Imagine catching the winter solstice as the sun sinks over a hillside and gleams through the portal stones of a 4,000-year-old stone circle. Or following in the footsteps of medieval man by skipping across a centuries-old clapper bridge.
Well, the good news for archaeologists and antiquarians wishing to explore these and many other ancient sites is that UCC's archaeological survey team has just completed its third volume on Co Cork's archaeological sites.
Following on Volumes I and II, which cover East Cork and West Cork, Vol III is a rich and detailed inventory of mid-Cork sites, listing everything from Bronze Age wedge tombs, stone circles and fulachta fiadh to medieval castles and industrial mills.
"Mid-Cork is very rich in Bronze Age remains," explains the survey's director, Ms Sheila Lane. "It has a lot of wedge tombs and stone circles, which in the south-west of Ireland were all oriented on a north-east/south-west axis."
"It also has a huge number of fulachta fiadh or Bronze Age cooking places, including a famous one near St Gobnait's Well in Ballyvourney, where Prof M.J. O'Kelly and Prof Eddie Fahy conducted the first cooking experiment in the 1950s."
Just a few miles to the south, in Gougane Barra, lies the early monastic settlement of St Finbarr, one of dozens of ecclesiastical sites throughout the baronies of West and East Muskerry.
"Mid-Cork is also very rich in early ecclesiastical sites, holy wells, penitential stations; they must have been a very holy people," says Sheila, whose favourites are those dating from the Bronze Age.
The area has some striking medieval landmarks, including Blarney Castle and other less well-known but equally impressive tower houses.
"Tower houses were built in the 15th and 16th centuries as lordly residences by both Gaelic and Norman families."
Published by Government Publications, the survey contains nearly 3,500 entries and is generously illustrated with 116 black-and-white plates and 19 colour plates. It costs £25.
