Walk of the week: A lakeshore trip through the Ages

LOUGH GUR HERITAGE CENTRE

PRE-CELTIC Neolithic people arrived on the shores of Lough Gur 6,000 years ago and began to farm the land. Humans have been settled there ever since. The Bronze Age brought in the use of metal, and the Celts arrival in Ireland circa 500BC introduced iron artefacts.

Leaving our trailhead, we walk along the lake shore. Information boards just beyond the car park exit provide text and illustrations, including maps, giving us an overview of the site. Passing picnic tables set on lawns sloping down to the lake shore, we arrive at a notice for the Heritage Centre and climb the steps to the recreated, thatched ‘crannog’ in which it is sited. There is an entry fee of €5 to the gallery where reproductions of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age artefacts found locally, are displayed, including a magnificent 7th century Bronze Age shield.