Hiraeth, there's no English translation.

TheCatWoman said:

obviously mines a cat

Maybe yours is a Big Cat?

I think we all have spirit animals, who teach us things and protect us, obviously mines a cat, maybe your's is a Mountain Gorilla?

I have so many issues around travel, I've only ever been to France twice, Turkey once and Ireland once. Both the passports I've had have only been used once before running out. Apart from Turkey the only time I've ever had to produce it was comming back to the UK

The countries that I’ve been to aren’t always very hot, especially if you choose the season. June to August in Kenya or Tanzania have a high of around 20c - 25c, but I know that is still too hot for you.

The animals on safari were the draw for me, and when we were among the lions, and the elephants, I felt I could stay in that moment for ever. 

I would love to go gorilla trekking in Uganda. When I watch footage of mountain gorillas it makes me cry. Maybe there’s an ancestral connection, and if so, does that mean we could be drawn to more primitive ancestral states of life, pre-primate? Probably talking nonsense.

I've heard the same about Africa too, but I've never wanted to go there, North Africa maybe, but not the places where we evolved, I like the idea of a safari to see the animals, but not enough to make the effort, it would be to hot for me anyway, being a cold adapted northern flower, I'd wilt and die in the African sun.

Martin said:

I have heard that people often feel the same sense of place when visiting Africa, because

I have heard the same thing said many times. I have visited several African countries and I felt at home in some of them, but I would have needed to stay for several weeks longer to say if I would choose to live there rather than in Ireland.

It’s interesting what you say about the sense of place being because we evolved there, given that our bodies have adapted in different ways to cope with the change of environment around the world. I would love to know if it really is due to our African ancestry or is it because people who choose to visit Africa are interested in the things that the continent offers, eg, climate, wide open spaces, wildlife, people, culture etc. 

Fascinating stuff. I would love to be in a position to return to Africa and consider the topic again there. 

I couldn't say, not having been there, but I have heard that people often feel the same sense of place when visiting Africa, because we spent so long there in evolutionary time. It just feels right.

I have only once been to Wales, but I did arrive by hot air balloon!

I grew up in Hampshire but never felt at home there - I moved to Dorset at the age of 41 and that has felt like home since. I don't have the feeling you describe of the generations of people who have lived and loved in this place - it's just that I feel like I'm meant to be here.

I know the feeling about not being able to go further with research because of lack of materials or because I can't read ancient languages.

I think you're right about Celtic speakers, I guess you'd need to go back to old Welsh,  to get a better idea although I don't know when the languages changed and developed into the ones we recognise now. I guess it would of been around the time of the diaspora at the end of the Roman period? 

I find it fascinating what words or concepts different languages have or don't have, like there being no hiraeth in English, it seems to be a concept that many English people don't understand either. Can anyone think of others?

Wikipedia says The Cornish and Breton equivalents are hireth^[4] and hiraezh.

The article doesn’t mention Irish but as our Celtic tribal ancestors intermingled the concepts might be related. I know I’ve said this before, but I still need an etymologist to assist me, or would a lexicologist be more appropriate?

Separately, I’m looking at secondary sources to find connections between Ugaritic texts and those in the Bible that correspond toideas of Yahweh. It’s clear that Yahweh was trying to distance himself from El, but as the etymology of ancient languages eludes me, I can’t study primary sources. 

I was brought up in a town in southern England, I did have a park over the road and I used to watch the trees a lot, I remember being really sad when lots had to be cut down because of Dutch Elm Disease. I never really spent any time in the countryside until I was late teens, early twenties, I've just found places I love to live.

It sounds like a wonderful feeling but I don't think I have ever had it. Could be that I was born in a pretty ghastly new town and moved when I was 8 to somewhere completely different. I do like where I live now, in the countryside, but I always hanker after somewhere a bit more wild. I guess I do get a sense of homecoming when I return to my current home county of Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds more generally, but I don't know how deep that connection goes. Maybe you have to have the luck of being born and raised in the place that is right for you. A large, noisy concrete town was never going to be that for me!

Possibly related concepts?

I tried BlueSky social media last year, and I found a woman in Australia who did 2-3 minutes of just the sea waves on the beach, no talking, it was so relaxing and wonderful as you could hear it too. 
Then she started getting fancy and panning the shot across the bay, and it completely changed it, and I couldn't watch the videos anymore.

I do love the sea but it's the hills and woods that have my heart.

It’s good to have a feeling of being ‘at home’ in a place or situation, and it’s what I feel about my own home area in Ireland. I don’t know if it’s the same feeling as ‘hiraeth’, but it’s certainly a sense of being at ease and having a connection to place and culture. There are signs everywhere in archaeology, architecture, geology and religion, of what has been before I was born, so that gives me a feeling of stability and security. 

I have lived away from Ireland on several occasions for part of my life but each time after a short while I would become homesick, even though I enjoyed being in some of the places. It wasn’t that I wanted my parents, it was more a yearning for my home town and culture. In that way I had síreacht for home (Irish word meaning ‘wistfulness and longing’). It’s not the same thing as ‘hireath’ but it reflect some of what I feel for my home. Perhaps Irish Trad (traditional music) lamenting influences síreacht.

I have countryside near me and I do find being around trees to be relaxing, but I do miss living near the sea. The sea air is so different from inland and watching waves going in and out is also relaxing.

Thank you.

I love living here between the mountains and the sea, I'm not sure how I'd cope with not living near the sea now, or with no countryside on my doorstep, I think I'd shrivel up and die if I had to live in a city again

What a beautiful post. Yes I know the feeling, being from the Scottish Borders I love the hills. I've lived around the UK following work, and do feel some connection to places I've loved, but being near the hills again makes me feel whole. 

I feel sorry for my husband though, he's from a small Irish village by the sea, so he would love to be near it again. We always seem to live far away from it though. Maybe eventually we will live somewhere that has both.