MAYO GEMS: Visit Dún Briste and Downpatrick Head
THIS is a photograph of the spectacular sea stack known as Dún Briste (The Broken Fort) at Downpatrick Head, three miles north of Ballycastle.
It is a striking headland standing 126 foot above the sea.
From here, there are fantastic views of the Atlantic, the Staggs of Broadhaven to the west, and high cliffs along the shore.
The small stone building at the top of Downpatrick Head was used as a lookout post during the Second World War.
It is now used to view the many species of birds on Dún Briste.
According to Maeve Dunne, Dún Briste was separated from the mainland in 1393 as a result of high seas and the people were taken off using ships ropes.
It is 63 metres by 23 metres, 45 metres high and 228 metres from the shore.
According to one legend, a pagan chieftain named Crom Dubh lived there.
He refused to listen to St. Patrick who tried to convert him to Christianity.
St. Patrick hit the ground with his crozier and the stack was separated from the mainland, leaving Crom Dubh to die there.
Some years ago, on July 30, 1980, a helicopter landed several people on the stack.
They were the first humans to set foot there for centuries.
They camped overnight and surveyed the surface where they found the remains of a medieval house, cultivation ridges, walls and a broken quern stone (a stone used for grinding corn).
They discovered that the building across the centre of the headland was a structure 30 foot by 13 foot inside built up against the south of a long continuous wall which runs through from the edge across the headland.
On Downpatrick Head the ruins of a church, a holy well and a stone cross mark the site of an earlier church founded by St. Patrick.
Pilgrims visit Downpatrick Head on the last Sunday of July - Garland Sunday. Mass is now celebrated on Downpatrick Head on this day.
The old statue of St. Patrick was erected there in 1912 and this was replaced by a new statue in the early '80s.
Close by is the spectacular blow-hole known as Poll na Seantainne (The Hole of the Old Fire) with a subterranean channel to the sea, where 25 men lost their lives in the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion.
They are said to have taken refuge on the ledge at the bottom, and the tide came in before the ladder could be replaced.
The 100-foot deep blowhole has been transformed into a must-see Signature Discovery Points on the 2,500km Wild Atlantic Way from Donegal to Cork.
Several years ago the government and Fáilte Ireland allocated a grant of €640,000 for works at the deep cavern.
It includes an iconic Spirit of Place installation - complementing six others in north Mayo - built around the blowhole which allows visitors to actually walk around its rim and experience it in a safe manner.
Named The Crossing, the nine-day construction project was undertaken by Catholic University of America architecture students from Washington in cooperation with the adjoining landholders, Mayo County Council, Fáilte Ireland, the Ceide Fields and the National Geographic Society.
The Crossing installation explores the multi-layered relationship between landscape, culture and authentic travel as it relates to Downpatrick Head.
* Photo of Dún Briste by Failte Ireland.