And With The Earth Beneath My Feet

Winter is coming.

So goes the tagline of the smash hit HBO series Game of Thrones; and in small corner of the north of Ireland, where much of the show is filmed, there's a tale of long ago, that speaks of the Giant of Snow and Ice, and how he was felled by a single stone.

Irish born C.S Lewis, acclaimed author of The Chronicles of Narnia, spoke fondly of the magic of such a place, when writing to his brother Warren; “That part of Rostrevor which overlooks Carlingford Lough is my idea of Narnia.”

As an Irish native, it's the walk up to 'the big stone', as it's known to locals, a fifty tonne anomaly perched atop a mountain, that is my own wood between worlds. A local treasure, surrounded as it is by land and sea and sky, there are few better feelings that that of feeling connected to my homeland once more, when I can slip off my shoes and walk barefoot around the patch of earth that is home to Cloughmore ('Chloch Mhór).

There is no denying that the big stone, so out of place and yet so very much of the land, stirs up a feeling that is both powerful and compelling in equal measure. Whether you just want to lay hands on it, take pictures to scale, or sit with the stone to your back as you take in the view that will bring you both peace and pleasure as it takes the breath from your very lungs. The air feels clearer up by Cloughmore, and some choose to take advantage of the step away from the chaos into the calm to shout out, loud and unencumbered, into the open spaces, and let the mountains whisper back to them. It's a cleansing exercise, and hours can be lost just bathing in the old that makes you feel brand new.

Those who know of the big stone tend always to remember it, and talk happens now and then of a way to let more of the world know that it's there. Cloughmore is no ordinary stone. There is always the feeling of more. More of the mountain to be walked and mapped and learned, more of the view that echoes on far beyond where the eye can see, more of a land that rises with the morning; a land that feels like it has somehow gotten closer to the sun.

It may surprise few that a land deemed the Emerald Isle is home to many a treasure, and in this little patch of earth on the north east coast, another awaits those who find themselves looking for something new, or perhaps even something magical. For those who would peek their heads through the wardrobe door, in search of a land just waiting to be found.