The Cross Land
Project Journal

Diary

Wed 9th August:

Phone Robert Cassidy of Cassidy’s pub in Carron to check if it’s till ok to put up information about Cross Land and the other Ground Up projects in the pub and for me to be available over 4 weeks to talk about the project. I feel there is a need to have a face to the project, to answer questions. He’s fine with that and I drop up the details in the evening. He’s not there and I will not schedule times until the project is underway.

Thurs 10th:August:

Met the Burren park wildlife ranger on my way to the farm and told her I was about to start coppicing for the project, showed her the location and she seems fine with it, have to email her the proposal. Visited the farm’s owners to confirm that they are ok with the cut going ahead. They had some reservations as they attended a meeting held by Brendan Dunford and the Burren Life project the other day and Brendan had described a long process of negotiation with the various agencies from REPS to SEC to Teagasc regarding permission to clear the scrub. He asked me to check with Ute Bosenstock, his REPs monitor, to confirm all is ok, though I spoke to her some time ago about the project I rang her but got no answer, left message.

Phil and I start marking out the site. It’s very low, immature scrub, gets a fair amount of sunlight and it’s covered in brambles. It’s too hot to wear the fluorescent yellow safety jacket and as long as somebody is with me I don’t need it- only when I am alone does it become necessary. I have hand tools only to do the job. Two sets of loppers- one a Felco anvil lopper which will cut through 1- 1.5” diameter tree, and one a smaller, lighter lopper. A Silky-Fox sheathed saw and a pair of Felco secuteurs- beautiful ergonomic tools. I was told initially that chain saws could not be used, however this proved not to be the case but I like the idea of keeping the carbon footprint of this project as low as possible.

The limestone pavement is treacherously difficult to negotiate and it is very easy to fall or get a foot stuck down the grikes/clints of the pavement. In a very short space of time we are both covered in scratches and bruises, Phil’s foot went through a moss-covered gap in the rock to his knee- no injury. We use red and white barrier tape to mark it out which is very difficult, and have to pass the tape in a straight line through the scrub. None of the systems I had thought of using work in the scrub- the laser level has too many obstacles to bounce off. pulling the tape straight and using a 1 meter stick to calculate the width would seem to be the best way.

We spend 4 hours marking out 60metres.

Phil Gaston- assisted with the work of cutting and clearing the scrub.

Looking down on the valley from the road above Dee identified an area of mixed scrub that seemed to completely cover an area of at least a couple of acres. We crossed into the field and climbed down the slope of the valley over broken boggy ground watched by a few grazing cattle. The valley floor was mixed grass, moss and bare limestone pavement. We passed the ruins of old field enclosures of uncertain age, climbed fieldstone walls and came to an area of open pavement that bordered our scrubland.

We approached a wall of woodland standing three to four metres high and bent low to twist into the dense growth and find a start point for the ‘cross’. We had brought hand pruning shears, a couple of pairs of heavy loppers, thick gloves and a roll of red and white plastic site marking tape.

Inside the growth we could see that it wasn’t completely uniform, didn’t blanket the area completely the way it had looked from the road. There were clearings here and there, empty patches inside the woods. We knew that for the cross we were going to cut to ‘read’ from above it would have to have edges so we were going to have to try to find a route through the hazel where is was as dense as possible.

We picked a likely tree, maybe 5 metres in from the grove edge, and tied off our red and white tape to a branch. While one of us went ahead twisting through the close grown hazel rods, getting caught in the jungle of finger thick briar shoots, trying to avoid involvement with the glove piercing blackthorn barbs, the other fed the red and white site tape through the branches. We were trying to measure out a 60 metre arm of our cross and find a centre point that looked like it would provide us with the other 60 metre arm. Several times we ran into bare patches and had to retrace our steps. Also at this time we were not permitted to cut the hazel so it was kind of hard enough, battling and scrabbling through the thick growth trying to make a straight line. However, eventually we marked out two arms of the cross, measuring it roughly hand over hand along the tape.

