Carpe Diem #1751 Lough Derg, Donegal (Ireland)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month we are following our spiritual path through walking several different pilgrim's routes around the world. Yesterday we were in Peru and today we are back in Europe, in Ireland. Ireland, that beautiful small country next to the UK. Ireland is known for it's deep mystic history ... but there are also several pilgrim's routes in Ireland. Just like in Australia, these pilgrim's routes are young.

In 2013 a group of people started to create pilgrim's routes through Ireland and one of those routes we will walk today ... Lough Derg, Donegal. Let me tell you a little bit more about this pilgrimage.

The Lough Derg pilgrimage route from  Station Island Visitor Centre to Saints Island, Co. Donegal is a timeless pilgrim route that is far removed from roads, houses and other signs of modern day living. It has many echoes of its early Christian past along the 12 Km (7 miles) long path. The old pilgrimage road to Lough Derg follows in the footsteps of the medieval pilgrims — not to Station Island where pilgrims normally go today, but to the threshold of the larger Saints Island, which acted as its gateway several hundred years ago. The focus of the legendary St Patrick’s Purgatory, Station Island, was a deep pit in which those who spent a day and a night would allegedly be purged of their sins, experiencing both the torments of the damned and the delights of the blessed. The walk starts at the visitor centre near the pier where boats bring pilgrims across to Station Island. Information about the pilgrimage may be obtained at the centre.

Lough Derg, Donegal

At about 1.15km, there is a wooden fingerpost pointing down to the right along a stepped path to St Brigid’s Chair, a naturally weathered boulder of banded gneiss. A little further along the route, another sign points to St Daveoc’s Chair. Associated with a local hermit, the ‘chair’ is partially natural, but seems to have had one or two large blocks added to it, hinting that it may once have been a Bronze Age burial place. This is the point where the modern route joins the old pilgrimage road that would have brought the medieval pilgrims from Templecarne.

At 1.75km, a fingerpost points down to St Brigid’s Well, marked by a modern metal cross which is festooned — like the bush above it — with pilgrims’ votive rags. The goal of the pilgrimage is the edge of the lake opposite Saints Island where one can still see the stones that formed the foundation of the wooden bridge that would have brought medieval pilgrims across to Station Island. The path continues full circle to the visitor centre where the walk began.

deep silence
heart and soul bound together
Lough Derg

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you did like this small pilgrimage ... and I hope it will inspire you to create Japanese poetry. This "an act of devotion" month is running towards its end ... soon we will celebrate our 7th birthday and I hope you all will celebrate this anniversary with me.

By the way, as I told you last week, next Wednesday we will not have a regular episode, because of the fact that I am celebrating my summer vacation.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 30th at noon (CEST). I will publish our next episode (for Thursday) later on. For now ... be inspired and have fun!