Archaeologist Paul Gosling features alongside presenter Doireann Ní Ghlacáin in the first episode of the new series of Tracks & Trails, airing on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Friday 10th April - watch now via RTÉ Player.
The show explores the archaeology and mythology of Ireland's landscape, the forgotten stories that lie hidden in our localities, and the benefits of walking and hiking for mental health.
Below, Paul talks about a hill-walk in one of 'the east coast's best kept secrets'.
There’s walking and there’s hill-walking. The first implies footpaths and tar, the second slopes and grass. To my mind, walking is something I do to clear the head, stretch the legs, and keep our fat dog fit. But hill-walking is something else entirely. It is mental as much as physical, a test of your willingness to put something in, to get something out, an activity that tells the world you can still do it.
Both require a modicum of forethought but hill-walking more so, for your choice of hat, coat, leggings, footwear and gloves is more than fashion attire. It is an outer skin to keep you sound and dry. And it should include a walking stick: always a stick, for a stick gives you dignity, status, and a modicum of protection from briars and falls.
Living in south Galway, I am regularly drawn to the Burren, those friendly hills (as they seem to me) on the seaboard of north Clare: an upland of light, flowers and megaliths. But when I get the chance, rather when I make the chance, it is to Cooley in north Louth that I am drawn. These too are friendly hills, not too high (300m/ 900ft), ringed by quiet, accessible roads, and serviced by some fine pubs and cafes.
The uplands of Cooley offer the walker endless viewpoints: of hillslopes, sea and shore, including the widely known Mountains of Mourne, the plains of north Leinster, and, if you are blessed, distant views of the Isle of Man.
There's walking and there’s hill-walking. The first implies footpaths and tar, the second slopes and grass.
But Cooley has a layer of attraction that sets it above most other upland trails: Táin Bó Cúailnge (the cattle-raid of Cooley). This story of a winter raid by Queen Medb of Connacht to capture the best bull in the land, is Ireland’s finest medieval saga: a 1,000-year-old literary epic. And the central part of the Táin takes place in Cooley, where the rivers, hills and valleys of the peninsula all play a part in the story. As you walk, you can trace the route of Medb’s mythic army as they search and eventually capture the Brown Bull of Cooley (Donn Cúailnge).
Amongst the landscape highlights is Barnavave (the gap of Medb) above Carlingford. This dramatic hilltop valley was gouged, we are told, by Medb’s warriors as an insult to Ulster, and to mark her audacious bull-theft and despoilation of Cúailnge (Cooley).
The story is most accessible via Thomas Kinsella’s fine translation of the Táin, and a copy of same, ear-marked to pages 97-126, will enrich any hill-walk in one of the east coast’s best kept secrets: the Táin Trail in Cooley, Co. Louth.
The new series of Tracks & Trails runs from Friday 10th April on RTÉ One at 8.30pm - catch up afterwards via RTÉ Player
About The Author: Paul Gosling is an Adjunct Lecturer at Atlantic Technological University, at the Galway City Campus. His article 'The Route of Táin Bó Cúailnge in County Louth' is published in Archaeology Ireland's Heritage Guide No. 69.
