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Coming Home to Ireland: An Ancestral Spiritual Tour of Stone Circles, Crafts, and Living Traditions
This is the story of eleven days on an ancestral spiritual tour in the west of Ireland, and it is also an invitation.
From August 31st to September 10th, I traveled through East Clare, the Aran Islands, the Burren, West Cork, and Kerry with Wild Routes Ireland. Throughout the journey, I learned old crafts from people who still practice them, enjoyed fresh, locally grown organic food, stood in ceremony at ancient stone circles, and experienced music and singing late into the night.
I returned home certain that the old ways of Ireland are not lost; they live on through ancestral craftspeople who are eager to share. The entire journey felt like coming home, and this is the story of it.
Twenty-One Kindred Spirits in the Soft Irish Rain
There were twenty-one of us, and it took about a minute to feel like family. Many were herbalists, some were already craftspeople, and we all shared a deep love of the land, locally grown food, and the old ways of making things by hand from what the land provides. Our guides, Tara De Róiste and Chris Gambatesa, are both herbalists and Irish mythologists, and they have spent years walking this land, learning its sacred sites, its plants, and its stories.
Ireland greeted us with its typical weather: a soft drizzle nearly every day, and temperatures that were never too warm and never too cold. The west of Ireland is, after all, a temperate rainforest, and everything is green and full of life. I quickly fell in love.
Our first four nights were spent at the Slieve Aughty Centre near Loughrea, an eco-house with its own certified organic kitchen, where much of what we ate came straight from the gardens. That first afternoon, before we had even unpacked properly, Melanie Lorien of Cailleach's Cottage introduced us to working with straw and taught us to braid folkloric charms and amulets that Irish families hang in their homes for protection and good fortune. It set the tone for the entire journey, where we learned by doing.
Aran Islands, Stone Walls, and Ancient Weavers
On our second morning we took the ferry out to Inis Oírr (IN-ish EER), the smallest of the Aran Islands, a place of wild sea, green pasture, and endless dry stone walls. There, the island's own weavers showed us the crios (KRISS), the traditional woven belt, and Aran's distinctive willow work, and plant folklorist Aedín Ní Thiarnaigh led us on a walk among the wildflowers, sharing their folklore and offering us cúpla focal (KOO-pla FUK-ul), a few words, in Gaeilge (GAYL-geh), Irish. We ate a picnic lunch beside St. Gobnait's Church, a small, roofless stone church on a site where people have gathered to worship since the sixth century. It was supposed to rain, but the weather turned beautiful, and I remember thinking it is true what the Irish say: never mind the weather, it will be with us.
Back in Clare, the days that followed were filled with color and sound. We walked through fields of dye plants and watched them become beautiful skeins of yarn. We crossed the limestone of the Burren to visit a working farm, met a harpmaker in his workshop among the instruments of Ireland's national emblem, and one evening gathered around Eddie Lenihan, one of Ireland's most loved seanchaí (SHAN-a-kee), traditional storytellers, as he told the tales of the Good Folk exactly as the old people had told them to him.
And then there was Pepper's Bar! Dinner with traditional music and dance; the tunes filled the pub, with everyone tapping their feet and singing the songs they knew. Trad music, as it is simply called here, became one of the great joys of the whole journey.
Woodland Stays and Fresh Organic Food in Glengarriff
On the fifth day we traveled southwest, stopping on the way to walk the woodlands with Pete Beaumont of The Woodland League and learn how Ireland's managed forests once gave people everything from shelter to tools to the woven súgán (SOO-gawn) chair. That evening we arrived at Dromgarrif, our home for the next six nights: two old manor houses within a hundred acres of woodland in Glengarriff, on Bantry Bay, with the sea lapping right up to the property. The name Glengarriff comes from the Irish An Gleann Garbh, the rough glen, and the name is accurate, with dense oak woods, rushing streams, and the Caha Mountains rising behind it all.
Every meal at Dromgarrif, prepared by our wonderful in-house caterers Doxy and Danny, celebrated the fall harvest with fresh, local, organic food. Meat from small local farms. Fish fresh from the sea. Organic bread baked locally. Milk, butter, and cheese from nearby dairies. No single meal stood out from the rest, because every single one was that good. These are the foods our ancestors on these shores lived on, and our bodies adapted to them over generations. Ayurveda teaches that food eaten fresh and close to its harvest is the most nourishing, and I felt the truth of it as my energy and digestion were seamless every day.
