“And how were the circles laid out?” Maura asked, finding herself getting interested.
“Ah, that the question, isn’t it? There are plenty around, and there were probably more once upon a time, but it’s hard to say how their locations came about. That’s one of the things I’m interested in exploring. Are you familiar with the stone circles?”
“Just Drombeg,” Maura said. “Mick took me to see it not long after I arrived here.”
“Then you’ll know they’re usually aligned with celestial events, like the solstices. The raths or fairy forts or ring forts are true circles, carefully laid out, but they often don’t have an entry, so they don’t align with much of anything. They’re sometimes but not always on a hill, but they aren’t exactly lookout points. It’s really interesting to study them because there’s so little evidence to work with. But it’s a great way to spend the summer. Oh, and take another look at the map.”
“What am I looking for?” Maura asked.
“Griffith included whatever circles were around in the mid-nineteenth century. On a map of this scale, they’re tiny, but just look for circles and you’ll find quite a few.”
Maura peered at the map laid out on the table, and soon found there were a lot of small circles scattered around with no particular pattern. “Will you show me which pieces of land are mine? And if there are any circles on them?”
“I will, but right now I’d rather get out and start looking, while the weather’s fine. One thing you don’t really see on Griffith’s maps is the elevation, so I want to find out if you can see from one ring to another. Don’t worry—I plan to be around for a while, so we don’t have to see them all today. You can get familiar with your land, and then we can go looking for them. That is, if you want to?” Ciara looked suddenly uncertain. “I know I get excited by hunting for them, but a lot of people don’t care. As long as you don’t mind my wandering around, you can go your own way. But if you’d like to come with me, I’d be happy for the company.”
“Let’s see how it goes,” Maura said. “My schedule at the pub can be a little unpredictable. Do you need help?”
“I’m good—I just thought you might enjoy it. I’ve invited a few of my friends to come down, with some equipment, like drones, and maybe some ground-penetrating radar—property of the university, since we can’t afford to buy them ourselves. Not that this is a treasure hunt or anything like that—most of these are not burial sites—but it wouldn’t hurt to check, and I want some accurate measurements. Mick, would you like to come along?”
Maura realized Mick had remained silent for Ciara’s lecture, but she was so enthusiastic that it was hard to interrupt her.
“Some other day, mebbe. I’ve seen a few around here, but I never paid them much mind. I’ll ask me gran if she remembers anything. She knew Mick Sullivan well, and it could be that he mentioned something. But thanks fer offerin’.”
“You ready to go, Maura?” Ciara asked.
“I guess. Mick, are you going to see your gran now?”
“I thought I would. Then I’ll meet you at the pub?”
“Sounds good. I promise I won’t take too long.”
“No rush. With our new staff, we can manage, at least during the early part of the day. If any of our friends stop in, I can ask them if they know of any rings.”
“Sounds good to me,” Maura told him. “Oh, if Helen stops by, tell her I’ll be in later, or I can meet her at the hotel. But I’m guessing she and Susan will need a little time to settle in.”
“I’ll do that. Good to meet you, Ciara. Stop by Sullivan’s when you can, although I doubt it’s up to Cork city standards.”
“Thanks, Mick. Maybe I’ll bring my friends around, when they show up.”
“I’ll see you out, Mick,” Maura told him, and followed him out the door. She said quietly, “I don’t know what to make of her, or what she’s doing. Do I need to know something about these rings or forts or whatever?”
“There’s no money involved, nor any buried treasure. It’s interestin’ that they’ve been where they are for a thousand years but nobody seems to know anything about them.”
“Except that they’re scared of them. How can people with modern machines and the Internet be scared of piles of dirt?”
“It’s a long tradition, passed down through families. And families rarely strayed far in the past, or if they did, they ended up in another country. Like New Zealand. That’s not to say yeh can’t look fer the things, as long as yeh don’t damage them.”
“Does anyone do that? Travellers, say?”
“Not that I’ve heard. But there are stories about farmers whose tractor falls on ’em when they try to clear their land.”
“Great,” Maura said, a bit glumly. “I’m glad I wasn’t planning to plow anything. Or build anything. I’ve got all I need right now.”
“Yeh can help this Ciara find people to talk to—people who know more about the local traditions. Or myths, you might call ’em.”
“Does that count as scientific research? Just talking to old people, I mean. Still, she may be around for a while this summer, so it’s worth looking into. Does having her hanging around make you uncomfortable? I mean, we don’t get a lot of private time.”
“We’ll manage.” He gave her a quick kiss. “I’ll call on Bridget, and then go to Leap.”
“And I’ll follow you in a couple of hours, if I don’t meet some angry fairies.”
Back inside, Ciara appeared to be studying the map she’d shown Maura earlier. She had her cell phone in her hand and was comparing it to the map. “Reception’s kind of unpredictable on this hill, you know. I’m not trying to call anyone, but I wanted to use the compass app. Do you have a compass?”
“No, I’ve never needed one. It’s not like there are many roads around here to choose between.”
“Good point. Well, this is just an exploration, and I can come back. Ready to go?”
