The Stonemen of Ireland
Irish and Celtic myths and legends, Irish folklore and Irish fairy tales tales of Ireland
On the Lifting and Throwing of Stones
The Stonemen of Ireland were once a great tradition throughout the country, a tradition that reached back to the earliest antiquity of the nation. And yet if you ask what a Stoneman might be today, very few if any will be able to give you the answer! It might be found yet in the Aran Islands in the furthest west, but not many other places.
Millennia ago during the Tailteann games, the “Irish Olympics” which were originally held as funeral games for a great queen, lifting and throwing stones was considered a mark of strength in Ireland. And not just strength, but martial power as well.
A man who could put the wind under a lifting-stone was considered a local hero and given great respect for his strength, for the clearing of stones was an important matter in a rocky land like Ireland, a feat for which the Queen Tailitú herself was famed.
While the tradition persists yet in Scotland, in Ireland it has all but faded away along with many other wonderful cultural embers, although you can still find places named after lifting stones and even the stones themselves, if you look hard enough. Close to Monaghan there is a village called Cloghnart which means “the stone of strength” and was named after a lifting-stone from a nearby fortress.
Throughout folklore and mythology we can find great stones being lifted and thrown – Fionn Mac Cumhaill is said to have created the Giant’s Causeway in Count Antrim by throwing a great boulder, and Oisín was said to have perished when he tried to lift a great rock from the road when he returned from Tír na nÓg and fell from his horse. The Fianna had a Testing Stone which prospective members had to lift if they wanted to join.
A mighty stone about eight feet on a side can be found on Hog Island near Kilrush - it is said that Diarmuid and Gráinne had a stone throwing contest from the shore and Gráinne won by casting this rock.
When Lugh first came to Tara, he was tested, and Ogma challenged him to throw a great flagstone, which Lugh threw back and landed it perfectly on its original spot.
Two great giants lived opposite one another in Connemara, with one on the glittering mountain known as The Diamond, which sparkles because it is made of quartz, and the other on the mountain called Dúchruach, which means Black Stack. They didn’t like one another very much and would often get into heated arguments.
One day a giant picked up an enormous stone and threw it at the other, which missed and planted itself at a strange angle near to Kylemore Abbey. Today it is called the ironing stone, and it is said that if you stand with your back against the stone, make a wish and throw a small pebble back over the stone three times, that wish will be granted.
In Ros Nuala in Donegal a giant stone lies near the village. This was another missile hurled by giants during another argument, and the stone has proven itself unliftable to the many locals who sought to try their thews against it.
The flagstones of Denn were ponderous stones to be found on Carrickaboy hill, overlooking Denn's old graveyard, near to three blessed wells. Under those three flags were supposed to lie the remains of three saints. In times past sick people used to pray at these flags and a cure was always obtained - but later on, some evildoers set a charm to turn the tones so as to bring misfortune on their neighbours!
This naturally enough caused a lot of trouble, and the landlord of that time being one Mr Percival, a protestant minister, ordered his son to go and shatter these flags, which he did. However in a short time, the young man shot himself in his own room, in his father's house, and to this day his bloodstains remain on the wall in the present Denn Rectory!
After this one of the wells moved about half a mile, and the bush that was over it went also. It is at present in a field in Leggan Denn where several people go for water, and still some come to it for cures.
In the old graveyard in lower Denn, next to Drumavaddy Chapel, there lies a forty stones weight block. In former years it was supposed to have formed a table or substitute for an altar on which the priests celebrated Mass during the Penal Days. It was a great festival in former years, for the strongest men attending a funeral to try their skill to lift this stone.
On one occasion a man named Mr Michael Clarke of Crimlin made a bet he would carry the stone as far as the local public house, a distance of about thirty perches. He took the stone on his back and gallantly carried it to the public house where his spectators purchsed for him a glass of whiskey, which he drank, still bearing the heavy burden on his back!
To their amazement he retraced his footsteps and laid the brute of a stone back in the graveyard, where he received his well-deserved winnings and the pride of his village.
The flinging of stones with strength and accuracy was one of the great warrior-skills of ancient Ireland, persisting even to more modern times, as attested by Stanihurst in his 1584 publication, De Rebus in Hibernia Gestis, meaning Great Deeds Done in Ireland, where he said of the Irish that “they are notable stone-throwers”, an oddity indeed in the age of gunpowder! And yet certainly a skill that proved very useful against many invaders.
There have been found in Ireland many curious stones, shaped like axe heads and chisels and other things, which have a hole drilled in one end of them. It is now believed these are Lia Miledh, or warriors' stones, the mightiest of which were called Lia Lámha Laich, or Champion's hand-stones. A cord was bound through the hole in the stone and it was either used to pull the stone back after being thrown, or used to spin and throw it to begin with.
This could well have been used in a similar manner to the Asian “meteor hammer”, a heavy weight attached to a cord slung around the body until it was released towards a target at high speed. Closer to home, it may have also borne much resemblance to the Scots-Gaelic sport of stone-putting, the Clach Neart or Stone of Strength, the stones for which would have weighed about ten or twelve kilos.
