Day Seventy-Five - 24/11/2012 - Bog of Allen

     Three months ago in a cramped La Jolla office overlooking the Pacific Ocean, I promised a certain Dr. Alan that I would visit the Bog of Allen, which he only knew of from the ending of Joyce's short story, The Dead.  (I read that story, and saw the house where his aunts lived, but I can't say I experienced the elite class of Dublin.)  Today was the day that I would make the trip out to the Bog.
   The Bog of Allen is actually quite large, encompassing over 1% of all the land in Ireland, located fairly close to the center of Ireland.  Its peat is harvested in some areas, but people are making efforts to preserve other sections of the bog.  Apparently, samples from the bog can shed light on precipitation patterns in prehistoric times, helping us understand how climate change may influence the world today and in time to come.  The bog is able to preserve things like wooden structure, and indeed, various tracks have been found, thought to have been used in the medieval period to transport people and goods across the bog.
     Despite its size, getting to the bog was some sort of ordeal.  Very few people live around the bog, and nobody builds houses on the bog.  The closest town is Allenwood, which was our destination.  We caught a very early morning bus from Busáras, the Dublin main bus station with a return ticket to Allenwood.  The bus ride itself was rather time consuming, taking about two hours, during which most of the other inhabitants of the bus asked what two college aged kids were doing all the way out there.
     When we finally arrived at Allenwood, I had to ask the bus driver to make sure this was the right stop.  Allenwood was an intersection.  Literally, an intersection with buildings on four sides of the road.  There was a petrol station, a grocery, a pub, and, of course, a Chinese restaurant.  After asking the petrol station, the grocery station, and finally, the pub for the number for a taxi company, I acquired the numbers of both taxis operating in Allenwood.  Both, as in the only two.  The first lad was busy, and the second offered to take us up to the bog, with his own little driving tour included (all for a flat rate!).
     According to our personal tour guide, the bog has been home to all kind of treasures.  There are of course, the infamous bog people, very well preserved by the unique conditions in the bog.  Some have found various trinkets like jewelry in the bog.  Nowadays, people will sometimes drive through the bog looking for black wood, petrified wood from many years ago, that can sell for a fairly decent price.  Today, some use the bog as a natural refrigerator of sorts, butter being a common find when digging at random.
     My favorite part of the trip was the peat-burning stove in the pub we took refuge from the rain in.  The smell reminded me of Scotland.
     All said and done, I don't think that the trek to the bog was worth the time or money it took to get there, but I can now say that I have visited it.