Monaghan is first and foremost drumlin country. Drumlins are
softly rounded mounds of land left by retreating glaciers at the end
of the last Ice Age, and the exceptional number of these small hills
packed together in County Monaghan serves as a very good example of
what textbooks call "basket of eggs" topography - a reference to the
land's appearance from on high; at ground level the soil is poor and
the land is broken up into small units which are difficult and
uneconomic to farm. The drumlins are grass-covered, and light
hedgerows stitch their way across them, marking out the fields.
Initially it's a charming scene, but it soon becomes repetitive: the
pathways between drumlins are pretty enough, but once you're round
or over one small hill the next is much the same. Little lakes
provide occasional relief and are excellent for fishing, but they're
nothing like as numerous as in Cavan.
The
feel of this countryside has been captured in the poetry and prose of
Patrick Kavanagh, rated by many as Ireland's finest poet after
Yeats. He was born in Inishkeen in the south of the county, and his
writing evokes the poor quality of peasant life - and also something of
the monotony of the rural landscape.
Particularly in the north of the county, the terrain has led to an
insane crisscrossing of lanes: a compass is a good idea, as is an
up-to-date map. It makes for good walking if you're not in too much of a
hurry: in these hilly areas you can wander undisturbed for miles along
the labyrinth of ancient tracks and lanes - though it is advisable to
avoid the border. If you know what to look for you can seek out the
sites of court tombs, forts and cairns from the Bronze Age. Many of
them, thanks to the underdevelopment of the land, have remained
virtually untouched. The best megalithic sites in the region are the
Lisnadarragh wedge tomb, Dún Dubh, at Tiravera, and the Tullyrain triple
ring fort near Shantonagh.
Most of Monaghan's towns and villages have very clear origins in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The influence of Scottish planters
and English colonists is obvious in the number of planters' Gothic and
Presbyterian churches, and in the planned towns and the landscaped
estates developed around conveniently picturesque lakes. Stark, stern
architecture reflects the character of the hard-working and hard-driving
settlers who came here determined to extract prosperity from farming,
and from the linen industries which they introduced. Probably the most
extreme examples of such discipline are the dour, austere stone cottages
of Glaslough , cold and orderly in the north of the county. Like
Cavan, Monaghan's cultural identity is deeply rooted in Ulster history.
Ireland