I described Jennings Pond to Pam and we returned together. Here is a photographic essay from that day, one of a series.
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
more Jennings Pond II
A gathering autumn glory
Category: Rivers, Streams, Creeks
more Jennings Pond I
No Swimming!?
“Jennings Pond,” is a song, celebrating swimming.
Here is a photographic essay on the subject of swimming at Jennings Pond this October afternoon.
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Gorge Stairway
when the elms blazed a glorious yellow.
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A staircase leading to the Fillmore Glen Gorge
on a perfect October evening
when the elms blazed a glorious yellow.
Filled with Golden Elms
Fillmore Gorge is full with slippery elms.
The constant infall of the gorge keeps these trees small.
Once a year, for a few days, all the elms turn at once. We were lucky to visit at the perfect moment.
The elms blaze yellow for a day or two, early October.
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Lucifer Falls Slide Show
Autumn at Treman Park
Pam and I visited Treman for our last visit of 2017. It was a bright, warm October afternoon. Here is a slide show of our experience, the details shared in recent postings. Enjoy!!
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In November the gorge is closed for the winter due to dangerous conditions under the steep, crumbling walls. Robert H. Treman New York State Park.
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Newgrange VIII
The Newgrange facade and kerbstones consists of stones from various locations, believed to be transported by sea and river.
The Newgrange façade and entrance of today is a creation from the large quantity of small stones unearthed and conserved during excavation given form by a steel-reinforced concrete retention wall.
The brilliant white quartz cobblestones were collected from the Wicklow Mountains, 31 miles to the south. Our guide called them “sunstones” for the way they reflect sunlight. In the following photograph is white quartz, the same excavated 1967-1975 from the Newgrange site and incorporated into the facade, I collected from “Miners Way” along R756 (above Glendalough).
You can also see in these photographs dark rounded granodiorite cobbles from the Mourne Mountains, 31 miles to the north. Dark gabbro cobbles from the Cooley Mountains and banded siltstone from the shore at Carlingford Lough both locations on the Cooley Peninsula where my mother’s family still has farms.
The stones may have been transported to Newgrange by sea and up the River Boyne by fastening them to the underside of boats at low tide. None of the structural slabs were quarried, for they show signs of having been weathered naturally, so they must have been collected and then transported, largely uphill, to the Newgrange site. The granite basins found inside the chambers also came from the Mournes.
Geological analysis indicates that the thousands of pebbles that make up the cairn, which together would have weighed about 200,000 tons, came from the nearby river terraces of the Boyne. There is a large pond in this area that is believed to be the site quarried for the pebbles by the builders of Newgrange.
Most of the 547 slabs that make up the inner passage, chambers, and the outer kerbstones are greywacke. Some or all of them may have been brought from sites either 3 miles away or from the rocky beach at Clogherhead, County Louth, about 12 miles to the northeast.
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Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Newgrange VII
Approaching Newgrange for the first time
Michael Joseph “Brian” O’Kelly was selected to undertake the direction of the excavation of Newgrange during a 1961 meeting of “those who had a professional interest in the monument” organized by PJ Hartnett, the archaeological officer with Bord Fáilte Eireann (Irish Tourist Board) and a former pupil of Professor O’Kelly’s. Excavation commenced in 1962 and continued every summer for a four-month season up to and including 1975.
The aim of the excavation was to discover as much as possible about the archaeological and historical context of Newgrange and the people who built it and to discover what its original finished appearance was so as to direct a reconstruction, conservation and restoration of the structure to its former condition and appearance.
The last year of excavation was 1975, Michael J. wrote “We determined in 1975 that that should be our last season of excavation at Newgrange. We had investigated approximately one third of the structure and we had discovered much about it that was new, both in its structure and in its ornament, while radiocarbon had pushed its date back by 1,000 years……”
“…We felt that the other two thirds should be left for a future excavator, who, working with new knowledge and perhaps with better methods and new scientific approaches, should have large areas untouched by us in which to test, check and re-evaluate our findings.” From The Restoration of Newgrange by Michael J.O’Kelly. Antiquity LIII, 1979.
“Between the bright sky and the long glittering silver ribbon of the Boyne the land looks black and featureless. Great flocks of starlings are flying across the sky from their nighttime roosts to their daytime feeding places. The effect is very dramatic as the direct light of the sun brightens and casts a glow of light all over the chamber. I can even see parts of the roof and a reflected light shines right back into the back of the end chamber.” The recorded words of Prof O’Kelly spoken in the tomb of Newgrange on the 21st December 1969.
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Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Newgrange VI
Newgrange and Knowth mounds were built and stabilized by structural experts.
At the same time as the passage and chamber were being built, work on the mound was going ahead.
At Newgrange, and the main mound at Knowth, an area around the tomb was left clear for a platform of stones to encase and stabilize the chamber roofs.
Once the passage roof was complete, structural experts returned to the kerb and continued to set the slabs in place — either in sockets or on prop stones, so as to achieve an even top-line all-round the mound.
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Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Newgrange V
Newgrange construction involved meticulous planning, stone architecture, artistry, and astronomical understanding.
The initial task for the builders of Newgrange involved recording the annual alignment of the rising sun over several years, which was likely achieved using timber posts as markers. Subsequently, the dimensions of the passage and chamber were determined, and the groundwork was prepared by digging sockets for the structural stones. This excavation process was carried out using antler picks and shovels crafted from cattle shoulder blades.
After the structural stones were carefully positioned and levered into their sockets, lintel stones for the passage could be lifted into place. The corbelled roofs of the cross-shaped tombs were built with great skill and finally capped by one slab. Sturdy timber scaffolding and bracing must have been used. As the stones were set in place, carvers and artists decorated the stones.
The whole process must have been overseen by social or religious leaders; the building of the tombs shows great skill in working and building with stone and knowledge of architecture, megalithic art and astronomy.
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Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Newgrange IV
How we sheltered at the time of Newgrange construction
The Brú na Bóinne Visitor Center includes this tableau of the shelter of the ancient farmers who constructed Newgrange: the monument is in the background.
Notice the wicker fence in tableau foreground.
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Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Newgrange III
How the builders of Brú na Bóinne clothed themselves
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Michael Stephen Wills Photography 