Friday 11th: Emailed Brendan Dunford and Sharon Parr at Burren Life project. Brendan has been running the Burrenbeo website, a hub of information and research pertaining to the Burren. Burren Life seems to be directing that research forward towards exploring ways of sustaining the region through a number of initiatives. Sharon has been monitoring the spread of the scrub by satellite and I am interested in finding out what company she is using and whether we could share time. I had budgeted for a helicopter flight to document the cut from above but as time has passed I am less comfortable with the energy costs using that method. If it were possible to get regular images of the regrowth it would be good- hazel has a deep red colour when the young shoots are growing back and it will be interesting to see how clear the X is next spring.

Visit Ute who tells me its ok to coppice the woods.

Go up to the land I am cutting and continue marking out the site with tape. Fergus Tighe is making a documentary about the project and I arranged to meet him there. Marked out the route down with bones and bits of tape. He scared the life out of me. I was working away and turned to find this furry microphone in front of me- let out a shriek. He filmed for a while and we found a broad-leaf Hellaborine (a type of orchid) found in pavement areas. The process of working in the woods is quite amazing- it is so isolated I can only focus on the hear-and-now, a very Zen experience. Spent until 7pm working-

Get home and have an email from Sharon Parr asking if I’ve done my homework re wildlife act- no cutting from March to Sept 31 she says! Could jeopardise the farmer whose land I am using, REPs payments otherwise. Ute had mentioned the wildlife act but I thought the cutting period started Sept 1st.

Email Siobhan and Fiona to let them know of a potential glitch. I have to return to teaching on Sept 1st and the girls start at new, boarding school then too- had wanted to keep the early Sept as free as possible.

Sat 12th: Go back up and try to mark the second line of the cross. Get scratched. Stop marking as I will need another pair of hands to help and Phil is away with the girls –

He is visiting family in Belfast. I had hoped to get as much of this cut as possible while they were away. Decide to leave and go up to the Burren School of Art as the Burren annual exhibition is on- no one knows anything about it- Fergus told me. John Bewley curated it from a bunch of young artists from Newcastle way. Interesting show- lots of process based drawing mainly. Meet Fiona and brief her, also fill in Fergus on the change to the schedule, may now be cutting in Oct if Sharon’s dates are right.

.Email Emma the park ranger re dates and clarification on the wildlife act.

Arrange time to see Brendan Dunford on Monday.

Mon. 14th:

Cutting times start Sept 1st, confirmation from Ute.

Up to Carron and see Brendan. Another bombshell- because there are monuments on the land I need permission from the heritage and monuments people to make any changes to the land. Given that compliance is required to draw down REPs funding how and what do farmers do when local situations affect their funding conditions?

Very interesting discussion with Brendan on this issue and the reasons behind the changes in the landscape. He reckons the biggest factor is the move to part time farming in the overheated Celtic tiger economy. Well paid jobs now exist and are being filled by those who would have been full-time farmers in the past, many of these workers are maintaining a few easily farmed fields which can be intensively fertilised and the cattle kept in sheds over winter.

The harder to manage marginal lands are reverting to scrub, a living illustration of the thesis presented by Brendan that the Burren is a managed landscape which exists in its(just about) present form because of the farming methods used pre-EU membership.

Return home and check email- Heard from Park Ranger Emma Glanville- wildlife act prohibits cutting from March to 1st Sept. If I get all my marking done in advance that should be possible reasonably quickly.

Now I have to sort out times for my “office “ in the Pub in Carron.

Wed 17th: Meet with Sharon Parr in Ballyvaughan. She is a full of information on the hazel scrub. Satellite imaging of the scrub looks impossible- Very expensive and no guarantees the sky would be clear enough for time booked- best one to use is Quickbird for high resolution images but it costs €1500 per half hour. She talks about the fungi and lichens in the hazel scrub and says she will walk it with me and check I am not going to damage or remove anything rare.

