WINDSONG: RIHLA (Journey 49): THE QUAYS TO CONNEMARA

Rihla (The Journey) – was the short title of a 14th Century (1355 CE) book written in Fez by the Islamic legal scholar Ibn Jazayy al-Kalbi of Granada who recorded and then transcribed the dictated travelogue of the Tangerian, Ibn Battuta. The book’s full title was A Gift to Those who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling and somehow the title of Ibn Jazayy's book captures the ethos of many of the city and country journeys I have been lucky to take in past years.

This is the second rihla ( see: Rihla 47) about the quays of the Connemara Islands (na hOileáin); this time exploring those of Gorumna Island.

“Actually I never understand the why of anything –

my own obscure but insistent motivations least of all.”

William Seabrook

Adventures in Arabia

1928

I came across Seabrook’s book recently quite by accident and never having heard of one of America’s 'Lost Generation' explorists (I use explorist rather than explorer because Seabrook’s curiosity led him beyond geography to occultism and cannibalism amongst other travels!) I was quite astounded by the descriptive detail and sheer enjoyment of social and geographic exploration in this, one of his earliest books. It also somehow sums up my own failure to adequately explain my reason’s for wanting to go somewhere... or anywhere!

In Gorumna Island’s case, there was the logical explanation of it being the second part of my exploration of the quays and slipways of the Connemara islands, but allied to this, knowing at the back of my mind, was a recurring curiosity about the origin of the name. I just did not understand the why?

Books to Topograph with!

I recently got a present of Robert Macfarlane’s book, Landmarks an etymological exploration and glossary of the ever-evolving language of landscape, conceived as a ‘counter-desecration’ and counter-eradication phrasebook. Impressive as his scholarly effort is it pales into almost opaqueness by the efforts of another scholar living in Qatar, and generously highlighted by Macfarlane at the end of his book, a Simon Fitzwilliam-Hall who starting with Arabic, Persian, Turkish has analysed 140 living and dead languages and geographies in a ‘vast’ work in progress which is called Language in the Landscape: A Multilingual Glossary of Topographical Terms and Place-Name elements in the Afro-Eurasian Lands (The Topoglossary for short). Macfarlane records that the “B” section alone, beginning with ba the Akkadian for water, of the Topoglossary comes to 343 pages. With this in mind my efforts to understand the etymology of Gorumna is almost embarrassing.

The Irish for Gorumna is Garmna and Irish dictionaries point to this as being a variant spelling of garma, which means a cross-beam such as that on a gallows or cross, or topographically a long protective sandbar or peninsula. Tim Robinson in his gazetteer of Connemara advocates another derivation of the name from gar meaning near and omhna an oak tree. Gorumna has not gallows, peninsulas, sandbars or much in the way of oak and I suspect the origin of the name goes back much more to its value as a piece of ground to the original inhabitants of the area.

A pictorial from The Graphic magazine in May 1880 showing

a famine relief visit from the Duke of Edinburgh to Gorumna.

John Millington Synge wrote as he passed through Gorumna in the company of Jack Butler Yeats in the summer of 1905 that, The remainder of the road to the lower western end of Gorumna led through hilly districts that became more and more white with stone, though here and there a few brown masses of bog or an oblong lake with many islands and rocks. Gorumna has always had, I suspect, a denuded topography and that what turf producing bogs were present were cleared early in the Bronze Age. Being resource-poor for turf I suggest that origin of the island’s name is more likely to be from garrmóna meaning soft or worthless turf, the word itself derived from garr which is the effluent of washed-off nutrients of a landscape caused by winter rains and móna which is turf.

Map and Locations

1. Céibh an Mháimín

Quay of the Small Pass

This quay was designed by Alexander Nimmo in 1822

Potting for lobster (gliomach), crab (portán rua) and shrimp (ribe róibéis) is a well established activity although shrimp potting is declining as the economic returns are poor for the effort extended. Velvet Swimming Crab (luaineachán), scallop (muirín), oyster (oisre), razor clams (scian mhara), crayfish (gabhal mara) are also harvested on a defined seasonal basis.

2. Céibhe na Speice

Quay of the Glance (glint of light)

The main rock formations on the northern part of the island are granite (Errisbeg GaEb-Type) whereas those on the southern shores are volcanic and sedimentary. The harvested seaweed is Knotted Wrack (femainn bhuí).

3. Céibh Ghlais na nUan

Quay of the Stream of the Lambs

4. Céibh an Doirin Darach

Quay of the Small Oakwood

5. Céibh an Trá Bháin

Quay of the White Beach

The Song of the Drowning

Pilgrim's (Oilitherach) Church overlooking Trá Bháin

6. Céibh an tAircín

Quay of the Creek

7. Céibh an tSáilín

Quay of the Little Heel (Inlet) of the Sea

8. Céibh Sheanachamheas

Quay of the Gathering (to Compare)

The island in the background is Oileán an Anama, Island of the Spirit. There is a Connemara seafaring tradition that if you dropped anything overboard you should not retrieve it as if the sea is denied it will come looking for a soul next time.

The access road to this quay is blocked by a rickety gate that keeps the cattle in. Interesting name and this designation is very much my own. I suspect the Gathering referred to was perhaps an annual event to compare some specific commercial sea-harvest. In the 16th & 17th centuries, ambergris the undigested cartilage of squids spewed out by whales and gathered on the shoreline, and a substance used in perfumes with a value greater than rare metals, was an O'Flaherty monopoly, and was traded with Spain. It might make a comeback as a commercial resource if the reputed numbers of whales off our coasts continue to rise.

9. Céibh Poll Uí Mhuirin

Quay of O'Murrin's Hollow

10. No-Name Medieval Monastery and Churchyard

Southern edge of Ballynakill Lough

The Rock of Doom!

Gort an Mhaoil or Field of the Delay, named after a local man

who was held up for three days by fairies (or something else entirely!)

11. Céibh Baile na Cille

Quay of the Village of the Church

12. Céibh na Fionnoige

Quay of the Crowberry

13. An Caladh Beag

The Small Harbour

14. Bóthar na nOileáin

The intertidal causeway that links Inis Bearcháin to Gorumna

1872 OS Map showing Causeway

The tidal ranges in this area are about 4m at spring and 2m at neap tides. The remaining 200m or so of causeway is about 1.2m high and 6m wide. The earliest causeways to the islands predate the 1830s onwards famine-relief constructions and probably have existed since the Bronze Age.