As part of The Gathering, The Slieve Bloom Association wish to invite locals and visitors to The Ard Éireann Festival 2013.
In ancient times, at the end of July an ancient Celtic mid-summer traditional feast was celebrated by going up to the top of the highest mountains in a region. The festival has many names such as Lunasa, Height Sunday, Frachán Sunday and Garland Sunday. The Slieve Bloom Association revived this ancient tradition a number of years ago. This year we want to make it a gathering to remember.
The programme for this year’s Ard Éireann Festival as part of The Gathering
Saturday 27th July – Meeting point, MDA car park, Mountmellick at 10am
Guided bus trip around the picturesque Slieve Bloom Mountain region, its towns and villages with story telling about each area. Bus will depart from the MDA car park in Mountmellick at 10am and return at 4pm. You can zoom in on the map below.
Sunday 28th July – Meeting point, Poets Cottage, Camross at 11am
Family friendly walk to the top of Ard Éireann, followed by refreshments and a ceilí (one of the highest in Ireland & possibly the world, to celebrate the imminent harvest this year). Map below of meeting point. Poets Cottage, Camros at 11am.
We are inviting all people from home & abroad, especially those who have connections to the towns and villages surrounding the Slieve Blooms. Mountmellick, Rosenallis, Clonaslee, Cadamstown, Kinnity, Roscrea, Camross, Castletown, Ballaghmore and Mountrath.
A thoroughly enjoyable weekend for people of all ages. The total cost for this two-day Gathering event is just €10. This includes the guided bus tour, the guided walk, refreshments and ceilí. To book your place, register your interest here for further details.
Hi all,
We have almost completed our journey home, just wanted to drop you a few lines to thank you so very much for a wonderful day yesterday. We all had an unforgettable, truely fantastic and wonderful experience! It would be fair to say the walk was more adventurous than we were expecting 😉 but we had a great time and were made to feel very very welcome. I don’t think I will ever get over ‘donkey shuffling’ on a mountain top in a hail storm!! Mountain mick is an inspiration… How does he do it? Gary was up and down the mountain like he was on a bit of elastic, we were all very impressed by the energy and enthusiasm shown by you all. The entertainment was great, thank you to you all…we have memories to last a life time and it was the perfect end to our Ireland road trip. The Fairbrothers/Hallams/Graves/Hargraves and Youngs xx