Thurs 16th Go to mark the second half of the cross with Phil. As I cannot cut until after the 1st I will have to try and get as much prepared as possible as time is at a premium in September when I am back teaching. We spend 4 hours marking out the second leg and stagger out exhausted at the end of it- my knee is wrecked.

Mon 4th Sept;

First session n the pub. Very very wet outside nobody in the pub except Johanna, the polish bar person. I explain who I am and that Robert and Michelle have ok’d the project- put some info on the walls around the snug in the bar and wait. And wait- one person enters the bar doesn’t seem to want to talk and that was it until 9. Drove home in the pouring rain.

Wed 6th Sept:

Spent the afternoon emailing the press release. Have success with the Clare People and they will do a piece. Go up to the pub in the evening. Busier today. Two people, a man and a woman at the bar. They were ready and willing to talk. I explained where I was working and what it was about- he wanted to know where Fiona’s Pink Shed piece took place and the woman had seen Sean Taylor’s balloon flight. The talk moved to the Hazel scrub and the goats. The man said that there were over 8000 goats in the region, more than ever before. He talked about the difficulty maintaining walls for REPs and said that it was the domestic mixed with the wild goat that was causing the problem. He said someone set loose over 100 domestic goats in the last year and that they had joined with the wild goats. When a herd of wild goats crosses a wall they do so one at a time. They pick the lowest point on a wall and cross, but a herd of domestic goats will simply run at a wall in a line and take the whole thing down. He said an uncle of his cleared the scrub very fast by toggling (?) two goats together and leaving them until the scrub was gone.

I mentioned the mature hazel woodland under the cliff at Fahee and how Sharon Parr said it was a potential site for Glove Fungus and he said there were other mature trees like that at the back of Cahir’s house There were also Whitethorn trees there with 18inch thick trunks. He spoke about the numbers of consultants who had come to Carron to study the Burren and how none of them had acknowledged the role farmers had played in the place until Brendan Dunford made his study of Farming and the Burren a few years ago. “The consultants came down and told us (the locals) about the place- they weren’t interested in anything we had to say.”

Robert Cassidy arrived. He asked if I knew that Cross Land meant angry land- land that would break the leg of a cow- or person. The local vernacular for the limestone fissure- Grike and Clint was Scailp and Cragg.

He spoke about the community, how it is being decimated because nobody is allowed build there- that there should be some way for the local indigenous people to build. I asked about blow-ins like myself and he was adamant that anyone was welcome and the hand of the community held out to them if they were willing to join in and help in local community activities when asked. Robert left and that was it for the evening. Johanna joined by a young Australian women, Sharon, who also worked there and I left at 9. I walked out of the pub to a harvest moon hanging over the thurlough, the moonlight reflected in the water.

Thurs. 7th:

Meet the photographer from the Clare People for article that will be in the paper next Tuesday. Go to Carron and spoke to one farmer about difficulties dealing with some of the ‘experts’ many of whom seem to have competing interests and agendas. The difficulties caused by the early retirement scheme for farmers with time hanging heavy but barred from helping out on the farm lest the inspector arrive. The spread of the scrub seems to be definitely connected to the difficulties in farming marginal- “cross” land. It is very labour intensive and as so many are now farming part-time it makes sense to simply work the most accessible fertile land and leave the rest untouched, then the hazel and the Hawthorn and Blackthorn take over. The land has to be farmed to keep the scrub down but the bureaucracy is wearing. In the North and the UK DEFRA have a different attitude- working in partnership with farmers to resolve problems, here that does not seem to be the case and one is at the mercy of the inspectors.

I leave and go to my site. I begin some preliminary clearing before the walkthrough with Sharon on Sunday. Take photos of the “Heart” found in the stone for possible use by Glencairn, a local organic meat company. Some of the tapes so painfully laid by Phil and I a couple of weeks ago have broken but are easily repaired.

