This article is from page 20 of the 2013-08-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
A NEW tourism initiative aimed at opening up the five major ecclesiastical centres of Clare to more visitors gets underway at the weekend.
The Clare Pilgrim Way is a 21-day series of walks that move through Scattery Island, Kilfenora, Kilmacduagh, Inis Cealtra, and Killaloe.
The walks begin each morning at 10am on August 19 and 20. Each evening, the group will eat and sleep in Carron. The walk has been established by the Clare Pilgrim Way Group, who have looked at setting up Camino-style routes in Clare.
Group member Brian Mooney explained, “This walk will begin in Kilfenora on August 19 and travel via Noughaval, Cahermacnaughton, Kilcorney Valley and Mega to Carron. On August 20, it will follow the route St Colman himself took beginning at his well near Oughtmama and continuing over Turlough Hill and Slieve Carron mountain to his hermitage at Eagles’ Rock. The final day, August 21, the walk will begin at Colmcille’s Well in Glan and proceed via Tierneevin to Colman’s monastery at Kilmacduagh.
Brian continued, “When finally set up, the overall walk from Scattery back to Scattery will take 21 days. It is divided into two main sections: looking back and looking forward.
“The Irish were obsessed with linking everything back to their past; what Frank O’Connor describes as ‘the Backward Look’. So, it was important to them that, whatever Christianity brought, did not mean discarding their own original culture.
“But they were also deep into cosmology, probably as a result of the work done by the Druids in their observations of the night skies before them. For whatever reason, they looked on their knowledge of the cosmic system as vastly superior to anyone else’s. And, so they were fascinated by what one might call the Cosmic Christian tradition, God’s ultimate plan for the universe. This is the tradition that will be explored on the final part of the Clare Pilgrim Way, via the journey from Killaloe back to Scattery, where the main theme will be seeking greater insight into those mysterious words of Christ: ‘If I be lifted up, I will draw all things to myself’.”