A chara, – While the person who cut down the cross on Carrauntoohil may have had an anti-religious motive, I, not so much as a Catholic priest, but more as a climber of hills for most of my life, would be of the opinion that certain structures defile the natural beauty of hilltops and mountaintops.
When I drove through England in the early 1970s, I noticed how many beautiful hilltops were spoiled by masts, a feature which we didn’t have in Ireland. Not so any more.
Soon after that visit, the beautiful Corn Hill with its perfectly centred ancient meascán, Carn Chlann Aodha, which had for centuries dominated the scenery in my native Co Longford, was ruined by the erection, slightly off centre, of a television mast.
The symmetry of the hill, and the view from the top, has been further spoiled by the planting of trees on the hilltop.
While our ancestors had a sense of regard for the shape of our hills in their placing of cairns on various hilltops, none more striking than those on the Paps of Dana, An Dá Chích, in Co Kerry, crosses, no less than masts, seldom fit with the natural contours of hills and mountains, and therefore should be allowed only sparingly, and with due account of the hill’s natural shape.
Tree planting, too, should be similarly controlled. What can be done to restore the beauty of so many spoiled hills now is quite another problem. – Is mise, etc, AN tATHAIR SEÁN Ó COINN, Maothail, Co Liatroma.