To be a pilgrim

I've gatecrashed on a very interesting conversation going on between TMLHereandThere and Kendallishere on the nature of pilgrimage, the discussion wondering how sites became an object of veneration - is it the site itself or the people that make it saintly? I just happened to have passed this astonishing place recently and as always have to stop. It just oozes something - I couldn't possibly tell you what. Its a Lourdes grotto  - you will see literally hundreds of these around Ireland, on the sides of roads, in towns, in people's gardens - and they are a representation of the moment the BVM appeared to St Bernadette in Lourdes  in 1858.. All these grottos sort of replicate the rocky cave where the BVM appeared and there will be a stream referencing the healing water she also caused to spring up. Many were put up in the Marian year of 1954 and many are still visited. This one, Gortaneadin  Grotto, on a tiny road outside Inchigeela, has a slightly different story. It was erected in 1969 by a family in memory of a daughter recently lost and is so far pretty standard. However, in the remarkable  year that was 1985, this was one of the 30 sites around Ireland where statues of the BVM were reported to have moved or spoken. On the 5th August  two young  girls saw the statue change into the figure of a young woman. On a second visit she spoke to them - one word - peace. The news of course spread and this remote spot became the site of pilgrimage, literally hundreds of people turning up hoping to witness something exceptional - and many of them report that they did. Today it is pretty quiet but you can see by the offerings that many still make the pilgrimage and they all come with intentions. The gate leading up to the statue is padlocked but someone nipped over and placed a bouquet of flowers in the BVM's arms. My main is the pilgrim shelter, a wonderful ramshackle and poignant affair full of hopes and fears. I've added a few extras which will be going shortly.
So place or people? Both I reckon. 

A bit more about grottoes and apparitions if you fancy it here