My Magic Moment at the Brownshill Dolmen

15 minutes from Mon Petit Cottage

If you are familiar with the French comic book "Astérix," you will undoubtedly remember Obélix carrying a huge menhir on his back, or Dogmatix (Idéfix) hiding under a Dolmen....

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Today, we will not discuss the great adventures of Astérix, but instead, we will dedicate this blog to human achievements.

Brownshill Dolmen

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Brownshill Dolmen - Carlow, Co. Carlow

We were driving back home after a fun day in Carlow, when we noticed a sign on the side of the road....

And we were back on an adventure!

We followed that sign and parked on the edge of a cornfield, with no entry fees, no tour guides, and no gift shops... Just a simple path leading us back to the pre-historical times.

..... And there it was; the largest dolmen in Europe was standing right before our eyes; so imposing and yet, so modest.

How did these gigantic stones get here? Who brought them in? were they pushed, pulled, lifted, dug up? and why? Was it a tomb? a monument built for religious rites, or a spot dedicated for human sacrifices? When was it built?

To this day, dolmens remain a mystery, but truthfully, it does not really matter. Above all, these stones are here to remind us that strength, ingenuity, willingness to live within a community, creativity, and human survival, are timeless.

Just like us, the men and the women of the Stone Age lived their lives, loved their families, fought for their survivals, and wondered were life would lead them after they died....

🚶🏼‍♂️🚶🏼‍♀️We walked back to our car, silent, moved, and humbled by these long-lost civilizations that had once lived, had walked on our paths, had died, and had left us with an incredible gift that will keep astonishing the generations to come.