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| | | From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
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Helen Mark heads for the west coast of Ireland, to County Mayo in Connaught. With St Patrick's Day celebrations on everyone's mind, she travels the five miles from Westport to Croagh Patrick, the unmistakable conical peak overlooking Clew Bay and climbed every year by around 100,000 pilgrims, a good proportion of them on Ireland's national Pilgrimage Day in July. In the year 441, St Patrick himself is reputed to have spend 40 days and 40 nights in prayer and fasting on the mountain's bleak summit, as Helen hears from Father Dennis Carney, the priest whose parish includes the magnificent mountain known locally as "The Reek".
County Mayo Information
Clew Bay Heritage Museum
But Croagh Patrick was important long before St Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland. Gerry Walsh, a local archaeologist who has established an Information Centre at the foot of the mountain, set out to uncover not only early Christian, but pre-Christian traces on the summit. Undaunted by the daily climb of more than 2000 feet, Gerry undertook a dig in the early 1990s and revealed an early Christian oratory, a Celtic hill fort encircling the summit and beads dating back to the third century BC. His findings only strengthen the case against mining the rich seams of gold which run through Croagh Patrick and for which permission has been consistently refused
Croagh Patrick
One of the richest harvests from the Mayo coast is seaweed, used for years as fertiliser but now in local health spas and in cooking. Marjorie Nolan, a local cook, shows Helen how to make boxty and recommends a cough mixture made from the local Carrageen moss:
Carrageen Cough Drink
Ingredients
1 pint water/milk or half and half
Rind and juice of one lemon and an orange
¼oz Carrageen
Sugar to taste
Method
Boil the Carrageen with the lemon and orange rind and juice for about twenty minutes
Strain and serve hot or cold
Sweeten to taste
Traditional Boxty
Ingredients
Approx 1lb raw potatoes, peeled and grated
½ teaspoon salt
Approx ½pound flour
Milk
A little water
Method
Combine all the ingredients to make a good batter
Grease a hot pan with a little butter or oil. Spoon mixture onto the pan and cook for a few minutes on each side, until cooked and brown.
Serve piping hot with lots of butter - an egg may be added to the mixture if wished, but use a little less milk if it is.
The Mayo coastline was a fertile whaling ground in the early part of this century. Local communities grew rich by processing the whales caught by Norwegian steamers, with the resulting oil collected by boat and taken to Glasgow twice a year. Harpoon heads are still washed up on the local shoreline and the waters are still home to whales, dolphins and porpoises - but, as Anthony Irwin of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group explains, no-one really knows how big the population is. It's crucial to find out, as planning permission is being sought for a local gas pipeline which would fuel the local economy but could damage local marine life. Shay Fennelly, a local naturalist and photo-journalist, believes that it need not spell disaster if the parties involved work together but is urging the Irish government to put marine conservation much, much higher up its list of priorities.
Irish Whales and Dolphin Group
Wild Ireland
Helen ends her visit on a windswept headland on Claggan Island, at the north eastern corner of Blacksod Bay where she's joined by local sculptor Marian O'Donnell. Her work - Acknowledgment - is part of the North Mayo Sculpture Trail, created to celebrate 5000 years of Mayo history, and marks the site of a burial ground where local people buried those dead who, at the time of their death, were not allowed to be buried on consecrated ground. The sculpture, like all the others on the trail, made extremely careful use of local materials, and so has become part of the stunningly beautiful landscape in which it stands
North Mayo Sculpture Trail
Competition
What's the Gaelic name of the Pirate Queen who reigned in Clew Bay in the 16th century? Submit your entry by Tuesday 19 March by emailing [email protected]
Last week's answer and winner
The question was: which monarch is associated with the green and white colours on the Welsh flag?
Answer: Henry VII.
And the winner is ... Mary Simpson of Nuneaton.
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