We huddled in Mary car, watching through rain streaming windows as the others alighted from their cars in the school car park. I was still shaky from a near-miss earlier – as a lone  driver coming out from the Caves, had  driven right across our path. Jill in the passenger seat would have been the most at risk, but recovered quickly. Mary reasoned that he was a tourist, a right hand driver but I had cut off, gripped again in the anticipated awful bang and sirens coming to cut us out. We drove on through wet slicked hills and I started to gather up the contents of the picnic basket, strewn over the back seat and floor.

Tony came over with a clip board, spoke of the importance of good farming practises in the area, to encourage and protect the wildflowers and wildlife, and our environmental footprint was cut to in half as he asked us to fill up each car and leave the others behind.

Vivienne from the Scottish Islands was our guide on this herb flower walk. Wonderfully knowledgeable, blooming, and full of energy which later in the tour she would tell us she attributed to the cup of nettle soup a day, she has been sipping since her, now well advanced, pregnancy. Even as I write – a steaming nettle brew is on hand.

Eyebright is out first exhibit. A particularly tall little clump (2”) – quite alone rather than running with the pack which is more usual. As its name suggests – it is good for anything concerning the eye – swelling – infections – and can be used both internally and externally,  as a poultice.  Nearby we surround a scattering of Red Clover just beginning to lose it rich purple colour. Of the legume family, it can be used for childhood exema, swollen glands and sore throats.The flowers only from the plant are used, rich in protein, they add colour and well-being to a salad, and as they are also rich in oestrogen they can be used as a fertility tonic. June July and August are the months the Red Clover is at its best.

An exhausted clump of St John’s Worth is next, leaning against the stone wall its pretty yellow flowers almost gone. A herb that can no longer be bought over the counter  – unlike the bottles of gin, whiskey, vodka, rum etc  that can be handed over  at the off-licences and super markets – no questions asked re ‘what medication are you on sir before I hand this package over to you as you may not be responsible for looking after yourself properly and get a bad turn and then I’d be held responsible. No, I’m sorry sir you have to get a prescription from your doctor first . But don’t worry as unlike the chemists we’re late night opening so come back to us with that little slip of paper and we’ll fix you up no problem’.  – you must now consult with your doctor first before you can  add this little feel good tincture to your health food shopping basket.  A good tonic for nourishing and supporting the nervous system, the leaves and flowers can both be used. It can taste quite bitter, anything bitter works on the liver so if, Vivienne stresses, you’re not on medication, it is a plant that is good for you. Externally it is good for limb pain where it can be rubbed into the joint, and oil from the plant is good for cuts and scars, and this may in fact be still available from the chemist or health food shops.

The small pocket of calm has now passed and a heavy mist and driving wind and rain has us moving forward in a tight sheltering group. That wonderful mountain looms close by – its sliding, flopped cake appearance beaming down at our ant like huddle with all its majesty and power. I smile in return and secretly give it the thumbs up, and send my prayers into the wind for that small group of people who battled Goliath for such a long time to keep this small pocket of earth safe for all creatures great and small who have inhabited this landscape for centuries and who came so close to being butchered bulldozed, covered in tar and cement and choked by the detritus of collective humanity when they gather in huge numbers in a place, where many have in truth, not the slightest interest in whatsoever. Vivien’s voice rising and falling in the now umbrella inverting winds mentions urinary tract, cystitis, and kidney stones as I catch a glimpse between the raincoats and walking boots of the delicate tall white lace head of the Wild Carrot flower and then we walk further on to the small lovely yellow petals, just four, of one of the Portentilla(turmental?) family good for diaoherra and irritable bowel. It can also be used in a gargle for throat infections. Vivienne mentions more than once that when she is discussing these herbal plants she is talking about the plant above the ground – the part that can be seen. We now walk briskly forward along the road, getting our circulation going again and I can feel my jacket soaking through into my back. Already two drenched travellers have returned to the warmth of the car. As I move along at the rear of the pack my eye catches one of my favourite flower – the small, rather plain in comparison to its more gaudy colleagues,  the wonderfully delicate Grass of Pernassus.  No herbal remedy here I’m presuming as Vivien has passed it by, but for me as I pause and rest my gaze on this little miracle,  well that’s a healing that really is of another dimension. The group are now up around a small Whitethorn growing just over the wall, associated with joy and happiness Vivien tells us. Next month its haws will be ready for picking to make a good healthy tea. It brings oxygen to the heart, so it’s good for the heart and high blood pressure, and also can help one sleep. In the Spring its leaves are very tender  and good to chew on. Later its blossoms can be picked, and with Red Clover makes a lovely tea.  A woman next to me tells me she likes to chew on the haws and then spit out the stones.

