Song For Tara

An issue of great importance is the construction of a motorway through the gap between Tara and Skreen in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, Ireland.

A landscape of such importance should not be tampered with lightly, never mind a gigantic scar, an open sore, with noise, pollution, and a flood-lit roundabout destroying an area which for untold centuries has been sacred to Ireland and its people.

There is an on-line petition which I urge everyone to sign.

This is quoted from a speech given by Dr Brian Lacey, Chief Executive Officer for the Discovery Programme researching the Archaeology and literature of Ireland:

(quote)
Tara

Since our inception we have had a Tara Project, investigating both the archaeological remains as well as the literary and historical sources. Three of our books and many of our research reports have dealt specifically with Tara, and a major study dealing with the kingship of Tara in the period AD 400 to 800 will be published later this year. I think we can claim that we have done more research on Tara than everyone else put together. Our work on Tara has included all forms of survey, excavation, and study of the ancient and modern historical sources for the site and its hinterland. One example of the results of this work is that, before we started, only about thirty individual monuments were known on the Hill and there was, effectively, no understanding of their chronological relationship. The number of known sites on the Hill now stands at about one hundred and twenty and we have an overall model of their development through time, which can be tested by excavation in the years to come. In addition, there has been a growing appreciation that the Hill of Tara itself is just the dominant element of a wider surrounding landscape of related ritual and settlement sites, which seems to extend from Ringlestown Rath to the west, along the Riverstown linear earthwork to Rathmiles to the north, and onwards to Rath Lugh and Skreen to the east.

The M3

The Discovery Programme is a research institution and has no function in planning or development matters; it is certainly not a campaigning body. Nevertheless, given our major involvement with Tara, we felt that it was appropriate for us to make our views known at the motorway planning stage. The Discovery Programme involves individuals who, in their separate capacities, have taken differing positions and roles in relation to the M3 debate but, as a corporate body, we said, both in written objections and at the oral hearing, that we were against the route subsequently approved. However, once the decision on that matter had been made with due process, we believed that we had no further role and that it would be beyond our powers to engage in the controversy that subsequently emerged. Although both sides in that debate have frequently referred to us, we have scrupulously avoided any further public comment on the matter.

We would, however, wish to reiterate the following points:

1. It would be hard to overstate the national and international importance of Tara.

2. The Hill of Tara is only one element of a wider related archaeological landscape, the additional richness of which is continually being further revealed.

3. The Discovery Programme, of course, welcomes the development of our national infrastructure but is occasionally disappointed when, even in good faith, a major cultural asset is depleted by such development.

4. We would assert that, in the event of any impingement on such an extremely important asset, the very least that can be expected is that the highest possible standard of archaeological investigation and mitigation be deployed.

Dr Brian Lacey

Chief Executive Officer

The Discovery Programme
(end quote)

A song has been recorded in support of the campaign against the road going through Tara-Skreen: by Teamhair!

A map of the Tara area with the planned motorway drawn in.

five zoomed images of Edinburgh lights

These five images are cropped from the originals of previous post. These are the images which make up the video on YouTube, two posts back.

They can be examined in greater detail by clicking on them individually!

The timespan was of the order of two/three minutes.

Edinburgh lights originals

This is the series of five photos I took mentioned in previous post. No lights in the first but in these originals they can just be seen in the fourth best! Click on images for an enlarged version!

Next post will have the cropped enlarged images!

Strange lights over Fettes College, Edinburgh, summer 2007

One night just after midsummer, five or six days after the solstice, I decided to take some photos of the residual light in the northern sky at Midnight GMT, so 1 am BST. At the latitude of Edinburgh for a few weeks either side of solstice the sky does not get completely dark, and I have wanted to get a photo record of this for a few years now.

I figured the view from Learmonth Terrace north over Fettes College would be good.

I used my basic digital camera, hand-held, no flash, and mediocre resolution, but I wanted the sky-light and wasn't too bothered about a bit of camera shake!

I took five, two landscape and three portrait style. When downloaded onto computer I became aware of lights in the sky on some of them, all bar the first. Strange, shouldn't be planes at that time of night, certainly not in formation. If military, jet planes, or helicopters, at least four, would have made a bit of a din. There was no noise at any time!

Also I was unaware of any lights in the sky, at the time of taking the photos!

I considered birds, swans or gulls perhaps, as these lights were white, but too brilliant to be birds I reasoned, and they should be in silhouette against the light to the north.

I considered particles of whatever on the lens, but as stated above the camera was rotated 90 degrees between landscape and portrait, any surface particles should also have been rotated.

They are not stars, they move and are too bright, and appear against or below the cloud in the second and third photos.

A friend made a video of them and posted them on YouTube, the link being here!

Then an e-mail arrived with a link to the Daily Mail report of a formation of lights over Stoke-On-Trent recently!

Seems similar to what I had found in my photos!

The five photos shall be posted, (next post above) and a series of five zoomed images of the lights above Fettes College. The video above at least shows the movement of the formation of three/four lights, arcing over the College and dropping down to the west.

