Killarney National Park at Bealtaine

Celebrating the beginning of the Celtic summer with a photographic meander through a magical Irish forest

My husband, Gerhard, and I woke up two days ago to a completely cloudless sky and temperatures predicted around 77 degrees. It was too rare and too perfect a day to spend inside, so we decided to travel—yet again—to Killarney National Park. The park, which is one of our favorite places in Ireland, is only a little over an hour’s drive from home.

Our ostensible goal was to find bluebells blooming among the ancient oak forest. To begin with, we decided to park at Ross Castle and begin our walk through the woods just past the castle, along the edge of Lough Leane.

However, once we arrived we were greeted instead by masses of delicate, white, wild garlic flowers.

The flowers covered the forest floor so densely that it often looked like snow.

Both of us were in the mood to just meander and spend time enjoying the wonderful deciduous forest, flowers, trees, birds, animals and lake. We sat on strategically located park benches, rocks and fallen logs, identified flowers and trees, and took lots of pictures.

And we let the warmth of the day and the peace and quiet of the forest seep into our bones and ease the stresses with which we had entered the forest.

When I walk on paths like this through a forest, it makes me feel as though my energy is completely cleansed and rejuvenated. It also feels as if nature spirits are watching us from every tree and flower.

If you look carefully at the branch of the oak tree below, you will see that ferns are growing from both its top and its bottom!

My plant identifier program identified the magnificent tree below as a Monterey pine. (It’s impossible to get far enough back on the forested path to take a picture of the entire tree! So I just focused on its wonderful trunk and lower branches.)

The amazing tree below, with its smooth bark and leafy branch growing halfway up its trunk, is a European beech.

Someone had completely lopped off the top of this tree so that only its base was still standing. But out of a large hole new life was beginning to grow.

The same is true for this tree trunk, which fell in the forest long ago, propped up by a couple of its branches!

We also came across several deer grazing in the forest.

And we eventually discovered a few bluebells here and there, too!

As it happens, we visited Killarney on April 30th. It is in the evening on this day that ancient Celtic cultures began to celebrate Bealtaine (Beltane), the official return of the summer that culminates in the evening on May 1. Bealtaine marked the annual return of the light, fertility and renewal and was traditionally celebrated with the lighting of bonfires. Members of the community also wove brightly colored ribbons around a Maypole and celebrated with feasts, music and dancing.

After the magical day that we spent in Killarney, it is easy to understand why this time—when nature is renewing herself with so much joy and abundance—played such a major role in the ancient Celtic calendar.

Bealtaine in Dingle

Our local community of Dingle, which is on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, celebrates this weekend with a major art and music festival. Click here for more information.