Clochafarmore
Irish and Celtic myths and legends, Irish folklore and Irish fairy tales and Legendary Places in Ireland
The hero-light undimmed
Alone in County Louth rises a tall standing stone, its only company the ravens overhead and the whispering wind given voice by nearby trees. This is Clochafarmore, which means "the stone of the great man". It was first raised during the bronze age and rises to ove three meters in height, in a place whose name means The Field of Slaughter, in a region called The Great Carnage in the old language, An Breisleach Mór.
It may have been the site of one great battle or many, perhaps an important location between two realms or the traditional site for arranged conflicts to settle disputes. However it came by the name, the stone is today closely associated with the ancient Irish hero Cú Chulainn, and with his final doom. This hero was known for his ferocious warp-spasm which made him invincible in battle:
“The first warp-spasm seized Cúchulainn, and made him into a monstrous thing, hideous and shapeless, unheard of. His shanks and his joints, every knuckle and angle and organ from head to foot, shook like a tree in the flood or a reed in the stream. His body made a furious twist inside his skin, so that his feet and shins and knees switched to the rear and his heels and calves switched to the front... His face and features became a red bowl : he sucked one eye so deep into his head that a wild crane could not probe it onto his cheek out of the depths of his skull; the other eye fell out along his cheek... His heart boomed loud in his breast like the baying of a watch-dog at its feed or the sound of a lion among bears.” ~ Kinsella
His enemies and those men he had made fatherless and sonless conspired together to come up with a way to defeat him and avenge their lost ones. Lugaid mac Con Roí, father of one of the men defeated by Cú Chulainn, has three magical spears, each destined and prophecised to kill a king, but they were in Cú Chulainn's hands!
So he got his three chief druids to approach the hero one by one, and threaten to satirise him and blacken his name forever more unless he gave them each a spear. Regretfully Cú Chulainn did just that, by throwing it through their bodies! With each sacrifice Lugaid got a spear, and so he slew Cú Chulainn's charioteer, then the Grey of Macha, Cúchulainn’s king of horses.
"‘You do your kindness unkindly, Cúchulainn,’ said the Druid, as he fell.
Then Cúchulainn drove for the last time through the host, and Lugaid took the spear, and he said: ‘Who will fall by this spear, children of Calatin?’ ‘A king will fall by it,’ said they...
Then Lugaid threw the spear, and it went through and through Cúchulainn’s body, and he knew he had got his deadly wound; and his bowels came out on the cushions of the chariot, and his only horse went away... and left his master, the king of the heroes of Ireland, to die upon the plain of Muirthemne."
Though stricken with a mortal wound, the hero got permission from his slayer to drink water from a nearby lake, but he noticed a tall pillar near to this place, and used the cords of his belt to tie himself to the stone. As he died he gave a deep sigh, which cracked the stone downwards from the top, a crack we still see today. His enemies stayed well back and watched to be certain he was dead.
"So afar they retreated, when they beheld him standing with the drawn sword in his hand, and the rays of the setting sun bright on his panic-striking helmet. So stood Cúchulainn, even in death pangs a terror to his enemies and the bulwark of his nation."
At last after three days they saw a raven, one of Morrigan's creatures, land on his shoulder, and Lugaid approached to behead him. As he swung his sword, the hero-light burned around Cú Chulainn one final time and his sword fell, slicing off Lugaid's own hand, and only then did the light dim.
Legendary Places in Ireland
The extraordinary Ballintubber Abbey, known as Tobar Padraic in the Annals of the Four Mastersm is almost a thousand years old, having been built by King Cathal Crobdearg Ua Conchobair - whose father commissioned the beautiful Cross of Cong - in 1216. It has survived ages and centuries of persecution and fire, providing a place for people to visit ... [more]
One of the rarest and most beautiful woods in the world is Irish bog oak. This very ancient kind of wood can be found across Ireland, but is most often recovered from deep peat bogs in the midlands, and can be anywhere from three thousand to eight thousand years old or more. These trees grew, lived and fell in times of legend, witnessing the rise o ... [more]
One of the most imposing legacies of the last of the mighty megalith-builders of the Neolithic and Bronze ages, the Dolmen of the Four Maols, considered by some to be a cist tomb rather than a dolmen or portal tomb. An enormous capstone sits above three other stones, while the entry stone lies not far off. It was once covered by a cairn of smaller ... [more]
Alone in County Louth rises a tall standing stone, its only company the ravens overhead and the whispering wind given voice by nearby trees. This is Clochafarmore, which means "the stone of the great man". It was first raised during the bronze age and rises to ove three meters in height, in a place whose name means The Field of Slaughter, ... [more]
The Boheh stone in the deepest west of Ireland is one of the finest examples of Neolithic rock art in Europe, over two hundred and fifty petroglyphs wrought by unknown hands on a natural outcrop of rock flecked with quartz stones, on the west side of a hill, facing the setting sun, around 3800 BC. Twice a year at sowing and harvest times this produ ... [more]
Cashel of the Kings, the mighty Rock of Cashel was in olden times known as the Royal Site of the Kings of Mumu, a place we today call Munster. It is a great uplifting of raw limestone from the surrounding grassy plains, which old tales tell was hurled from a mountain called the Devil's Bit, in County Tipperary. It is said to have been where ... [more]
The great northern fastness of Emain Macha means "Macha's twins" or "Macha's pair", and its tale is bound tightly with the local goddess Macha, after whom is also named Armagh, Ard Macha. The ancient Greek philosopher Ptolemy drew a map of the world, upon which he marked a place called Isamnion in southern Ulster, which ... [more]
The spiritual and geographical heart of Ireland is the Hill of Uisneach overlooking a wide plain in view of twenty counties, where the borders of all five kingdoms met, where great decisions were made and assemblies were held, the mórdáil Uisnig, and home to Ail na Mireann, or the Stone of Divisions. On the hill all around this strang ... [more]