The Arthurs' Seat Roseline and Roslin/Rosslyn Chapel and Glen

There is a major alignment which all researchers find with ease, in the Lothian area. It runs a few degrees from west of north and includes the summit of Arthurs' Seat Roslin Chapel, St. Mary's Chapel at Mount Lothian, and the summit of Dundreich, a hill at the western end of the Moorfoot Ridge/escarpment. It extends both to the north and south. The area between Arthurs' Seat and Dundreich is the area I lived in during my childhood and a good part of my youth and adult life. It is the area which contains the Esk River system, and a lot of the geometry already described. When I began this investigation I was frustrated that at Roslin Chapel, Arthurs' Seat could not be seen. It was in 1997 when the canopy was installed over the Chapel, that allowed me to confirm by eyesight and photos that the map did not lie, as both Arthurs' Seat and Dundreich are to be seen in dead straight lines looking along the handrail of the gantry, north and south, at the east end of the Chapel.


This is the view along the handrail to Arthurs'Seat, looking north, seen faintly in this photo.




Dundreich to the south, looking across Roslin Castle, hidden in the trees below. (I'm having a bit of difficulty getting the images neat on the page, but that's ok for now!)




St.Mary's Chapel is a ruin in this clump of trees, between Roslin and Dundreich, and a major geometric point. A great deal of interest has focussed on this site over the years I have been active.

This line extends both north and south and for now I shall conclude with a graphic from an American friend, William S Buehler, whose work has taken mine to greater lengths and depths over the past seven years than I ever contemplated possible. That his and my geometry kind of fused together as it has done continues to astonish me. That is a long story, I still have difficulty telling. A lot more to do on that whole issue. This graphic shows the system Bill developed based on the Roseline, or Tavhara line in his terminology:




Roslin/Rosslyn Chapel

The Chapel is situated on the flat ground at the top of the valley slope, above the castle. I am concerned here with its setting in the landscape, and this is again a very short introduction and this shall be developed as time goes on. The photos below are all pre. 1997, when the canopy was installed in an effort to dry out the stone of the chapel. These are old photos and not very good quality and are scanned from worn prints.



This is a view from the opposite side of the glen, from the south-east, on the Rosewell road, on a fine summers day, through a gap in the trees.




This is a view of the east side showing the window with the engrailled cross of the Sinclair's, and some of the pyramidian pinnacles.




In May the bluebells down the glen cover large parts either side of the path. The east wall of the chapel can be seen through the trees, quite faint. Not a very good photo, but I am fond of the view from this spot.





This is from a print given to me by an American friend, Ward Ginn. It would appear that there is no glass in the windows at the time of drawing:



Roslin Glen part one

There is a rock on the path down the glen, known as 'lovers leap' which is covered in graffiti, and is a convenient spot to pause, and enjoy the view upstream towards the castle.









some friends resting and gazing upstream.




This little head is reckoned by some to be ancient, and there are marks to the right of it reckoned to Ogham script. The head shown previously is some hundred metres down stream, and may be some indication or way-marker for it. It has lately been identified as a power point of some potency by an American friend who has been working on earth-grids for over thirty years now, William S. Buehler, and I shall be mentioning him often when the story develops.




This black and white was taken in December 1994, when attempting to gain an image of the face described previously. It matched my mood then as I was starting out on this investigation, dark, sombre, lifeless. It was a life-changing period. The ruined castle can be seen at the top.




Same approximate view from the rock upstream, a few years later in spring, and life and colour returning.




Roslin Glen - spirals and rings




Mark Oxbrow, co-author of a recent well received book, Rosslyn & the Grail, showed me this spot a few years back, circa 1999. There are many concentric spirals and ring features covering the walls of the shallow cave/recess. See images below:






Roslin Glen part three - Wallaces Cave

On the opposite bank from the chapel, there is a cave, called
Wallace's Cave, obviously man made, with an 'L' shaped door as seen in this photo. I have been inside only once and from memory it has three round chambers. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me that day, and I have not managed to get back to it. At that time there was a fallen beech tree which allowed access to the other bank. It could still be accessed via Gorton House, but I don't know what the owners or occupants think of folks just tramping through. The onus would be on those wishing to visit to check first.








Roslin Glen part four - Castle

A copy of a print given to me by an American friend, Ward Ginn. What the castle is thought to have looked like in its heyday.





Down from the Chapel is Roslin Castle. In a mostly ruinous state after the bombardment by General Monck and his troops, in the mid 17th century. A road leads down to the castle, which ends in a right angled bend at the bridge into the castle. This is formed by an arch across a gap, which seems to have been worked somewhat from the bedrock, as can be seen in these views, with sharp clear angles, especially on the castle side of the arch.







Roslin Glen part five - Hawthornden

Hawthornden Castle is a writers retreat, one time home of Henry Drummond. I seem to have mis-layed my photos of the castle itself so here are some from The Gazetteer of Scotland
These two photos were taken when I took a walk from further downstream, back in 1994, one is of a queer set of steps, the only thing on the other side is a fifty foot(+/-) drop to the river. The other is of 'Hanging Rock' marked on the OS map, 1:25,000.






