This course will offer an exciting journey of discovery, as we explore particular locations in terms of ancestral belief systems, identity and attachment. What connected our forefathers ( some dating back thousands of years) to particular places? How did patterns of belief, via ritual and symbolism, connect people to specific localities? To what extent was a wider cosmology a significant factor in favouring certain places? In particular, we shall consider the monumental megaliths of the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period, the keeills (early stone chapels), the holy wells and also that uniquely liminal (boundary) space where land meets sea. By the end of the course the student should have developed a wider appreciation of the rich tapestry of sites that exist within our Island shores; secondly, how such venues might be interpreted within a wider cosmological and spiritual dimension; and thirdly, how the knowledge acquired may stimulate the student's desire to seek out particular locations, thus becoming intimately connected in a personal and unique way, and generating a thirst for greater learning within the subject area.
