This is Fore. It is one of the few places I know where a stone
building sits as comfortably into natural surroundings as
though it were a limestone outcrop. Fore is a place of outstanding beauty; the ruined Benedictine
abbey actually succeeds in drawing attention
to the peace and beauty of the valley around it. The immediate impact comes
from its lack of commercialization; it comes on the traveler as something
magical, something that rose from the green
fields beneath it. There was a time when Clonmacnoise had the same magic, but
poor and tasteless development put an end to that.
Consequently,(and not surprisingly), some magical myths
have grown up around Fore. Here are the 7 wonders of Fore: the monastery in the
bog, the mill without a race, the water that flows uphill, the tree that has
three branches/the tree that won’t burn, the water that won’t boil, the
anchorite in a stone and the stone/lintel raised by St Fechin’s prayers.
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