Sun 10th September

Meet up at 11 am to walk the land with Sharon. She brings a large photo of the glove fungus which I’ll put up in the pub. If I had recorded everything she said I’d still be there! She immediately spots a Horsehair worm coiled in a pool by a petrifying spring which flows out from a small grotto under the cliff.

There is calcified moss and tiny stalactites in the grotto and the base is stained with iron. We walk through the marshy land which she said she has now found a description of in the protected habitats list meaning, I assume, that there may be funding for the farmer should it be registered. The marshland is dotted with small, pale flowers- Grass of Parnassis and Sharon said it had little lines on the petals ‘ultra-violet landing strips for insects’. We got to the start of my clearing and the pile of hazel had made. Sharon indicated the Script Lichen and Digilia Plumbia , the lead lichen, the Sticter lichen, Dog Lichen and the Gnostoc-Jelly

lichen. An incredible diversity of species I had great difficulty trying to write and walk on that terrain and gave up the notetaking rapidly. What emerged from Sharon’s commentary was that species, which are very rare in the UK, are abundantly prolific here in the Burren. Nitrates falling in rain are affecting the growth of lichens in some places.

We passed through the area I am cutting and into the old mature hazel woodland where the canopy was very high. This ensured that the hazel scallops were very straight and as it has been such a long time since they were cut, they must be 4-5metres tall. We found an abundance of mushrooms and were then out and under the cliffs. Away from the woodland the rock contains it’s own habitat for lichens, and we see a scarlet bloom that is related to the Rose of Sharon, growing in the cliff face. Eventually we decided to return but finding a way through the scrub was very difficult- routes, which were clear six months ago, are now choked with bramble, Hazel and Blackthorn. Eventually a way is cleared but it serves as a reminder of the consequences of allowing the land to return to the wilderness. This land has been farmed for thousands of years. The particular local way of grazing in the Burren and using the marginal higher lands as winterage was one of the reasons the hazel was kept in check and the grass sufficiently short to allow enough light for the flowers to bloom in the spring.

Mon 11th Sept.

Work in Galway in the morning- had hoped to go cutting in the afternoon but Ana, our daughter, is sick and off school. Go to the pub in the evening and meet Frank again- he says he is talked out from the last time I was there and I sit down with my tea. He talks anyway about this and that- I don’t want to spoil his evening pint! More tourists in and eating in the restaurant. One other person comes in. At 9 o’clock I asked Johanna if there was likely to be anyone else in- she said no. I drove home in monsoon like rain.

Wed 13th September:

Quiet in the pub bar one man who had spent the last few days in Lisdoonvarna and was in a very bad way from drink. I sat for a while but as the evening went on he got into a progressively worse state and I left.

Mon 18th. September:

Busy for once with two busses pulled up when I arrive and a large party of American tourists is in the pub. Local musicians are also playing and I talked to one young woman who was very interested in the project- she had read about it in the Clare People- no word back from the Clare Champion. She too spoke about the ‘experts’ who placed little or no value on local knowledge. She talked about Brendan Dunford arriving at her family farm with her wedding present on the back of his motorbike. She said she couldn’t see many staying full-time with the farming now- it’s too hard negotiating the regulations and managing the work of the farm.

Wed 20th September.

Meet with Fiona Woods to talk about the conference and the tour of the Ground Up and Rural Vernacular projects, which happens on the last day of the conference. Place is empty other than us.

Mon 25th. I can see why the Cassidys close the pub during weeknights in Winter. The place must cost far more to open than they take. It is completely empty this evening.

Wed 27th September.

My last night. Just back from the UK where I had a meeting with my PhD supervisors. Off the plane from Gatwick and straight to Carron. It is empty as ever and I say my goodbyes to Sharon and leave at 9.

15th November.