“I guess. We’re lucky again with the weather today.”
“That we are. But these rings somehow have survived for a long time, so who are we to complain if we happen to get wet?”
“Which way do you want to look?”
“Actually, I’d like to find a high hill and get a sense of how the land is laid out. I know we’re on a hill here, and there are small lakes or ponds over the top on the other side, so there shouldn’t be anything to see in that direction. Which means I guess we should go west. The land seems to climb toward the north. How about a camera? Do you have one?”
“Only what’s on my phone. I don’t take a lot of pictures, or send any.”
Ciara sighed. “I should have done my homework and brought more tools, but I can always find some, or ask my friends to bring some extras. Let’s go!”
Maura dutifully followed Ciara out, shutting the door behind her. She knew her cottage was on a hill, but that didn’t mean it would be easy to go up, since fields were irregularly shaped, with fences or hedgerows between them, and they were full of grazing cattle or sheep who were not necessarily friendly. Had Ciara spent any time in the country, or was she making assumptions based on what she’d read? And then there was the fact that some local residents, no doubt, would not want strangers tramping through their land.
Ciara stopped halfway down the hill, past Bridget’s cottage, and surveyed the landscape. “I’m guessing it’s boggy at the bottom of the hill.”
“I’m pretty sure it is,” Maura told her.
“That patch straight ahead belongs to you,” Ciara said.
“What?”
“That’s what the map says, although the road is more recent. And it was Michael Sullivan who owned all this before you?”
“That’s what the documents I signed say. He was in his eighties when he died a couple of years ago. No wife or children. That’s why he left it to me.” With a little persuasion from Gran, Maura thought. No matter how it had come about, she was grateful.
“Hey, about this Mick Nolan. Where does
he fit?” Ciara asked cautiously.
Nobody around here asked anything like that, Maura reflected. Where did he fit? Or was it just a passing thing? She was afraid to guess. She liked being with Mick, but she still wasn’t sure it was something that would last. “I guess we’re sort of together. It hasn’t been very long. And he works for me, not the other way around.”
“No worries—I wasn’t about to make a play for him. He’s from around here, isn’t he?”
“Yes, mostly. Bridget is his gran. He looks out for her.” Time to change the subject. Maura wasn’t comfortable talking about her maybe love life with someone she barely knew. “Which way are we going?”
Ciara pointed across the shallow valley to the north. “See that kind of lump up the hill there?” Maura nodded dubiously. “I’m betting that’s a fairy fort. You see any cows in the field?”
“Uh, no. But they could be at one end or the other, out of sight.”
“Well, let’s go find out.”
“Lead the way, Ciara.”
Chapter Five
Maura hadn’t done a lot of hiking, even close to her home. Some parts of the fields were littered with bushes and weeds, with the occasional patch of what she understood was called upland bog. Sometimes there were areas with cattle prints, which made the land lumpy and muddy. Why would anyone put a round enclosure up here? Whatever the reason, it wasn’t obvious.
As they approached, with Ciara in the lead, the structure became less and less obvious. Up close it looked like a pile of brambles, but Ciara had said the bramble pile had to be maybe a thousand years old or more. Maura had never been much of a gardener, but it amazed her that the assorted plants had survived this long.
Ciara stopped a hundred or so feet from their target and turned slowly around, gauging angles and distances. “Do you see another circle anywhere?” she asked Maura.
“Un, no? But I’ve never noticed any at all. What were these good for?”
Ciara smiled ruefully. “There are several schools of thought on that. Some people believe they were no more than cattle pens, to protect the cattle from predators. Others think they served as a sort of enclosure against human invaders. Others think they were ceremonial sites.”
“In other words, nobody knows,” Maura commented.
“Let’s just say that nobody agrees. That’s one reason I want to check their individual locations and how they relate to one another. Maybe that will show us a pattern. Or we can connect them to houses, if there is any evidence left of those. Odd, isn’t it, that a cattle pen could outlast a human dwelling?”
“Seems unlikely to me—didn’t humans use stones to build? Or did people back then steal the stones when they were building something new? Or did they just keep moving when their house fell down? Anyway, have you ever talked with people who raise cattle now? I mean, how many cows could you put in one of these rings, with enough food?”
“I haven’t talked to many farmers,” Ciara admitted.
“And why haven’t they burned down?” Maura pressed on. “They’re just plant materials, aren’t they? No stones holding them together?”
“That’s where it gets interesting. You’re right—if they’re just branches and vines, they could easily have burned at some point. Since they didn’t, one could infer that people had an unusual respect for them, and protected them, or at least kept them in good repair.”
“And after a thousand years or so, nobody’s figured it out?” Maura asked.
“So it would appear. That’s why I’m doing this research. I’ll admit there’s no particular value in knowing what these were, how they were used, but people still feel there’s something eerie about them. The cautious ones leave them alone. Others tear them down, and turn up dead in a farm accident shortly after that.”
“Ciara, there’s a lot I don’t understand about Ireland. I never thought I’d have to worry about old plants, but I don’t have any reason to mow them down.”
“I’m glad to hear it. You want to get closer?”
