I just couldn't stand this amount of time away from the stones and so today I set off for some local sites again. The weather was beautiful and a short trip in my 'getting dodgier by the day' car didn't seem like too much of a risk.

I also went armed with a camcorder and took some footage, which I will upload and supply links to later on when I have it all prepared.

The Connemara and the West coast of Galway is a long way to go in one day from Dublin, so I'd planned to camp and get two days of sites in, but the last site I went to made me rather homesick and in need of a cuddle, so I drove home instead.

The sites I got to see were all within sight of the sea and the small of salt and the sound of the waves rolling in filled my day. This really is a beautiful part of the country and with so many more monuments to visit I'll be back as soon as I can.

I popped out briefly this evening to show someone how to get down to Glendruid (County Dublin). The path down is terribly overgrown, but still just about discernable if you know where to look. The state of some of our finest monuments is a disgrace. The only people to blame are the people in power with the purse-strings, because it is they who are underfunding the maintainence of our Heritage. It's about time a very large proportion of the country's income from tourism was ploughed back into the things people come here to see! If our historical monuments are allowed to deteriorate at the current rate no one will come to see them, so no more money from Heritage tourism. Surely they must see this! Anyway, even if there was no money involved it is still a national disgrace that we cannot care for the country's history better than we do.

Changing tack completely, I'll stop ranting and take this opportunity to let you know about a great new website dedicated to Sheela-na-Gigs that has recently been placed online. I'm not sure, but I think all the known examples are covered and there are directions and OS grid references for them all. The layout is easy to follow and the whole website looks great. It can be found at:

http://www.irelands-sheelanagigs.org/