Indeed, hammer-throwing in the Scottish Highland games can be traced back thousands of year to the Tailteann Games in Ireland. These games included an event where a competitor lifted a chariot wheel by its axle and threw it as far as they could. This was replaced by a boulder, then a boulder with a cord through it where it saw use in war, and then a heavy rock with a wooden handle in the Games. It would have made a formidable weapon, weighing as much as seven kilos and with a throwing distance of over eighty meters.
The throwing of the hammer continued in Ireland in the farthest west, on the Aran Islands, until well into the 1970s.
"Once each year, people from Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Doolin (in County Clare) travel by boat or currach to Inisheer, to watch or take part in games of athletic skill and strength. It is a festive outing for all a day of merriment.
I watched the crowd move like the sea from one place on the field to another, to where a hammer-throw contest was to take place. They left just a little room for the contestants, and one man lost his stride as he stepped up to heave the thirty-four-pound hammer. The heavy iron went sailing toward the crowd, scattering them like sparks struck from molten steel. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but there was much oohing and aahing before the throng returned to their very same places and revived the danger." (photo credit to Bill Power, RIP)
Smaller examples of such corded stones could could also have been used as flails, although I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of a larger one either! They would have been devastating in battle, allowing the stone to be swung over the tops of shields or around the sides of them, catching enemies on all angles of their heads without warning, being very difficulty to parry, and serving a similar purpose to medieval warhammers or maces.
Stone balls, perhaps used for the same ends, have often been found under Irish dolmens, made of marble, ironstone, limestone, porphyry and syenite, with sizes recorded up to three inches.
The Irish used such stones for throwing, which they carried in a strap inside their shields, sometimes in the hollow or central part of the shield. Each side of the stones was crossed by an array of scorings or carved lines, admirably suited for the purpose of affording a firm grip to a champion who wanted to hurl the stone with force. Around the hole can often be found two engraved circles.
While the largest such stones found to date is around ten centimeters or so in length, the stories tell of much bigger ones being thrown in war! In the record of the battle of the Ford of Comar, Westmeath, the use of this instrument is so described...
“There came not a man of Lohar's people without a broad green [bronze] spear, nor without a dazzling shield, nor without a Liagh-lamha-laich (a champion's hand stone), stowed away in the hollow cavity of his shield.... And Lohar carried his stone like each of his men; and seeing the monarch his father standing in the ford with Ceat, son of Magach, at one side, and Connall Cearnach at the other, to guard him, he grasped his battle-stone quickly and dexterously, and threw it with all his strength, and with unerring aim, at the king his father; and the massive stone passed with a swift rotatory motion towards the king, and despite the efforts of his two brave guardians, it struck him on the breast, and laid him prostrate in the ford. The king, however, recovered from the shock, arose, and placing his foot upon the formidable stone, pressed it into the earth, where it remains to this day, with a third part of it over ground, and the print of the king's foot visible upon it.”
There may be another survival in the childhood games of "conkers" played by Irish people, where horse chestnuts are pierced by a string and used against one another. They would have been very useful for hunting, too. As a boy Cú Chulainn defended his fortress with hand-stones:
"Twenty-seven men came to us from the Isles of Faiche. While we were suffering the debility they climbed over into our backcourt. The women in the fort cried out in warning. The boys who were in the playing-field came on hearing the cries, but when they saw the dark gloomy men, they all fled except Cú Chulainn alone. He cast hand-stones at them and belaboured them with his hurley. He killed nine of them but they dealt him fifty wounds, and then they went off."
Stones were also used as armour, which would have taken great strength to carry, let along fight in. The Táin tells us about the duel between Cú Chulainn and Ferdiad:
“And it was then he put on his battle-suit of combat, before the coming of Cú Chulainn. And that suit of combat was [as follows]: He put on his apron of striped silk, with its border of spangled gold, next his white skin. He put on his apron of brown leather, well sewn, over that, on the lower part [of his body]. He put on a flat stone outside over this apron; and again, outside this, a deep apron of purified iron, through fear of the gae-bolg (the belly-dart), on that day”
“When Ferdiad heard the gae-bolg mentioned, he made a stroke of the spear downward to protect his lower body. Cú Chulainn thrust his spear over Ferdiad's shield and wounded him, and then quickly setting the gae-bolg between the toes of his feet, he cast it at Ferdiad. It pierced the wrought-iron apron, broke the stone beneath, and entered his body, 'so that every cavity of him was filled with barbs.'”
The Irish word for throwing stones or sods of turf by hand is croosting, from the Gaelic crústa, meaning a missile or a clod.
Even the Druids made use of hand-stones in their craft, as we see in the Siege of Knocklong:
Then Mogh Roith said to Ceann Mór,
“Bring me my poison-stone, my hand-stone, my hundred-fighter, my destruction of my enemies.”
This was brought to him and he began to praise it, and he proceeded to put a venomous spell on it, and he recited the following rhetoric:
“I beseech my Hand-Stone –
That it be not a flying shadow;
Be it a brand to rout the foes
In brave battle.
My fiery hard stone –
Be it a red water-snake –
Woe to him around whom it coils,
Betwixt the swelling waves.
