wife to live there until the Day of Judgement. At the entrance are a number of lintel stones which act as a ceiling; two of these contain ogam writing. The archaeologist Robert Macalister translated one inscription, VRAICCI MAQI MEDVII, as ‘Fráech son of Medb’.
According to a poem by the seventh-century poet Fintan, festivities were also held at Cruachain at the Feast of Lughnasa or Lammas on 1 August ‘on the sporting green of the palace’. The poem is in memory of King Raghallach, who was murdered by poachers on his land after he demanded recompense when they had killed and eaten a buck. Muirenn was Raghallach’s wife, and their three sons were Fergus, Cellach and Cathal. Nindé, a prince from Tír Chonaill, made a predatory invasion into Connacht when the nobles of the province were holding the ancient games of Lughnasa. The following is an extract from the poem:
Raghallach on Lammas-Day,
Cellach and Fergus the choleric,
And Muirenn, with her necklaces,
Were preparing for the games of Cruachan.
When came Nindé the vindictive …
And they burned all before them to Ceis Corann …
The land was filled with burnings from
Sliab Gamh to Sith Seaghsa [‘the Curlews’] …
Though our losses were numerous,
We did not miss them in our pride;
On the steeds of the men of Tir Eoghain
We perfomed the games of Cruachan.
[Translated by Eugene O’Curry]
From Owneygat also came a flock of white birds that throughout Ireland ‘withered up whatsoever their breaths impinged on’. Not only are birds and cats associated with the cave but also pigs emerged from the souterrain and went south to Athenry, giving the name Magh Muccrama (‘the plain of the counting of pigs’) to that part of Galway. It was from here also in the Táin Bó Cúailgne* that the great warrior–goddess, the Mórrígan, came in a chariot ‘pulled by a one-legged chestnut horse towards Cúailgne’.
At Ogulla (from Óghda, ‘pure, virginal, or attached to a monastery’), half a mile west from Tulsk [33], there is a holy well known as Clébach (Clíabach, meaning a wild boar, deer, wolf or fox). The two druids associated with the well were Máel and Caplit. A small modern chapel here now is testament to the Christianisation of the place. Close by is a ring barrow grave in which the daughters of King Laoghaire, who were sent to be fostered by the two druids, are said to be buried. Here also was an assembly point for the gathering of the forces of Connacht under Medb* prior to advancing on Ulster in the Táin. This area is known as Tuaim Móna or ‘peat ridge’.
Certain customs have been associated with corpses throughout Ireland, and many of these have been recorded by the Irish Folklore Commission. One example is from John Flanagan from Mount Talbot [40]: ‘I heard of a cure in the corpse. I saw a man got something in his jaw, some kind of a lump. He was discussin’ this lump he had on his jaw and he said he got a dead woman’s hand and rubbed it off it and it cured the lump.’ It was also believed that the hand of a corpse could also cure toothache: ‘If you take the hand of a corpse and rub it on your face, if you had a toothache, it would cure the toothache,’ according to a Mrs Hanley from Derraghmylan in Rooskey [33].
Magh Aíi or Magh Aoi, also known as Machaire Chonnacht and locally as ‘the Maghery’, is the plain from Strokestown [33] to Castlerea [32] and from the hills two miles north of Roscommon town to Lismacoil, two miles north-east of Elphin [40]. On this plain is Énloch, or ‘the lake of the birds’, where Fergus mac Roich is buried, although its exact location is open to speculation. Fergus left Ulster due to King Conchobar mac Nessa’s treatment of Deirdre and the sons of Uisnech. Legend states that he was the last person to be able to relate the great epic of the Táin Bó Cúailnge* from memory.
Énloch is the starting point for the tale of Echtra Laegaire meic Crimthainn (‘The Adventures of Laegaire mac Crimthainn’). A possible location for the lake is Lough Fergus [40], four miles north-west on the N60 from Roscommon town, and another possibility, though less likely, is Finn Lough, two miles south-east from Strokestown. Yet another contender is Loughnaneane, just west of Roscommon town. Some locals say that as the lake is so close to the town the stone or stones may have been removed for building purposes. This brings one back to Lough Fergus where there are half a dozen barrows within a slingshot of the lake and a ring fort close by named Lisnalegan (from the Irish for ‘the fort of the flagstone’), and beside it is a moated site. Further close to Lough Fergus is Lough Creevin or ‘the lake of the little branch’. Fergus was a dominant member of the Craeb Ruad or ‘the Red Branch knights’. A townland nearby is named Creeve.
SLIGO
Sligeach, ‘abounding in shells’
Two miles south-west of Sligo [25] in the peninsula between Lough Gill and Ballysadare Bay are the ancient tombs at Carrowmore (Ceathrú Mhór, ‘large quarter’) which, according to the Swedish archaeologist Goran Burenhult, are the earliest known in Ireland or Britain. He contended that the ancient structures were built by fishermen whose ancestors had been there for generations, and not by Neolithic farmers as previously supposed. And he explains: ‘The traditional stereotype, farming community equals megalithic monuments, can no longer be upheld, and a development within a pre-existing Mesolithic population is supported by offerings of unopened seashells in the excavated monuments.’ He dated the tombs to be from between 4580 and 3710 BC, which would make them as old as the first cities at Mesopotamia.
FIGURE 10. The sacred centres of Sligo (map by Jack Roberts).
This passage-grave cemetery at Carrowmore contains a large number of chambered cairns, with as many as sixty passage graves in various states of repair. These graves fanned around the central and largest grave at Listoghil. Many of the cairns have retained only the chamber, the other stones presumably used for house building and for enclosing fields. The sites where only the kerb stones remain, and where once there were cairns, have sometimes been misnamed as stone circles. According to Séan Ó Ríordáin who worked on the site, the passage graves do not ‘indicate a settlement pattern as many of their hill-top positions would have been inhospitable at any period’.
The passage-graves lack ornament and are a simpler design than those found in the Boyne Valley complex. This has led some to speculate that the passage-graves moved from west to east rather than east to west. However, the Carrowmore graves, which consist of uprights covered with a large capstone and surrounded by a circular stone kerb, are very different from the more elaborate structures found in the Boyne Valley. A rare example of megalithic art in the Carrowmore district was found at Cloverhill Lake. On one stone there are inscribed three circles, and one is tempted to ask whether these relate to the sun, moon and earth, which, as in Newgrange, would have been central to their religion and used as a calendar to the farming seasons. It is also noteworthy that the name for the shell middens found here in this sacred place can be traced back to Sligeach or ‘shelly place’, from which the county gets its name.
Carrowmore represents a fine example of sun alignment at Samain (sam fuin, ‘summer’s end’) or Hallowe’en, when the sun rises over the ‘Saddle’ at the Ballygawley Hills, the eastern extension of the Ox Mountains. At samain, the sun lights up the underside of the capstone and illuminates the chamber. This event occurs at Listoghil at 7.45 a.m. on 31 October and at 7.48 a.m. on 1 November annually. The Ballygawley Hills are also known as the ‘sleeping woman’, who is the Cailleach Bhéara; these
