Friday, April 2, 2010

Stone Chairs. Some ancient some not so ancient…Yet….

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One of my favourite things to build is stone seats. There is something very special about sitting in a stone seat, it feels very grand, almost throne like. When building stone seats, a portion of my time is spent sitting, making sure that they are comfortable and positioned right. I must admit I have on occasion sat there wondering ‘will this seat still be here in a few hundred years. Will archaeologists be examining it to try and discover what kind of ceremonial uses it once had’ I like to think so!

(I often wonder the same thing about standing stones, Ireland is dotted with standing stones, and in recent years I have noticed it has become a very popular feature in new homes to have a standing stone in the front garden . What is to say that people weren’t doing this a few hundred years ago, maybe one day while building his mud hut, Séan decided to stick a big stone on its side as a nice garden ornament only to have archaeologists hundreds of years later declare it and sacred monument and document it in their books.)

This brings me to the other thing I love about stone seats. There is a rich history of stone seats in Ireland, dating back hundreds of years. Here are some of my favourites.



St Patrick’s Chair and Well


St Patrick’s Chair and Well (also known as the Druids Chair and Well or St Brigid’s Well or St Brigit’s Well) lies within Altadeven Wood, not far from the Ulster Way footpath. The chair is a huge 2m high stone block, shaped like a throne. The Well, which is said to never run dry is another rock, buth this one has a 25cm bullaun, or depression in it. This is filled with natural water. According to folklore, the water within such depressions or bullauns has healing powers and this well is supposed to be good at curing warts.




The Hag’s Chair
   

At the hill top cairns the Cailleach Bhéarra plays a prominent role with regards to stone chairs. In the north, where passage tombs occur, her seats would often stand in the vicinity of these Neolithic structures. A splendid rock chair of the Cailleach is the decorated kerbstone at the main cairn at Loughcrew, County Meath. In a place called ‘The Spellick’, not far from her home on Slieve Gullion in County Armagh, she has another stone seat. Until the early decades of the twentieth century, communal harvest gatherings took place at the Spellick on Bilberry Sunday, and people would sit in the chair as part of the festivites.




Áine's Rock Chairs aka The Mad Chair of Dunany

.. a great stone called "the chair of Aine, or the chair of the lunatics," was located, possibly still is, near Dunany, and the people generally believed that lunatics, actuated by some insuperable impulse, if at liberty, usually made their way to this stone, and seated themselves thrice upon it; and it was generally believed that after having performed that ceremony they became incurable. It was also considered a very dangerous act for persons of sane minds to sit upon this stone, lest they too might become subject to the power of Aine, that is, become affected with lunacy.

The human race were not the only beings supposed to have been affected by the mischievous Aine, since rabid dogs even were said to have come from many parts of the country and flocked around this stone, to the great danger of the neighbours and their cattle: when they remained around the lunatics' chair for some time, they then retired into the sea, as if compelled by some potent invisible power, and the people supposed that they were forced to visit the submarine dominions of Aine, since they were entirely under her subjection.

20 comments:

  1. Wow, you build stone chairs?!!! I want a stone chair! We have no such stones where I live (just sand), and to buy a stone costs a bloomin' arm and a leg! Reading this post was really interesting with all that Irish folklore. Should I visit the Mad Chair, I would probably be labeled as one of the incurable lunatics, as I don't think I could resist seating and reseating myself three times....

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  2. Seriously fantastic!!! I want one. The photo with the children is great...shows the size of the chair, too!

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  3. I really enjoy rocks and if my back were not so bad I'd be doing a lot more with them. I am in the middle of increasing the size of my rock garden right now. I absolutely love those stone seats... beautiful! Larry

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  4. I really enjoyed reading the folklore about the stone chairs. I am crazy about rocks, and I haven't even sat in the lunatic's chair three times! I would love one of those stone chairs in my garden. I can see it a couple hundred years from now, all covered in moss, and, like you said, people would be wondering about the history of it. Pure romance!

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  5. Thanks, this was a fascinating account of something I knew little about but always admired. I would love a throne for two in my garden! Truly beautiful!

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  6. Love the stone seats! And love the names of these stone seats, the Hag's chair, the Mad Chair of Dunany. I always learn something new from your posts.

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  7. So interesting and I love your stone seat ... I'm a huge lover of stones, rocks, etc. Your talent is amazing!

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  8. I love to visit your blog. I am always learning something. I have visited Ireland twice and I wish that I had seen some of the old stone chairs you have pictured. I love the idea of creating a chair out of stone. It is so permanent and adds much to the landscape.

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  9. Dear Sunny, What a fascinating and informative posting. I too love the idea of the permanence of the stone seats and, yes, I can well imagine that when designing one account must be taken of the desirability of comfort.

    Certainly, I do feel that natural stone fits so well into a garden, whether formal or informal.

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  10. What wonderful history and information.A stone seat would fit into any garden landscape and stand for generations. As I look at the old stone seats of Ireland you have pictured I cannot help but wonder who all set in them and what they could tell of the people if they could only speak. I always wonder that about very large and old trees and wonder what they have seen over the hundreds of year. It would make for some fascinating talks I am sure.

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  11. Since we live on rock - a 330-500 year old pahaohoe lava flow with plenty of spare rock around, you have given us some inspiration !

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  12. Love this posting. Who wouldn't love to have a stone chair or bench in their garden??? One of the things I most love about the Coastal Maine Botanic Garden is their use of stones. They have magnificent walls and benches that are a joy to look at as well as sit on.

    Thanks so much,

    Sharon Lovejoy Writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island

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  13. Very inspiring!! Designing a stone seating wall for a client right now! http://thlandscapedesign.blogspot.com/

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  14. A wonderful mythical post, Sonny, thanks so much. We have been placing stones upright recently in my zen garden and my daughter's herb garden. She thought it looking like a tombstone, but I insisted it was a monument, which could be considered the same thing. I love the thought about Sean, the ancient sticking a stone upright, to be worshipped in the future. :-)
    Frances

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  15. Sunny - Have you published your work? I just envision this post expanded to a book with the photos and the prose... Just a thought?

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  16. Thought your post was both informative and interesting. I am trying to visualize the techniques employed to move these large stones.
    No, I do not have a stone chair, but on two relocations we have received strange stares when we asked the movers to load up a rather large flat boulder that my son used for his personal lawn chair.

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  17. These stone 'thrones' take my breath away!

    I'm off to see if I have already followed Stone Art on Facebook, and if not, I shall remedy that!

    Beautiful post...
    Alice

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  18. Those are some great stones. I would love to be able to inlay some mosaic in them to add some interesting detail, like the stones seen at Rock art studios - www.rockartstudios.com

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  19. Love this post & certainly if you have the stone or can afford to buy real stone, this is perfect ... but I also found faux stone chairs & wrote about them, http://www.hometips4women.com/stone-wall-stone-bench-or-stone-seat

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