May 17 - Collon and Corlisbane

As mentioned in yesterdays post, we are staying at the Collon House B&B right in the center of Collon.  This house was built in 1740 and was the manor house of the lord of the area.  The family name was Foster and he owned most of the land around Collon.  The Irish farmers in the area, including the Moonans, were tenant farmers and paid rent to the Fosters for the use of their fields. The house was built in the Irish long house style and was one room wide and long to accommodate multiple rooms.  There were doors in the corners of the rooms so you could go from room to room. The kitchen I showed yesterday is actually the "new" kitchen that was in an addition to the house built in 1780.  The last Foster to live here was John Foster, Baron Oriel, who became the last Speaker of the Irish House of Commons until it was abolished by the Act of Union which made Ireland part of Great Britain in 1801.  He then went on to become the Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer.  

Breakfast is served in the formal dining room in the original part of the house.  Here is a photo of the dining room.

Since it was Sunday we walked around the corner to the Church.  Here is a photo of the inside of the Church.

We were invited to have lunch with the Irwin family who we believe are related to us.  Here is a photo of Adam who is the son of Shane Irwin.  Adam along with his Aunt Suzanne took us to visit Monaserboice which is an ancient monastery built in the early 6th century that is just outside of town.

There is none of the 6th century structure left but there are three High Crosses and the Round Tower which date to the 10th century.  Here is a photo on one of those crosses with Pat standing next to it to give you an idea of how large it is.

The crosses are covered with illustrations of biblical scenes that were used for teaching as none of the common people could read or write.  Here is another one.

Here is a photo of the Round Tower as well as some partial walls.  There is a lot of discussion on what was the purpose of the Round Towers.  Some hypothesize that they were built as watch towers and shelters from the Viking raids that were prevalent at that time but the current consensus is that they were bell towers.  One curious feature of the towers is that the entrance door was not at ground level but was typically 6 to 10 feet above the ground.  This was done for structural reasons.  This tower is missing it's roof.

On the grounds of the abbey is a Moonan family grave.  Here is a photo of the grave,

Here is a close up of the head stone,

Here is a photo of Pat and I that was taken in Shane's house.

We then piled into Shane's jeep for a chance to see some of the original Moonan family farm fields.  Here is me standing in front of the ruins of an old cottage on the property.

When I took this photo I was standing on the site where they believe the original Moonan cottage was back in the early 1800s.  What you can see in the distance is the Bay of Dundalk and the mountains on the other side.  The fields you are looking across were once farmed by the Moonans.

Here is an old farmers cottage that one of the Moonan families bought around 1900.  Shane's brother Barry and his family currently live in it.  The windows are very small as the taxes on a cottage increased if you had large windows.

Tomorrow we will be visiting two neolithic sites that are close by Newgrange and Knowth.  These are older than the pyramids.