Roslin Glen part six - The Green Man!?




In 1994 after reading The Temple And The Lodge, I decided to look for the enigmatic face carved in a 'cave' gazing out on passers-by in Roslin Glen, mentioned by the authors Baigent and Leigh.

This was just prior to starting the search for geometry in the Lothian landscape, after finding The Holy Place by Henry Lincoln in Waterstones in Princes Street in Edinburgh one day I went out for a pair of trousers, and came home with 3 books instead. (The other two were Noam Chomsky's 'The 500 Year Conquest Continues', and a book called 'The History Of The Future', concerning R. Sheldrakes theories of morphological resonance, but don't hold me to that, both have gone west a while back.)

Anyway, a group of us cycled to Roslin and spent a few hours down the glen. I ended up making my way down the river bank, slowly, whilst the others kept to the path. I got a shout to come look as they had found it a bit further down.








It was on the other side of the river, some 100 yards downstream from the rock known as 'lovers leap', a flat rock some 50 feet directly above a bend in the river, with names and initials carved over the whole surface. The ruined castle can be seen directly upstream, and the first photos I took were in black and white, on my next few visits whilst attempting to get an image of the 'face'. This took a couple of tries , as I was using too slow a film and the camera was mal-functioning a bit, and I was out of practice.




I eventually got a colour image the one included here.

The river is not always crossable, and care needs to be taken at all times, the bedrock is slippery even at low water when the stream is contained in a channel some 4/5 feet in width which has to be jumped. A small leap of faith for most, but any slip could be disastrous. Extreme caution is advised, at all times.

Once across it is possible to climb up to the feature, which has a pool where a stream splashes onto the beard of the 'face' before settling into the pool at the base. The moss/algae on the face changes colour and shape over the seasons and I came to consider this as The Green Man, larger and more 'alive' than the many representations within the chapel.

To the right is a dry spot, sandstone overhung by rock, with a ledge which later I was to notice comprised a reclining figure with long hair and a beard covered in drapes, perhaps intended to be the figure of the person depicted in the cave.



This second feature was only perceived when on another visit with some other friends, a few years later. I checked back on my photos and it was there all the time. It was a perception thing, I just didn't see it previously.


Two of the reclining figure:







Roslin Glen part seven - end of tour for now!

Just to complete this wee tour of Roslin Glen, two photos I like, one of the bluebells in May and one from the Castle Bridge in autumn:





From the castle bridge, looking downstream, that is north-east, early autumn sunshine.

Mavisbank Earthwork circle centre

This earthmound is just behind Mavisbank House, a Palladian villa, destroyed by fire back in the 1970's. It was built by Sir John Clerk of Penicuik. The architect was William Adam, father of Robert, who is perhaps better known.

The earthwork was found to lie on the side of the inner pentagon, which has Roslin Chapel in the south-east corner, some 1.5 miles south of Mavisbank, upstream on the steep slope of the River North Esk. Restore Mavisbank link:

The history of the earthmound is unknown, to me, at present, but I recall a mention of some discussion between Clerk and Adam concerning some ancient feature behind the house, and this circular mound is directly behind the house. Clerk was an 'Antiquarian', and there is an extant letter of his addressed to the London Society of Antiquarians concerning a Roman Temple which was destroyed to make way for the building of the Carron Ironworks near Falkirk.

A photo of mine of the derelict house from the west:



Geometrically it is the Earthmound which is of particular interest at this time. It was found that a radius very close to the radius of churches at Rennes Le chateau described by Henry Lincoln. In Scottish measure it was found to be 5000 ells, one Scottish ell being 37 inches. A section on the Scottish Measure system shall be included later.



This drawing was done by hand, pencil on paper, but is inverted here cause I like it like that. I shall be describing this all more fully later, but already it can be seen how comnplex it all quickly becomes. There are a few specific points which allow the systems to be inferred. The line which defines the orientation is from Allermuir Hill in the Pentland Hills to the west, to the Camp Ridge, above Mayfield to the east. Newtongrange Church, defines the radius of 5000 ells. Henry Lincoln defines the radius he found as 2miles 1618 yards, which is equivalent to 4999.135 ells, a correlation of 99.983%. There is a lot to discuss about different measure systems, which gets very involved, and an attempt will be made to cover this topic at a later date. Just for starters the work of Professor A Thom, and more recent works by Knight, Lomas, and Butler. See the list of books for further info, for now.

What I want to do is to take this one stage further and show the rectilinear grid which results from the two systems already mentioned. The Pentagonal system centred on Galachlaw, and the hexagonal centred on the Mavisbank Earthwork.



This drawing was constructed in Paint, the best I had on my old clapped out computer when I was doing the calculations. It should be pointed out that the accuracy of the drawing is not as good as the calculations. I shall describe the method I developed using O.S. grid references, and simple trigonometry. The references were read accurately to ten metres, and then refined to one metre by calculation from print-outs of the relevant O.S. grid squares.

There are a few other lines and extensions on the drawing, that shall be discussed later. It all gets a lot more complex, but there are are other points to make prior to showing this.