and original new artworks by locally, nationally and internationally important artists,”

said Exhibition Officer Jenna Spellane.
Exhibition continues until February 27 2011.

Source

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.

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The coloured stonework has been uncovered at the Ness of Brodgar Pic: BBC News

A 5,000 year old ceremonial building in Orkney (Scotland) has revealed a unique treasure. Two stone slabs bearing red, yellow and orange pigment are the first evidence of painted walls ever found in the UK. “To find coloured Neolithic paint – 5,000-year-old Dulux – is something we never expected to see”, said Nick Card, from the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology.

The discovery was made by 22-year old Dutch archaeologist Anniek Manshanden, who was clearly thrilled. She said: “To have found evidence of the first Neolithic painted building is awesome.”
The paint will be subjected to laboratory analysis to determine its composition. It is probably based upon hematite or limonite, two iron ores found in the region. These would have been finely ground and mixed with animal fat, milk or eggs to create pigments.
Since this is the first finding of its kind, it is not known if walls were commonly painted or if this was reserved for ceremonial structures such as the ‘cathedral’ at Ness of Brodgar where the discovery was made. There is speculation that decorative markings carved into the sandstone of the interior walls may also have been enhanced with color.

Source

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.

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Caer Drewyn, Corwen, Wales Pic: http://www.corwen.org/

Walkers are invited to the hillfort of Caer Drewyn, Corwen (Denbighshire, Wales), as part of the Festival of British Archaeology. Known locally as Mynydd y Gaer, the fort is unique in the area as its ramparts (walls) are made up of stone, unlike others on neighbouring hills and the Clwydian Range. This hillfort is thought to date to the Iron Age, about 2,500 years ago.

Caer Drewyn continued to be used long after the Iron Age had ended – legend is that it was used by Owain Gwynedd (a self proclaimed King of Wales) as a camp whilst Henry II was encamped on the Berwyn Mountains.
The guided walk will include a live voice commentary for, in particular, experienced visually impaired walkers. A minibus will leaves from Loggerheads Country Park at 10am returning at 4pm. Other events in Denbighshire’s countryside throughout the Festival of British Archaeology included a guided walk around Moel Famau Country Park on Tuesday, July 27 . The next Access for All event will be held on August 10, when people will be guided on a second Live Commentary Voice Trail at Moel Famau from 2-3.30pm. Call Colin Antwis of Fieldsman Trails on 01352 756202.
For more information or to book, call Loggerheads Country Park on 01352 810614, email loggerheads.countrypark@denbighshire.gov.uk or visit festival.britarch.ac.uk

Source

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.

If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

The Gristhorpe Man Pic: Dr  Alan Ogden

Reporter Dan Bean of  The York Press tells us : Academics in Yorkshire  England, have given a voice and a face to a man who died more about 4,000 years ago. Using state-of-the-art computer programme and forensic techniques, scientists have reconstructed the face of the Gristhorpe Man. The skeleton of the Bronze Age man, thought to be a warrior chief, was discovered in Gristhorpe, near Filey, in 1834, and boiled in horse glue to preserve it.

It was displayed in the Scarborough Museum, now the Rotunda Museum, until 2006, when it was moved to the Division of Archaeological Sciences at Bradford University, where a series of tests and investigations were carried out on the remains.

Dr Alan Ogden used the results of the tests and his skills as a dentist and osteologist to build a facial reconstruction of the man, and modern software to animate the model and give him a voice.

“I hope that the visitor to the museum can visualise him as a living man, a senior figure in his society, used to being obeyed and probably even revered,” he said.

Source

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.

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