[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of

Association To Its Last Days

[Section] Chapter Four
Before men recovered bones in the bog
Nine thousand years had crept by
When they walked on the earth
Between wet fen and the sky.
(~The ballad of Kilmatogh, 1984.)
We know Cassin chose Kilmatogh bog to settled his Community
mostly because of an archaeological excavation that took place in
1956 where they found an ancient primeval settlement or building
complex. But it wasn't so much the archaeological discovery that
attracted Cassin's attention, rather it was the place and the effect it
seemed to have on the archaeologists who worked and stayed there.
Kilmatogh bog is known colloquially to the local populace as 'Beast
Bog' (the reason for this will be discussed below), but it is also
known as a 'thin place'. Thin place is, admittedly, an odd term. One
could be forgiven for thinking that it describes skinny nations (like
Chile) or perhaps cities populated by thin people (like Los Angeles).
No, thin places are much deeper than that. They are locales where
two worlds intermingle, where the distance between earth and the
'other world' collapses and were able to catch glimpses of the 'other
side'. Since before recorded history began, scholars, peasants, artists,
slaves and kings have been fascinated and drawn to places where the
veil between this world and the next is thin.
The western European landscape is dappled with such places, some
famous, some secret; in fields, in forests, on mountains or on remote
islands...all waiting to be discovered again and again. Legends have
been created and tales passed down through generations that describe
adventures and encounters when the two worlds meet and
22

[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of

Association To Its Last Days
transcendent events occur. There are several thin places mentioned in
the Bible, for example, in Exodus 3:1; Moses goes to Mt Horeb (a
thin place), There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame
of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was
not consumed. After the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, they
journey to the same spot but were afraid and kept their distance, only
Moses drew near and received Gods laws for his people.
Its not clear who first uttered the term 'thin place', but they almost
certainly spoke with an Irish brogue. They used the term to describe
mesmerizing places like the wind-swept isle of Iona (now part of
Scotland) or the rocky peaks of Croagh Patrick. Heaven and earth,
the saying goes, are only three feet apart, but in thin places that
distance is even shorter. Mircea Eliade, the religious scholar, would
write in his classic work The Sacred and the Profane, that some
parts of space are qualitatively different from others. It was for this
reason that Cassin came to Kilmatogh. Like some kind of Moses he
hoped to lift the veil that separates the two worlds to learn secrets
and laws for his Community he could not otherwise learn.
But strictly speaking this was not the reason the archaeologists came
to excavate Kilmatogh bog. As professionals they were trained to
think rationally, yet some believed that ancient legends were not
mere superstitious tales, but rather held some curnel of truth that
might be reflected in the historical evidence waiting to be uncovered.
What was the legend that attracted the archaeologists to Kilmatogh?
It was the Legend of Beast Bog.
One of the most notable characteristic features of the Irish
countryside is its peat lands. Ireland contains more peat, relatively
speaking, than any other country in Europe (except Finland). It
should come as no surprise then that many myths and legends have
23

[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of

Association To Its Last Days
arisen associated with bogs. One such legend regards a creature that
appeared on Kilmatogh bog. The beast had mottled skin, was hairy,
had sharp teeth and didn't speak any known language. Unwary
visitors to the bog disappeared or got sick and died. One local man
survived an attack by the beast (in 1798) and came to relay the story
of how he was taken to a place underground where a terrifying race
existed in an atmosphere of darkness. (Adapted from
www.beastbog.webs.com)
According to the man's account he was cutting turf on the bog one
day when he was suddenly seized by an assailant and taken to a place
where there was no sun, but a perpetual twilight, and all the
inhabitants were horrid monsters. He believed he was going to be
murdered by these beasts but survived the encounter because he had
a tinder match which he promptly lit. Its light was so disagreeable to
the subterranean race that they backed away from him swiftly and
this allowed him to escape. He wandered through dozens of winding
passages and up steep stone steps in the darkness for a long time until
he came out the other end, entering into bright daylight. He found
himself again on the bog's surface. (Adapted from
www.beastbog.webs.com)
He immediately went to the town where he relayed the story of his
encounter. Similar reports of a beast on the bog had existed centuries
prior to his account, and so the people accepted his story as the truth.
The townsfolk then went to the bog and dug ditches to trap the beast,
but it was never seen or caught by them. While some viewed the
story as a folk tale meant to scare away children from entering the
bog and getting pulled into water filled bog holes and drowning
such can be a danger to a small child others see it as a description
of an imaginary encounter with inhabitants from another world
beneath our feet or even extraterrestrial. Others accept it as a real but
24