The seat of the High Kings of Ireland stretching back to the Tuatha and the Fir Bolg, Tara or Temair as it was known then, is said to have been the seat of a hundred and forty two kings, kingships won by battle, contest and merit, not passed down father to son as in more primitive cultures. It is also known as Teamhair na Rí, 'Tar ... [more]
Dún Ailinne is one of the great Royal Sites of Ireland, "a place of assemblies, a Rath with royal roads, a Grianan or palace, and a Royal Dún", where great ceremonies, rituals and gatherings took place, seat and crowning-place of the Gaelic Kings of Leinster. All that remains of it now is a large circular embankment a ... [more]
The glorious stronghold of Rathcrogan, or Ráth Cruachan, was the Royal Site of the great Kings and Queens of the Western lands for thousands of years. Within its sacred embrace were held the thronging ceremonial assemblies or óenach, and people of every station would gather from all corners of Ireland to reach out and touch, if on ... [more]
The gift of the gab, as it’s known, is a common thing among the Irish – being able to talk all day about anything and everything, and do it in a way that would have you listen as well. It’s as Irish as red hair and freckles. But what if you didn’t have the gift of the gab, or felt a deficiency of gabbiness? Never fear, al ... [more]
The Spring equinox was a very important time for the people of ancient Ireland, heralding as it did the end of the dark season with all of its dangers and want, and signalling the dawn of a new year of plenty. The day and night, the light and the dark side of the year were in equal balance, neither stronger than the other, and it is easy to ... [more]
Ireland is a land of many treasures – some are well known while others are known only to a few, like the mysterious stone circles of Beaghmore! In the north of County Tyrone they can be found, at the edge of the Sperrin mountains looking out over the wide countryside below, dating back to the bronze age and earlier, to the time when the Tuath ... [more]
The royal ringfort of Grianán Ailigh was known as the father of every building in Ireland by the Annals of the Four Masters, who also claimed it was first built in the year 1500 BC, in the time of the Tuatha Dé Danann! A mighty place of strength it is and was and may always be, one of the few locations in Ireland correctly marked on a ... [more]
Knockma of the mists is a place wreathed in secrets and myth where they say sleeps the greatest king of the Sidhe, he whose name was Finnbheara! Should you go for a walk around Knockma Hill, pay close attention to that which you cannot see – a warm breeze meant a good fairy was passing by, and a sudden shiver meant an evil one was close! J ... [more]
Nine is a mystical number in Irish folklore, being thrice three, itself known from ancient times as a mysterious symbol, and so should you happen across nine stones, you would do well to be extra careful! For who knows what might lie sleeping just below the surface. And such a place can be found on the saddle between Sliabh Bán, the White ... [more]
Once upon a time there were many kingdoms in Ireland, and many kings, or perhaps they would have been better known as chieftains, but kings they were for all that. As time went by each of these kingdoms fell and were joined one into the other, but yet a single kingdom still remains in the farthest north and farthest west of the country, and this is ... [more]
Ireland's bones are made of stories, you can hardly step over a rock or walk past an old mound but if it could speak, it would tell you tales you could hardly imagine. But of all the legended glens and fields misty with memory in this ancient nation, there are few with as many secrets hidden in their depths as Lough Gur in county Limerick. S ... [more]
There are tens of thousands of round stone forts in Ireland, some say as many as fifty thousand, if you can believe it, and one of the finest examples we have is at Kilcashel in County Mayo, which comes from the Irish Coill an Chaisil, the woods of the stone fort. Almost perfectly circular in construction, with thick walls two broad men could walk ... [more]
Scattered throughout the Irish countryside are hundreds if not thousands of holy wells, almost all of great antiquity, even predating Christianity. They can take almost any form and show up in any place, shimmering in the shadow of engraved stone monuments, in lapping sea caves where the fresh and salt waters mingle twice a day, as natural springs ... [more]
In county Roscommon there's a place of great antiquity called Oweynagat, which some have mistakenly thought to mean the Cave of Cats, although it has nothing to do with cats - “cath” being the Irish word for “battle” and so it should rightfully be called the battle cave. Indeed it has a long association with the Morrigan ... [more]
The Burren is one of the wonders of Ireland. A rolling rocky landscape of limestone hills and plains, it is marked with history stretching back thousands of years. Nestled in between the limestone slabs are herbs and plants you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere, hailing from places as far afield as the Arctic and the Mediterranean, kept warm ... [more]
Older than Stonehenge and the great pyramids of Giza stands Newgrange, the heart of legends and mysteries stretching back five thousand years. Situated along the river Boyne near to numerous other such places like Knowth and Dowth, that very same river where Fionn Mac Cumhaill was said to have first found and tasted the salmon of knowledge, and the ... [more]
Dun Aengus means "the Fort of Aenghus", and remains one of the most impressive ancient monuments in Ireland, Europe or the world. Perched on the edge of a high and jagged cliff with the grey-green waters of the Atlantic battering below, it gained its name from its original builders, who were called the Fir Bolg, some of the first to arriv ... [more]
Croagh Patrick or Patrick's Stack is an important place of pilgrimage for Christians throughout Ireland and the world today, some even walking the ascent in their bare feet as penance for their sins. However it was considered a holy place long before St Patrick came to visit, even though it is said he banished the snakes from Ireland while stan ... [more]
Rising from the ocean a short distance off the coast of county Kerry in southern Ireland, Skellig Michael and its smaller brother rear up out of the Atlantic ocean like jagged grey teeth. Famous poet George Bernard Shaw who visited the place in 1910, called it an "incredible, impossible, mad place" and "part of our dream world". ... [more]
