GLEDALOUGH ST KEVINS

St Kevins busesd at Glendalough on our last trip to Ireland with Mandy'sd mother, Berta.
Glendalough is famed for its beautiful scenery and historic monuments, but has also been a centre for pilgrims and visitors from the time of St. Kevin, (from whom the bus service took its name).
This is where St. Kevin,descendent of one of the ruling families in Leinster, founded his monastry in the sixth century. As a boy he studied while in the care of three holy men. During this time he went to Glendalough and lived, we are told, "in the hollow of a tree". He left the valley, only to return later with his small group of monks to found the monastry where, as the earliest versions of his life tell us, "the two clear rivers form a confluence". His fame as a holy man spread and he attracted numerous followers.
Glendalough flourished and many references in the Irish annals describe the activities of successive Abbots and visitors to the area. The monastry was the subject of frequent plundering, burning and rebuilding in its lifetime.The present remains in Glendalough tell only a small part of the monastic storey.
The monastry in its heyday would have included numerous dwellings, workshops, areas for manuscript writing and copying. The buildings which survive probably date from between the 8th and 12th centuries. The valley of Glendalough contains a series of carved and plain stones and crosses, some of which have marked stations on the pilgrim's route.
It was a happy hunting ground at this time for ex Southdown Leylanmd Leopards like these




























Mandy and her mum, by the way my mother Marion was born 11th 11th, 1920, sadly like Berta she is no longer with us. I did tidy the family graves at Southern Cemertary this week

I was in Ellesmere Port this morning at 11, pulled into B&Q forecourt for the two minutes silence at 11am, life was otherwise carrying on as normal, the motorway was roaring and customers loading cars, pity they couldn't spend just 2 minutes of their time contemplating all those past and present paying the ultimate sacrifice for their country and us. At the local cenotaph about 3 hundred had gathered and were dispersing when I passed a few minutes later. Got another large batch of digitised images to tweak.

It was busier on the net with orders but not that busy. Clicks on Youtube ads have gone up a bit and Chester clip seems to be taking a quick lead in recent uploads, all now at higher resolutuion.