Butter from Our Own Hands: Traditional Irish Butter Making
Of all the days, one of my favorites began near Clonakilty in the new studio of Max Jones, the founder of Up There The Last, who is passionate about preserving food the old ways and gathering those methods into a living archive.
Max had fresh cow's milk waiting for us that had been left to ferment naturally for a couple of days. We took turns at the churn, by hand, laughing, arms aching, until suddenly the cream broke and golden butter separated from the thin, tangy buttermilk. I have made many things in my kitchen over the years, but there was something about this butter, made together, in this place, that felt ancient and brilliant at the same time.
Butter was so treasured in Ireland that people once buried it in the bogs, where the cool, airless peat kept it for remarkably long periods. A study of the bog butters held by the National Museum of Ireland found the practice spanned at least 3,500 years. And as an Ayurvedic practitioner, I loved what remained in the churn as much as the butter itself. Ayurveda prizes buttermilk, known as Takra (buttermilk), as a gentle support for digestion, along with ghee, which is made from cultured butter. Since its classical texts were written, Ayurveda has made use of cultured cow's milk in the form of Takra and ghee, and modern writing on Ayurveda and the gut notes that fermented preparations like Takra act as natural probiotics. It was so interesting to learn that two ancient traditions use cow's milk in the same way.
Traditional Irish Crafts: Weaving a Willow Coracle
The next day we met Tom Delaney of Ould Crafty, a third-generation basket maker carrying on the craft his grandfather began. He taught us how willow once served every corner of rural Irish life, from carrying turf and seaweed to storing food and tools. Then our whole group set to work weaving a coracle, a small, round boat made from willow that coastal communities in Ireland and Wales relied on for centuries.
In the afternoon, as first-time weavers, we made plant hangers and willow stars to take home. Soaked willow is supple and forgiving, and after a while my hands found a rhythm of their own.
When we finally carried our coracle down to the water in front of Dromgarrif, it floated, and we took turns paddling a short distance from shore. Something made by our own hands, from a plant that grew nearby, allowing us to float on Bantry Bay; it still makes me smile.
Songs That Crossed the Atlantic and Came Home
Throughout the journey, Leah Song of Rising Appalachia traveled with us, and every song and somatic session she offered felt like a connection to ancestral life. In her workshop, she helped each of us feel our voice resonating through the whole body, and on our last evening she gave an intimate fireside concert that I will remember fondly for a long time.
Hearing her Appalachian banjo in Ireland stirred something deep in me, and there is a reason it felt so at home. The old-time music of the Appalachian mountains grew in large part from the ballads, reels, and fiddle tunes carried across the Atlantic by Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and English settlers, and some Appalachian tunes are still recognizable versions of old Irish and Scottish reels. The banjo itself carries a different lineage, with roots in West Africa, brought by enslaved Africans and shaped by Black musicians whose rhythms gave the music its drive. Appalachian music is a braid of these traditions. When Leah played by the fire in West Cork, I deeply felt the Irish lineage singing its way home.
Ceremony at Ireland's Ancient Stone Circles
The old stones were never far away. We visited the workshop of stonecarver Victor Daly on the Sheep's Head Peninsula, tried our hands at carving stone, and visited the nearby stone circle at Ahakista. Later in the week, Deirdre Wadding of Coire SOIS, School of Irish Spirituality, shared stories of Ireland's native pre-Christian lore and how many of its traditions are still kept today.
On our last full day, we followed a narrow, winding road down to Uragh Stone Circle on the Beara Peninsula in County Kerry. Five stones sit on a hill between two majestic lakes, with one massive standing stone beside them and, in the distance, a long waterfall tumbling between two mountains. There, in the soft sunshine, we stood in ceremony together, feeling the strength of the land, our great mother.
What This Ancestral Journey Gave Me
So many people of Celtic descent describe the same feeling on arriving in Ireland, a sense of recognition, of belonging somewhere they have never lived. I felt it from the moment I arrived as an unmistakable sense of security, warmth, and energized wellbeing. For me, this was ancestral healing in its truest sense: reconnecting with the land, foods, crafts, and songs that shaped the people I come from.
What moved me most were the people. Everyone we met, every weaver, carver, cook, and storyteller, seemed to be guided by their heart; every one of them was genuinely glad to share what they knew. Food shaped the people of these shores, and so did their songs and their crafts. Sharing this knowledge, even for a little while, felt like remembering something I had always known.