Then Vivien says that the Whitethorn is well respected in Ireland. And I think of the destruction of all the three to four year old Whitethorns in my laneway last month – not a single one or two left standing and further up the hill much bigger trees were cut down,to facilitate a water pipe from the mountains where instead of tucking the pipe – a slender one – behind the protection of the trees, the quicker route, easier route was taken. The trees that we so often huddled beside with the dogs when driving rain accompanied us down the hill, all gone, all in the middle too of the nesting season. All around the area, Whitethorns are unmercifully bulldozed as new houses spring up and rather than keep the trees to hide the house from the ever increasing traffic on the roads, the hedgerow is wiped out with the Whitethorns. This practise is often entirely in the hands of the developer I’m convinced, rather than the buyers who eventually end up living in the house.

The Burnette Rose was used as a dye, wonderful pink and violet colours, but is not used in any tea preparation, that is left to the rose hips of the Dog Rose of which there is none in evidence in this area. The soft purples of the Heather spreading all over the rocks, is good for cystitis. We’re stopped now at the white Yarrow with its distinctive smell. Its leaves are best to use if one has a fever as the effect is to make one sweat. Also rubbing the leaves on your skin can work as an insect repellant. The flowers can also be used. Mixed with Elder – no trace of that tree here – Yarrow can be good for sinuses and congestion.  Nor is there a Nettle or Dandelion in sight. Vivien is high in her praise of the nettle – best in the Spring when the stems are green -  and indeed Eleanor made an amazing herb and nettle soup for my visitors earlier this summer. It is a plant high in iron like spinach, and contains calcium and magnesium. A very versatile plant I’ve found and great when used as a feed – mixed with the Comfrey leaf – for a good tasty tomatoe. The Dandelion is also rich in good things for the body, and like the nettle helps the liver and the kidneys. Here Vivien cautions us to be very careful about all our herbal plants and to be sure if we are picking them, that they are identified correctly. Particularly the dandelion as other flowers can look similar and have quite a nasty effect if ingested – like having you drop stone dead. Just when I might have felt it safe to reach down and take a nibble of a small yellow petal when I next found one in the garden!

Self-Heal next. A Tudor flower I always felt – that rich mixture of dark purple and maroon-velvet colours that swaddeled Kings and Queens for years. Good for cuts and wounds but of little use if one got stabbed in the back on a turret stairway or ingested poison from a silver chalice. It is best to use in early Summer before the flowers appear. The first time I ever got a lesson about Ragworth  was when walking with Agnes through the meadow. She reach out, and pulled up this large vibrant yellow plant and asked if I knew what it was. Its brilliant yellow flowers are to be seen all over the place right now. Vivien says if we think we have a problem here, it’s a lot worse in Scotland. We did have an eradication programme some years ago, I remember seeing big fine notices for farmers up in small Garda Stations all over the country. And last year over the road, a sight that is becoming increasingly rare in this country, several men were working along the hedgerows actually pulling the plant out, not with a machine but using their bare hands. It is lethal to cattle and horses who will avoid it when growing, but can’t distinguish it when it is mixed in their winter silage.  It would be good if all farmers came together at this time of year and took a day out  – a meithil – and cleared some of the larger denser areas where Ragworth has taken hold. Like a day in the bog cutting turf.
Apart from its lethal properties, Ragworth must not be used internally but can be used as a poultice for  rheumatic joints.

The wind carries off the properties of WoodSage, the ink from my pen blurring my notebook but I can just hear that the Blackberry leaves can be used for gargling away a sore throat and I’m now closer as we peer down onto another Plantine – not really a flower but more like a miniature, tapering seeded bulrush, its leaves good to place on a wasp sting or a bite as it contains a good antiseptic ingredient. Wild Thyme is good for the lungs and asthma, and the oils of the  Marjoram help bloatedness and trapped wind and the digestive system in general. That  lovely tall tapering, yellow plant seen in the hedgerows now is called Agrimony is also good for the digestive system. Finally we stop at this wonderful bush of the brightest, reddest berries -  the Gelder Rose. The berries are not poisonous and can be a very fast laxative. It is the bark that is usually used and again a whipping wind carries the words away so I am not entirely sure what in fact the bark is used for.

On our way back, Tom points out a rather rare Buckthorn Tree which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. A tourist asks about the delicate soft blue Harebell which Tom explains in Gaelic is called Mearaca Puca – the Goblins Thimble – and if you tamper with it, they will not be at all pleased and you’ll rue the day you messed with them. Only proper too!

Back in the car after our wonderfully informarive 90minute outdoor class, a hot flask of coffee mixed with the scent of herbal tea – from Mary’s organic garden – filled the air. Home-made spelt bread, with goats cheese and organic lettuce and cucumber are eaten with the greatest pleasure and reverence – the rain pelting down outside. Then there’s miniature potatoe cakes, still warm gingerbread and wonderful fruit cake. No room left for Sean’s tasty apples which we’ll keep for later.