Week of Mayo walks and talks will let the land tell its story

Hennigan's Heritage, bog ecology and the Foxford Way are some of the themes planned for a week celebrating the archaeological…

Hennigan's Heritage, bog ecology and the Foxford Way are some of the themes planned for a week celebrating the archaeological landscape of Co Mayo early next month.

Organised by Western Mountain Walks Ltd, the event will run from April 6th to 10th and is supported by Mayo County Council and the archaeological community.

The programme comprises five days of guided walks with a specific theme, starting with early Christian Ireland and continuing with a tour of Tom Hennigan's heritage farm in Killasser, which boasts megaliths and Bronze and Iron Age remains.

Greta Byrne, managing archaeologist at the Ceide Fields, will lead a day out on the bogs, and the ring forts, crannogs and deserted villages on the Foxford Way, which also takes in the route of Gen Humbert's army in the Connacht rebellion of 1798, will also be studied. The final day focuses on bog ecology.

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The week will also include evening lectures on the Croagh Patrick excavations and survey, given by Mayo county archaeologist, Mr Gerry Walsh. Mr Martin Byrne will give an alternative view on the astronomy of the Sligo passage tombs. Bed and breakfast in the town of Foxford will be arranged, with prices at £16.50 per person per night, or £28 per night with dinner.

There is a single supplement of £5, children aged under 12 get a 50 per cent discount, and the cost of guided tours is £8 a day.

For more details and booking forms, contact Liam Phillips, director, Western Mountain Walks Ltd, at Callow, Foxford, Co Mayo; telephone (094) 56979 and fax (094) 56655.

The event is one of many walking weeks and festivals, details of which can be found in the current issue of Walking World Ireland magazine or Irish Mountain Log. The "log", which is published by the Mountaineering Council of Ireland, has just bid farewell to its editor for 21 years, Joss Lynam, who did much to make the amateur quarterly into the fine professional publication it is. He will be succeeded by Ms Gay Needham, also an active member of the MCI.