Though Mysterious World: Ireland contains a great of historical and mythological information about ancient Ireland, the lion's share of the book covers Ian Middleton's journey to rediscover mysterious Ireland. In our new Travelogue section, we will present you with various vignettes from Ian's journey through all 32 counties, starting at the beginning.

Part I: The Beginning

Hello, my name is Ian Middleton. Here’s me standing outside of my favorite place to stay when in Ireland: Kirwan House in Wexford, County Wexford. I am a travel writer based in southern England, but I have traveled the world, writing travel books and articles about my many adventures. However, my favorite place to visit, and write about, is Ireland — my home away from home.

One fateful day two years ago whilst surfing the Internet looking for travel sites and related things of interest, I stumbled across this amazing website called Mysterious World (http://www.mysteriousworld.com). Ostensibly a travel site, it actually includes a great deal more historical and mythological information than I am used to seeing in a travel site. I found the site fascinating and, as a travel writer always on the lookout for someone to write for, I contacted the publisher straightaway with an idea I had about writing a series of articles on traveling in Ireland.

Doug Elwell, the publisher, got back to me fairly quickly, reacting to my initial email enquiry with some interest. However, instead of just a series of articles on Ireland, he suggested that we make an entire book out of it, and call it Mysterious World: Ireland, the first in a series of travel guides. “That’s a great idea!” I replied, and a book was born.

Mind you I had already written a pretty good book about some of my travel adventures in Ireland (Hot-Footing It around the Emerald Isle, available at http://www.schmetterlingproductions.co.uk), but what Doug had in mind was not a simple travelogue, but a huge, rollercoaster of a travel guide, covering the entire island, crammed with all types of travel, historical and mythological information, with some hot gypsies thrown in (well, maybe not so many gypsies). He wanted to cover not only the superficial, touristy side of Ireland (as other travel guides do), but explore absolutely everything to do with Irish history, religion and mythology — everything that makes Ireland Ireland. My contribution to the project would be the travelogue & travel info portion, covering all 32 counties and several islands, that would make up the lion’s share of the book. However, like Mysterious World’s online journal (http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/), the book would also include some very substantial sections that Doug would write on the historical and mythological backgrounds of the many places that I would be visiting throughout the island.

When Doug gave me my itinerary, I noticed that he had retained the old practice of dividing Ireland into four provinces — Leinster, Munster, Connaught and Ulster — in his planning. Though only used informally now, the use of the four ancient provinces into which Ireland originally had been divided by the Fir Bolg in ancient times helped to recall the ancient past that we were attempting to rediscover, as many of the stories behind these locations are still inextricably tied to the provinces in which they occurred. Interestingly, he also pointed out that I needed to travel clockwise around the island, as the ancient Irish believed that moving in that direction brought good luck. Moreover, moving anti-clockwise would actually bring bad luck. Why not? I thought, thinking that perhaps Doug was a little superstitious himself.

My part of the book was to be called “The Journey”, which was about my journey to rediscover the ancient, mysterious side of Ireland that has slowly but surely been disappearing in the face of encroaching modernization. And in my research I discovered that numerous ancient archaeological sites and even Tara, the heart of ancient Ireland, are right now in real danger of being seriously compromised, damaged, or even destroyed to make way for such things as superhighways. As such, the current government of Ireland’s legacy to future generations may well be the obliteration of their ancient past, just so commuters can shave a few minutes off their morning drive.

I then realized that the real importance on this project was not only to create a travel guide that actually had some depth to it, but to draw attention to the plight of that part of Ireland that is slowly disappearing — the raths, the stone circles, the megaliths — the very history of the land itself. Ireland is not just about leprechauns and pots o’ gold — it is a country with an ancient history richer than most in the civilized West, a history that needs to be cherished and protected.

With this in mind I piled all my usual travel gear into the “Mystery Machine” (aka, the “Scooby Van”, my name for a well-used Bedford Midi camper conversion that I have been using for the last couple of years for trips like this) and headed for Fishguard on the west coast of Wales to cross the Irish Sea on the ferry, arriving in Rosslare, southeast Ireland after only a few hours. The great thing about the ferry is that I can take my camper and everything across, saving the hassle (and cost) of flying, and of renting a car (which can get expensive). I can even use it to sleep in when funds are low, which I did frequently, as we shall see.

I finally made my way to Kirwan House in Wexford Town, “the last homely house” as I like to call it, from where I have begun many adventures. The year was 2004, and it was the fifth year I had been to Ireland. In that time I must have notched up over two years spent traveling or living in this country. I knew it well, or so I thought.

As I sat resting in the TV room, I picked up a copy of the South East Voice newspaper sitting nearby, and this headline jumped out at me: “Mysterious Circle Appears in Joe ‘Boy’ Conboy’s Back Garden”. I read on. It told how local man Joe had awoken one morning to find this mysterious circle. Many theories were suggested by other locals, (the most comical being from a farmer who claimed to have been abducted by Martians for eleven hours, warning that “they” were up to their old tricks again. Part of me couldn’t help wondering if this was inspired by one too many pints of Guinness.) However, one quote really caught my eye: “It was the work of the fairies”.

As I sipped my coffee I began to think more about this side of Ireland. It’s a land aglow with stories, ancient myths and legends: from fairies to leprechauns, from the ancient gods to the legendary giants. Many stories of great battles and magical tales have their origins here, and many are famous around the world. It was becoming evident that I had experienced many wonderful things in this green land, yet this, the most significant part of Ireland, I had overlooked. It was time to put that right.

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