Toomore: Lanterns at Cabragh Ringfort

Pamela Norrington, on October 29, said:

We made lanterns of sally rods and tissue and walked from Cabragh Ringfort across the fields to Pollnagowna Ringfort

Ian Stehbens, on October 30, said:

Very effective. Pamela, tell me a little more about this procession and about the Ring Fort (Celtic/Briton is it?)

Ian

Pamela Norrington, on October 30, said:

Hi Ian,

this was our first lantern procession and we imported it from my village, Slaithwaite where we have held a lantern festival each February for 25 years.

The BBC included a short film of it in their 'Countryfile' series which you can view on the website On this occasion we made simple star lanterns of willow and tissue, lit by candles with the neighbours and walked from the ringfort here at Cabragh to the next nearest one at Pollnagowna, just as night fell. On this occasion we had no musical accompaniment but next year...

A ring fort is, in its simplest form, a circular space surrounded by a bank, with possibly a fosse or ditch outside the bank.

A typical ring fort was used as a dwelling-place, and would have contained one or more simple houses made of upright wooden posts interlaced with a wattle-and-daub lattice construction. At night the domestic animals would have been herded into the enclosure through a gap in the bank, closed by means of a simple gate. Some larger examples are known to have had a defensive significance but, as here, most ring-forts were simply an early type of farmstead. This article gives a full discussion.