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Three Trout Stream

It is no accident that the stream linking Downshill, Glen of the Downs and Delgany is called the Three Trout Stream! Trout, like salmon, were considered supernatural fish in ancient Ireland. They were associated with mystical healing. The name is ancient and harkens back to a time when the trout had great symbolic meaning. WB Yeats referenced a number of stories about trout collected from the Irish peasantry.
The trout, the blackbird and the stag were thought by the Celts to be the oldest animals in the world - representing water, air and earth.
The number three had great significance in Ancient Ireland: life-death-rebirth, spirit-mind-body, mother-father-child, past-present-future, power-intellect-love and creation-preservation-destruction - three Celtic worlds; the spiritual world, the present world and the celestial world. It was easily incorporated from Celtic into Christian symbolism: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit etc.
Anyone interested in reading some beautiful stories referencing the Sacred Trout of our heritage can find them in the Schools Collection here: https://www.duchas.ie/en/src?q=Trout
http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/ALan.../HolyWells.html

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The Three Trout Stream is hugely important for the biodiversity of our local area: healthy rivers and streams result in healthy fish, amphibian and insect life - supporting birds and mammals and plant life. 

In places the Three Trout Stream has devastatingly been buried under concrete - we need to reverse this and create the conditions for the stream to thrive. 

Three Trout Stream.jpg

Celtic Fish by CelticArt on DeviantArt

Inhabitants of Bellevue Woods:

13th Jnuary 2020:

I drew this series of little native Irish animals - which at the time I called "Inhabitants of Bellevue Woods" - almost thirty years ago when I was 15. Growing up in Bellevue I felt very much part of the natural world. Nature is so enchanting for young people - then so often we lose touch with it. Sometimes walking in the woods or in the mountains I am struck with a sense that this is what is meaningful and real - not our everyday life of stress and rushing and trying and achieving - but rather this peaceful connected belonging - simply being - which quietly goes about its existence unnoticed by our busy, noisy, forward march to something called advancement.

Red-List Yellowhammers at Bellevue:

yellowhammers bellevue.jpg

Andrena Clarkella at Bellevue

Nature Reserve.jpg
Andrena Clarkella at Bellevue.jpg

Biodiversity thriving on local roadsides due to covid related halt on spraying and mowing - April 2020

bee 2

bee 2

b

b

bee 4

bee 4

bird

bird

primula

primula

bees

bees

bee 5

bee 5

bullfinch

bullfinch

bee

bee

bee 6

bee 6

butterfly 3

butterfly 3

bee 3

bee 3

butterfly

butterfly

chaffinch

chaffinch

thrush

thrush

 GLEN O DOWNS HERITAGE - ANCIENT HISTORY TO MODERN DAY BIODIVERSITY

The Greater Glen of the Downs Area, Ancient Royal territory of Fera Cuala (Uí Briuin Cualann), is a very special place indeed significant for its natural, archaeological, aesthetic, and cultural heritage.

The area encompasses the 12,000 year old Glacial Valley in its dramatically beautiful setting at Glen of the Downs. The Valley, famed for its ancient Sessile Oak forest, is a Nature Reserve, hugely important for local biodiversity,  through which the Ancient Three Trout Stream runs giving life as it flows. Glen of the Downs is nestled between the two 3000 year old Bronze Age Hillforts of Coolagad and Downshill, once occupied by King of Dublin Sitric Silkenbeard and Uagaire King of Leinster who fought against each other in the Battle of Delgany 1022. Downshill, the ancient name of which is Dúin Caillighe Béirre - referencing the Ancient Irish Goddess of Nature Caileach Bearra. 

Calary at  the foot of the Great Sugar Loaf is the location of ringforts, an Ancient Royal Highway and a beautiful hill known as the Royal Meeting Place. The 18th Century LaTouche Estate at Bellevue Demesne lies equidistant between the hillforts - the Gardens once home to the largest glasshouses in Europe. The villages of Downshill and Delgany are steeped with history;  Coolagad stands sentry over the seaside town of Greystones, location of Kindlestown Castle, Killincarrig Castle and once site of Rathdown Castle.

Glen of the Downs Sites.jpg
The-Whole-History-of-the-Tuatha-de-Danan

Kingdom of Cuala

c. Yasmin Fortune 2021

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