My deep thanks to Tara and Chris, to Leah, and to everyone who welcomed us: Max Jones, Tom Delaney, Sonia Caldwell, Deirdre Wadding, Melanie Lorien, Aedín Ní Thiarnaigh, the weavers of Inis Oírr, Jennifer and Tristan Lienhard of Apple Oak Fibre Works, Harry Jeuken of Loughavalla Farm, Brian Callan of Callan Harps, Eddie Lenihan, Pete Beaumont, Victor Daly, and Doxy and Danny, whose cooking fed us so well.
An Invitation
Ireland Ancestral Spiritual Tour at a Glance
Dates and length: August 31 to September 10, eleven days in late summer
Hosted by: Wild Routes Ireland, with Leah Song of Rising Appalachia
Where: East Clare, the Aran Islands, the Burren, West Cork, and Kerry
Group size: a small group of about twenty like-minded travelers
Accommodation: an eco-house with a certified organic kitchen in the Slieve Aughty hills, and manor houses in a hundred acres of woodland on Bantry Bay
Food: fresh, local, organic food at every meal
Experiences: hands-on traditional crafts most days, with no experience needed, plus trad music, storytelling, song, and ceremony at ancient stone circles
I have now traveled with Wild Routes Ireland three times, and I have spoken with Tara and Chris about accompanying a small group of people on a future journey. If this story stirs something in you, a longing for the old traditions of food, craft, music, and dance, I wholeheartedly recommend this journey. You don't need to be a craftsperson or an herbalist, only curious and willing. Wild Routes Ireland offers three journeys each year, and the first two of 2027 are already full, with places still open on the third. I am also gathering interest now for a journey in 2028 created especially for those interested in their Irish ancestry. If you would like to join the waitlist for 2028, reply to this email or leave a comment, and I will be in touch.
Before becoming an Ayurvedic practitioner, I spent more than twenty-five years as a travel consultant, leading international travel and specializing in the Celtic countries, France, and Italy. Today I offer travel consultations for independent spiritual journeys and pilgrimages across Europe, created to help the Western diaspora reconnect with their ancestral spiritual roots. You can learn more at Wild Atlantic Journeys.
This is not wellness as a trend. It is wellness as remembrance.
Julie Wardwell, Clinical Ayurvedic Practitioner
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an ancestral spiritual tour of Ireland?
An ancestral spiritual tour of Ireland is a journey that reconnects travelers, especially people of Irish and Celtic descent living abroad, with the land, sacred sites, crafts, music, and foods of their ancestors. The Wild Routes Ireland journey described here combined ceremonies at ancient stone circles with hands-on traditional crafts, trad music, storytelling, and fresh local food.
Where can ancient stone circles be visited in the west of Ireland?
The west and southwest of Ireland hold many stone circles. Uragh Stone Circle, on the Beara Peninsula in County Kerry, sits on a hill between two lakes with a massive standing stone beside it. The stone circle at Ahakista, on the Sheep's Head Peninsula in West Cork, is another quiet and beautiful site.
Are there small-group tours in Ireland focused on traditional crafts? Yes. Wild Routes Ireland offers small-group journeys of around twenty people that include hands-on traditional crafts such as willow and coracle weaving, butter making, strawcraft, rush basketry, and stone carving, taught by the craftspeople who practice them. They offer three journeys each year.
What kind of accommodation and food does this tour offer?
This journey included stays at the Slieve Aughty Centre, an eco-house with a certified organic kitchen near Loughrea, and at Dromgarrif, manor houses set in a hundred acres of woodland on Bantry Bay in Glengarriff. Meals featured meat from small local farms, fresh fish, organic bread, and dairy from nearby farms.
How can a personalized ancestral journey to Ireland or Europe be planned?
Julie Wardwell, a former international travel agent of more than twenty-five years who specialized in the Celtic countries, France, and Italy, offers travel consultations for spiritual journeys and pilgrimages across Europe. Details are on the Wild Atlantic Journeys page.
References
Irish bog butter. The dating of bog butter to at least 3,500 years, from around 1700 BC to the seventeenth century, draws on research by University College Dublin, the University of Bristol, and the National Museum of Ireland, which sampled 32 bog butters in the museum's collections (University College Dublin, 2019).
The roots of Appalachian music. The Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and English roots of Appalachian ballads and fiddle tunes, and the West African and African American origins of the banjo and its rhythms, draw on the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area's history of old-time music, Doug Orr's writing on African American influence in Appalachian music (UNC Press), and the Ballad of America's overview of old-time fiddle tunes.
Takra and digestion. The role of fermented preparations such as Takra as natural probiotics draws on the editorial by Acharya, "Ayurveda's Dietary Wisdom and the Gut Microbiome," in the Journal of Drug Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (2025).