[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of

Association To Its Last Days
somewhat altered account of an historical event that merits further
investigation. (Adapted from www.beastbog.webs.com)
Today, such legends don't generally relate to a character or characters
that are seen as historical or factual, however, a theory was
developed by a number of European archaeologist in the 1950s that
proposed some myths and legends discloses through their themes and
characters a wealth of material which can be used to assist in the
interpretation of archaeological finds. This theory was put into
practice by archaeologist Dr Raymond Broadbent and his colleagues
when they excavated the bog at Kilmatogh and spectacularly found
that there was indeed truth to the Legend of Beast Bog. Three
newspaper reports from 1956 published in the Leitrim Gazette
recounts that archaeological excavation and the subsequent bizarre
events that followed it.
Dr Broadbents interest in the site was sparked by his hearing
of local legends surrounding the area involving a terrible
beast of mythological proportions. Legend has it a
mysterious beast haunts the area. Frightening in appearance,
it's the stuff of nightmares. For me, it's a mystery how such a
legend, which may in fact pre-date the Bronze Age, can
survive so long in local folk memory; it's really quite
phenomenal, he says.
(Leitrim Gazette news article 'Mystery Settlement
Excavated By Archaeologists' by Jack Sprinn, Apr 30,
1956)
Everything seemed to be normal until Dr Raymond Broadbent
suffered some sort of mental breakdown during the end of the
excavation period and attacked his colleagues.

25

[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of

Association To Its Last Days
It was only after his interrogation at the Garda station that the
full facts about the what happened emerged. Dr Broadbent in
some fit of befuddlement and rage killed his friends and
colleagues in cold blood; possibly the result of a mental
breakdown.
(Leitrim Gazette news article 'Archaeologists Murdered
By Co-worker At Dig' by Jack Sprinn, May 23, 1956)
One has to wonder what was it that set this professional archaeologist
off with lethal intent. Many theories abound at the time, such as the
"curse" on Kilmatogh bog, or that the Beast of the bog was set lose
again and killed the men itself. It wasn't until after his death the full
details emerged regarding what happened on Kilmatogh bog.
What did Raymond [Dr. Broadbent] have, I asked, apart
from being psychotic, I mean?
Well, he suffered from acute hallucinations and nightmares.
Hallucinations?
Yes, they were particular and consistent; he believed himself
a member of a primordial devil cult. He believed he was
initiated into it out on Kilmatogh bog after they discovered
the ancient settlement when they were excavating the site.
Wasn't that around the time he killed those two men?
Yes, they were excavating the site with him and he murdered
them as a sacrifice to the ancient devil that his hallucinated
cult worshipped.
That's just crazy! I couldn't help but exclaim. I guess that's
why the State committed him to the asylum, I reminded
myself.
But the strange thing was that he knew all about the buried
structure what it had been used for, what it looked like,
every corridor and room he mapped out even before the team
26

[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of

Association To Its Last Days
fully explored the site and he got this knowledge from his
dreams and hallucinations.
That's very disturbing, I said.
Yeah, it also makes you stop and think if there's any truth to
the existence of that ancient devil cult.
I was sufficiently frightened by that idea, so, I quickly parted
company from my informant. This concludes the life and
death of Dr. Raymond Broadbent, a former archaeologist,
murderer and asylum inmate.
(Leitrim Gazette news article 'Killer Archaeologist Dies in
Coldridge Asylum' by Lughlin Burnes, Nov 29, 1960)
You can see the disturbing events on Kilmatogh bog were quite well
publicised, which is probably how Malcolm Cassin originally heard
about the site. I would again bring your attention to the development
file sent to Leitrim County Council Planning Authority by Cassin
where he states:
Dr. Broadbent's dreams convinced me that he was psychically
tapping into some sort of atavistic 'energy pool' and that
Kilmatogh was the focal point of it a genius locale or 'thin
place' as folklorists call it. I believe settling our Community
here will allow us to tap into this wealth of energy and unlock
all the hidden mysteries of the human mind and discover facts
about the past otherwise unobtainable.
(Excerpt from XUAL Community Planning Document,
filed in 1974 and printed with permission from Leitrim
County Council Planning Authority)
Whether fearless or foolish, this was the sole reason the XUAL
Community was established at Kilmatogh bog. Though we know
what the ultimate fate of the community was, can it be attributed to
27

[Title of book] The XUAL Community: From Earliest Articles of

Association To Its Last Days
settling at Kilmatogh or was it because of the nature of the
Community and its experiments?

28