Take Me to the River: The School of Looking – Creative Writing at Rossnaree House & Gardens
Location: Rossnaree House & Gardens, Co. Meath
Date: Saturday 16 August 2025
Time: 10:30am – 5pm
Price: Free, booking essential
For: Adults & student writers (16+)
Find out more about Take Me to the River.
Author, journalist, mythologist and broadcaster Anthony Murphy invites apprentice writers to revisit the myth of the Salmon of Knowledge and consider the challenges such a fish might face to survive in the Boyne waters today, conjuring the legendary Linn Féic from the real freshwater environment at Rossnaree where the storied salmon is said to have been fished.
Embracing a non-prescriptive approach this creative writing event offers participants the opportunity to contemplate the Boyne River from diverse perspectives, informed by the short film ‘The Bend in the Boyne’, as well as poetic expressionism instilled by the peaceful setting of Rosnaree House and Gardens overlooking the Boyne River and Brú na Bóinne.
At Rossnaree in County Meath, the Boyne River encircles the ancient site of Brú na Bóinne, site of the spectacular prehistoric passage tombs of Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth. This is a place where the riverscape has been gouged by glaciers and carved to suit the needs of society, often with serious impacts on the life supported by the river.
Artists Anne Cleary and Denis Connolly met Anthony Murphy and Jonathan Turner, a researcher in River Science at UCD, on site at Rossnaree in May 2025. Their conversations resulted in a short film, The Bend on the Boyne, which considers the river through the prisms of geology, history and mythology.
Accessibility: The location includes garden walk and steps. Please contact Deirdre before booking so we can assist you with any mobility requirements. Deirdre.rogers@solsticeartscentre.ie
Aim: Embedded within Heritage Week, the aim of this workshop is to produce and inspire word-based engagement that responds to the historic, mythological, and geological context of the Boyne River at Rossnaree. Inspired through the film, story-telling and relaxed conversations, some production from this event will be presented or read during an event in Autumn 2025 at Solstice Arts Centre as part of Take Me to the River: The School of Looking – CATCHMENTS 2025 – The Bend in the Boyne.
Participants will be sent an itinerary for the day and what to bring closer to the event.
Facilitator:
Anthony Murphy is the author of ten books about ancient Ireland, non-fiction and fiction. Scriptwriter and narrator for Lú Festival of Light - Drogheda 2022 & 2023, Anthony discovered 'Dronehenge', a Late Neolithic henge near Newgrange and several ancient dugout boats in the river Boyne. Contributor to TV programmes with National Geographic, History Channel, Discovery Science, Channel 4, BBC, RTÉ and TG4, he has also found 300 previously unrecorded monuments using Google Earth and Apple Maps.