Lately, I have been reading the book Outlander which was written in 1991 and premiered as a television show on Starz in 2014. I guess you could say that I am finally getting caught up on the most recent releases! That’s me, always on the cutting edge 🙂
I love Outlander’s setting, which is the Scottish Highlands in the 1700s. Before I started the book, I had never armchair traveled to Scotland before. I still have never watched the movie Braveheart! I wasn’t interested in seeing Braveheart before Outlander. But now I might be. Now it is Scotland, Scotland, Scotland all the time for me. Now I feel that I must go there some day.
The setting of Outlander must be seeping into my soul because recently I persuaded my family to visit a Celtic-inspired outdoor sanctuary located in the northern reaches of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania.
Today’s entry is about the Columcille Megalith Park in Bangor, PA, which we visited earlier this month. It is sometimes referred to as Pennsylvania’s Stonehenge.
I want to point out that all of the megaliths, or the stone monuments around the park, are man-made. Nothing is unexplained about the structures located around the park.
Columcille Megalith Park’s origin story is this: In 1967, the founder of the park, William H. Cohea Jr., visited the Scottish island of Iona, the birthplace of Scottish Christianity. On his trip, he climbed the highest mountain on Iona called Dun I. While on the mountain, he slept and had dream that inspired the park. He wanted to build a sanctuary to honor Celtic Christianity and the prehistoric monuments Scotland is known for.
In 1976, he was able to purchase the property Columcille is located on. The park contains a 1.1 miles long walking loop where visitors can see over 100 different megaliths. The park is constantly evolving and other elements have been added since the park opened in 1979. Visitors can also visit a stone chapel located on site honoring St. Columba, the Celtic monk who settled Iona.
A Review of Our Visit:
Our visit took place on a Sunday in Mid-May on a day with party cloudy skies and a temperature in the 70’s. Our adventuring weather was perfect. We arrived around noon to see that the small parking lot on the side of the park was mostly full. The road that that park is on is a country road that was off the beaten path but on this day I could still hear motorcycles cruising the surrounding hills. It seemed like a great day for a motorcycle ride through the mountains, if I were the type of person to go on a motorcycle ride.
The location of Columcille, while not quite in the Poconos yet, is definably Pocono adjacent. The roads near Bangor are hilly and woodsy. The setting is attractive.
A gate separates the park from the road. Admission is free but visitors are encouraged to play a small donation. Visitors can also view a map or take a map in this area. Here is the map, if you wish to see. the maps looks a bit like a map in the back of a fantasy novel, which is good, I think. Columcille a spiritual sanctuary with a rock formation modeled after Stonehenge, not a municipal park.
The park is is open dusk till dawn everyday of the week. Occasionally, there are guided tours.
The drive from our house took about 45 minutes, which was long enough to feel like we were on an adventure but not so long as to feel like the drive took up a chunk of the day. As we neared Columcille, the drive became quite beautiful. There was some pleasing mountain views to see while winding through the roads to the park. Driving to Columcille Megalith Park feels like an adventure.
We saw a number of interesting sights in the park. It felt very spiritual and I could see that some of the visitor brought flowers or other offerings to leave at the Megaliths around the park.
I first read about Columcille Megalith Park during the first winter after the pandemic. We were going on a lot of outdoor adventures during this time. After learning about it, I was immediately interested in visiting it. In fact, more than once, it was on my list of hiking options for the coming weekend. I have always been one to extensively dream and plan about the coming weekend beginning on Tuesday. Just ask my husband. However, I always held back because I was not sure Columcille was an appropriate place to bring young children.
Despite my initial hesitations, I am glad we took the plunge and visited it, especially because I am so into Scotland right now
I would have to say though, that my initial impulses weren’t without their wisdom. Columcille this might not be the first place that you visit with small children. The boys really were a wild when we first got out of the car. There was a lot of running and shouting. However, all of the other visitors we encountered seemed pretty laid back and maybe didn’t mind that our sons were exuberant. The nervousness I felt was was more of an internal pressure I put upon myself, thought we did have to remind them to keep their voices down several times. The other visitors seemed very chilled out. They were the types of people who spend a Sunday in May at an outdoor Celtic-inspired spiritual sanctuary.
One of our favorite parts of Columcille were going inside of the St. Columba Chapel. Which went inside each time we passed it.
We also liked walking the Labyrinth, and visiting the Sacred Men’s Site and the Sacred Women’s sites.
While no restroom building has been erected in the park, there are two extremely clean port-a-johns on the premises.
Our visit to Columcille lasted about 1.5-2 hours. We felt like we were able to see all the sites we wanted to see in this amount of time.
Afterwards, we drove 14 miles southwest to lunch at DAT’s Sweets and Treats, a 50’s themed diner in Nazarath, PA. Our food was terrific and we even had a chance to sample their DAT’s label soda and homemade ice cream. I would highly recommend making a trip here if you decide to visit Columcille Megalith Park. We learned about it the eatery on Google maps. They informed us that it was one of the closest restaurant’s to the park. Also it was on our way home! It was a great suggestion. We all liked it. I would eat there again if I ever find myself in the Nazareth area.
After our late lunch, we felt like we still had some hike left in our legs since the path at Columcille was just on the short side and it was such a beautiful day. We decided to visit Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center and State Park since was very close to DATS. We had visited this park on one occasion in the past and decided to try a new trail on this visit. I cannot recommend Jacobsburg highly enough. It is a pretty park with trails that follow close to a creek. The Henry’s Wood’s section of the park includes some old growth Hemlock forest, the only remaining virgin forests in the Lehigh Valley. We even saw a toad on a tree during our hike.
All and all, the combination of Columcille Megalith Park, Dats Sweets and Treats, and Jacobsburg State Park was fun day out. I highly recommend this combination if you are looking for something that is a little bit of an adventure and is a bit of the beaten path.
Thank you for reading. What have you been up to?
Great post Katie! That sounds like a fun adventure and a pretty cool park.
Thank you Katie
Katie, that sounds like an awesome place to visit!
Thank you Jenny. I think that you would enjoy it because of all the history replicated. Also there is some Saint stuff there that you might have an interest in.