Go back at last to continue cutting and find the tape all blown down. Phil is going to be off work from the end of the month and is ready and willing to help with the cutting. It is very difficult to manage the teaching and my PhD research, the conference and post-conference work and the exhibition I curated, Local Local…and try and get this project done. Mark out the tape again and go back to the house.

Nov 25. Phil comes down and it’s much easier with him. I have been looking at alternate ways of documenting this. I cannot face the prospect of hiring a helicopter to document it- and yet it is important to get a good image. I did some research on the web and KAP- Kite Arial Photography is big news on the net and there are cheapish kits available which cone to less than the cost of a flight- and it’s reusable assuming it doesn’t crash.

Nov 30th; Phil finishes his old job and will work to finish the cut in Dec. Send out emails re KAP. Do the costing and revised plan- hope Siobhan and Fiona are ok with the change in plan.

Dec 12th:

PG: Coming back a few weeks late to start the actual cut I found that heavy winds had broken the tape in several places. I had to tie it back together and make sure it was as straight as possible, giving me my direction, before I could beginning lopping branches. I worked along the tape, clearing roughly to an armspan (~1.80m) on either side and first taking the cuttings out to the clearing beyond the entrance or placing them along the edges as I worked further in.

Inside the cutting it was quiet and the air soft. My attention was concentrated on branches in front of my face, on the pale, pale lichens and dark fungi that gloved the trees. Underfoot the briars and small saplings tangled and tripped. Patches of thick moss hid cracks in the underlying pavement down which a leg could disappear to past the knee. At these times the cutting was less quiet. Dee away in London worried that I would be stuck down there with a broken leg and left to die of exposure. Needles to say my mobile phone did not have coverage.

Dec 20th: Go up to see the work Phil has done and get very excited to see the shape of one arm of the cross clear and sharp in the bright sunlight. Take some photos and go down to help Phil. Sublimely beautiful- Mist drifting in at around 3pm, by the time we get back to the road there is blanket fog everywhere. Fergus Tighe turns up with the camera- ramble non-stop.

Order the kite and camera- had an email from Brooks Leffler- www.brooxes.com giving me contact details for a supplier in the Netherlands. I email him and then get a phone call from him to suggest he build me a custom made cradle for the camera and giving me advice on how to set the rig up. Phil can hardly contain himself… the words Boys and toys come to mind.

Jan 11th: At last- TNT bless their little hearts, posted me a letter to say they were trying to deliver the parcel with kite and cradle, funny- despite one of us being here at all times, they couldn’t deliver. Finally arrange to pick it up in the shop in Corofin, told Marion who works there all about the project- she’s intrigued and finally tracks down the parcel which was delivered to the wrong place. Lots of people ask me about the project in Corofin as I had posters about my ‘office’ in Cassidy’s around the town. Get the kite home. Murphy’s law- there’s a gale blowing and it threatens to pull Phil away.

Jan 14th

PG: Gradually the work has started to have an effect. The trip up to the cut from the house takes about 30 minutes, and several times I went up to find the weather in the valley worse than down at the house and had to turn round and come home again. From the road it takes another 30 minutes to walk to the edge of the scrub. I was getting about 3 hours actual cutting, weather permitting, each day. I suppose I must have done five days alone and another three or four with Dee. At the end of that though we were able to look down from a field by the road right down one axis of the cut and see it plainly, looking bare and straight, quite impressive. The other arm is hidden because of the angle so we’ll need the kite photos to really see it, but as of now, 14th Jan 07, all we need is a bit of measurement to make sure we’re at 60 metres each arm, and a bit of evening out and straightening and it will be done.

Then there will be the clearance of the cut wood after the cross has been photographed.

Went to Carron to meet Phil after Shifting Ground evaluation meeting in GMIT. The first day there has been no rain or wind. Unfortunately it is totally calm and the kite won’t lift.

Nothing but rain and win in the next few days. It would be so good to test it and see how straight the arms of the cross are.