We couldn’t get into Boyle Abbey before 10am. No-one seems to get up early in Southern Ireland! It was 9am when we arrived there, so I decided to show Kal Lough Key Forest Park which was close by. It might be open and it would be a pleasant walk amongst some trees while we waited for the abbey to open. I had been there once before with M on our only Ireland holiday together. Seemed like a good plan to while away an hour. Turned out to be slightly longer than that!
Lough Key
Lough Key is a forest park. Is that a forest that contains a park or some parkland with a bit of forest? I’m never sure. Be one thing or another, I say. In terms of the name of the lake, Wikipedia suggests it has druidic connections:
Lough Key (Irish: Loch Cé) is a lake in Ireland. It is located in the northwest of County Roscommon, northeast of the town of Boyle. The lough’s name is believed to come from Cé, a druid; the lake was formed over his grave.
Whether by chance or be subliminal design I appeared yet again to be in the right place suited to my quest.
We parked easily and because the visitor centre wasn’t open (of course – before 10am?) we made use of the excellent relieving facilities (Kal rated them highly) before we thought about finding somewhere that we “should be”. The dowsing rods were our first stop for an answer to an esoteric question like that. When I asked the question the rods quite clearly led across a grassy field towards the middle of nowhere. Typical. Still, having nothing better to do we followed – all the way up to the point where they swerved around an old and glorious beech tree.
We both sat at respective positions beneath the tree and I began to look around. What a wonderful day! How beautiful the park is! How perfectly the tree’s hoary branches framed the delicate Spring flowers and mosses that lived in their protective cloak, and how dappled the sunlight was as it filtered through the lightly-leaved branches of the beech. Soon I was drifting away…drifting into one of my light druidic trances where my heart soars and my mind relaxes into communion with the surroundings….
A vision appeared to me – the same sword-fight that I had seen the previous day at Carrowkeel. There was more detail this time. I could clearly see the protagonist – so much so that I knew I would recognise him if I ever saw him again, in a dream or in reality. I knew not which it would be yet, but I was sure our meeting was inevitable, like the inevitability that a thread will unravel a garment in intricate weaving.
Now the visions faded and was replaced by a spoken phrase that I didn’t understand at all. The sword I had seen in the vision, the sword that I was holding, it was given a name. Something told me that it was called The Eel Sword, and that I had to now find a sword that looked like an eel. This made no sense. What madness was this? Why did I need an eel sword? Where the heck would I find such a thing? Reality re-imposed itself and the connection wavered then released its trance-like grip on my senses as they re-absorbed the beautiful Spring sunshine and the fabric of greens that made up the forest park’s lush landscape.
Where was this sword? Here? The dowsing rods confirmed it even as I began to position them horizontally in preparation. It was here , somewhere.
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