“Will I be safe?” Maura wasn’t sure whether she was kidding.
“If you’re careful,” Ciara said, and took off toward the ring.
The circle turned out to be bigger than it looked from a distance, Maura discovered. And it was surprisingly precisely round, even after so much time. How had anybody planned that? “Is there anything inside the circle?”
Ciara was busy taking pictures. “That’s hard to guess. Because of what I said, about people fearing them, nobody likes to dig them up, so it’s hard to say if there’s anything buried—human, cattle, or treasure. That’s why I wanted to try out ground-penetrating radar, which is noninvasive. But I’m not pinning too much hope on that, since even the stone circles don’t usually include any sort of burial, or if they do, the burials are often much later than the circles themselves.”
“So why are you so interested, and what do you hope to prove?”
Ciara smiled. “I think proving a negative is still useful. If we can say that ninety percent of the surviving raths show no evidence of human sacrifice or burial, then the academic community will have learned something. And maybe help to protect those that have survived, because people won’t start poking around looking for gold or something valuable. What’re the oldest cemeteries around here, do you know?”
“That’s not really my kind of thing, so I’ve never looked. I suppose I should, since my grandmother was born around here, and her parents or the rest of the family should be buried somewhere. But if they couldn’t afford tombstones, I’m told it’s hard to find where they might be. And I don’t even know their names. My gran didn’t talk much about her life here.” Maura knew where her father was buried, near Boston, but wasn’t even sure Gran had been able to afford a tombstone when he died. She couldn’t recall ever visiting it, if it existed.
Maura checked her watch and was surprised to see it was already past ten. “I should head for Leap. The pub should be opening soon, and I’ve still got to go back and get my car. Do you have plans?”
“I’m fine—I’ll hike around a bit longer, but all I’m doing now is checking out what I should look at more carefully. It’s nice to have plenty of time.”
“If you have the time, stop in the pub in Leap and I can introduce you to some other people. You really should talk to Old Billy. He was a longtime friend of Mick who owned the place, and he might know more about the land here than I do. Do you know when your friends are coming?”
“I need to talk to them again, now that I have a better idea of what’s where. But sooner rather than later, I’d guess—they’re just doing me a favor, but this isn’t their main field of interest. You go ahead. I want to stay here for a bit and see if I can commune with any long-dead farmers.”
“Good luck. See you later,” Maura said, then turned to figure out her way home.
It was close to eleven by the time she arrived at Sullivan’s, but things seemed to be going smoothly, mainly because there weren’t a lot of customers. The clanging from the kitchen space in the back made it clear that the construction process was well under way. Mick came out of the back room. “Didja find what yeh were looking for?”
“Well, we found one ring, but I’d never noticed it before. I can’t say I’m excited by any of it. Ciara seems to be, but even she admits there’s a lot she doesn’t know about them, and nobody else does either. I’m still boggled by the fact that they’re still there after so long. I mean, we’ve seen houses around here that are less than a hundred years old, and they’re falling apart. What’s the difference?”
“It’s the fairies guardin’ the places,” Mick said.
Maura took a harder look at his expression to see if he was joking. It looked like he was. “Have you seen Billy yet today?”
“It’s still early fer him. Why do yeh ask?”
“I thought he might know more about Old Mick’s land than I do, which wouldn’t be hard. Or does nobody ever talk about fairy forts? Is that supposed to be bad luck too, just
mentioning them?”
“Yeh’ll have to ask Billy. I’m not even sure I can say there’re any on the Nolan land, but I’ve never been a farmer. Now you’ve got one ring.”
“At least one,” she corrected Mick. “Ciara said there might be more, if I can figure out what other pieces of land I may have. But finding them is not tops on my list.”
“Yeh didn’t know yeh had the land?” Mick asked.
“No, I did not. Or why. When I showed up here, I didn’t know Mick Sullivan existed. And then this lawyer shows up and tells me to sign a lot of papers, but I can’t say I read them carefully. So it seems I’ve got land I can’t even find. What am I supposed to do with it?”
“Has no one asked yeh about grazing on it?”
“Uh, no. But I’m almost never there by daylight. How much land does it take to graze one cow or one sheep?”
“I couldn’t tell yeh. And acre apiece, mebbe? But if you’ve no plan to use it, yeh might think of selling it to someone who would.”
“I suppose. But I have no idea how much it’s worth. And it’s not like I need the money.”
“You could use it to pay for the kitchen,” Mick pointed out.
“I wouldn’t know how to find out how to sell it,” Maura said dubiously.
“Maura Donovan, yeh work in a pub, do yeh not? All you need to do is tell a few people, and the word will get round.”
“Can I find out where it is first, please? If it turns out it’s right behind my cottage, then the blasted sheep or cows will keep me awake all night.”
“Up to you, Maura,” Mick said. Then he looked beyond Maura toward the front door. “Look’s like yeh’ve got company again.”
Maura turned to see Susan standing in the doorway, looking uncertain. Maura strode over to her quickly. “You coming or going?”
“Does it matter?” the girl said defiantly.
Fatal Roots Page 4