Be it a sea eel –
Be it a vulture among vultures,
Which shall separate body from soul.
Be it an adder of nine coils,
Around the body of gigantic Colpa,
from the ground to his head,
The smooth spear-headed reptile.”
Of a less mystical character but still very important to local people, the strength-stones or feat-stones dotted around the country were sometimes used as a trial of manhood for young men. If he could raise the stone from the ground, he was respected. If he lifted it to his knees, he was a champion, among the best. And if it went all the way to his chest, he was a hero, a marvel of physical power and the men spoke of him with awe.
These stones are naturally very heavy, ranging from a hundred kilos or so to more than two hundred, often found in graveyards, which speaks of their connection to funeral games, and are irregular in shape, making them difficult to easily grasp. They stay where they were first lifted and rarely if ever move from that spot, heavy not only in their weight but with legends and tales of their history and the heroes and fairy-folk who had lifted them in the past.
Whenever there was a wedding, a social event, a funeral, or locals just felt like it, men would gather from all corners and try their hand in competition against one another and against the local stone. In one story, many men tried and failed to lift it to chest height, but one old man succeeded and even kissing it three times for good measure. Because of this, he was cheered for his strength and prowess, and spoken of with respect for years to come, the subject of local legend and storytelling.
At Drummond in County Carlow, stories speak of the mighty Andrew Neill who managed to lift a large stone onto a nearby embankment. “It is said that as many as four hundred people used to come every Sunday to try and lift the stone. But it was never stirred from where Andrew Neill put it.” Only one man in two hundred could move the Prevago Stone in County Leitrim.
Peig Sayers told of her brother Seán, saying there was no limit to his strength, and that he not only lifted the local stone but lifted another stone on top of it during a trial at the local crossroads! For this he was crowned with the title “Pounder” and marked as a man of might for the rest of his life. Stone lifting was a serious business and carried with it a lot of respect.
That’s not to say every occasion was so solemn, since at some funerals the games included “lifting the corpse”!
In olden times the people in country districts were very proud of a strong man amongst them. Kilchreest could boast of one such man, Peadar Miskell was his name, who lived about a quarter of a mile below the village. He was a mountain of a man and a terror in fair and market. On one occasion he beat three policemen and ripped the uniforms off them! They took him down to the Magistrate Dudby Perse and he had the policemen dismissed for allowing one man to be be able to get the better of them.
He was a great weight thrower, at that time in Loughnea at the oats market there was always a test of strength for the best man for lifting bags of oats. He could take a two cut bag of oats with one hand and swing it over his head without any trouble.The weights he used to throw may still be seen outside his home.
There is a revival in Irish stone lifting taking place at the moment, and the man most responsible is called David Keohan, multiple national, European and world champion in the kettlebell sport. He has been travelling up and down the country, reading old stories and finding old stones, lifting them and sparking fresh interest in this most ancient of Irish traditions. If you’d like to find out more about what he’s doing, he may be contacted here:
https://www.facebook.com/keohan.david
The Stonemen of Ireland return!
Aughagower County Mayo, home to the first ever “Giant's stone festival” where many will try their hand at lifting the Cloughundra, the famous giant’s throwing stone, can be found on the map below!
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There's a common misconception some might have about fairies, which is the idea that fairies are nice friendly little spirits, trailing pixie dust and turning pumpkins into luxury vehicles. As any of the old folk of Ireland could tell you, nothing could be further from the truth, for a fairy in wrath is more dangerous than a hive of wasps or a ... [more]
Sometimes when out and about travelling the lesser known byways of Ireland, you might come across a little stone arrowhead or piece of flint shaped by hands long gone, and people would tell you not to touch it for fear it might carry the tinneas sióg, the sickness of the fairy mounds! For it was that fairies, the sidhe, were known to hurl ... [more]
The sinister crone of the woods, the wishing thorn, there are as many tales told of the blackthorn trees of Ireland as there are spiky thorns on its branches. The people who came before, whose blood still runs in some, planted them around their tombs and sacred places and bound the lunantisidhe, or moon fairies to protect them, save only on the ful ... [more]
Once upon a time there was a poor woman with three daughters, and one day the eldest decided to seek her fortunes in the world. “Mother,” she said, “bake me a cake and kill my chicken, for I am away to the wide world.” And so her mother did just that, and when all was ready, her mother asked “which will you have ... [more]
A fair witch crept to a young man's side, And he kissed her and took her for his bride. But a shape came in at the dead of night, And filled the room with snowy light. And he saw how in his arms there lay A thing more frightful than words may say. And he rose in haste, and followed the Shape Till morning crowned an eastern cape. ... [more]
Once upon a time, not so long ago, a lovely young couple had just gotten married in the Irish countryside. It was a wonderful ceremony and all had remarked on how beautiful the bride looked, when suddenly their festivities and dancing were interrupted by the groom, who rushed into the crowd shouting that his Margaret was missing! Well they ... [more]
They do say that once upon a time, long ago, there lived a lady of great beauty in a castle on a lake, and her hair was fair as gold, shining in the summer sun. She had been promised to a king's son, the lord of a nearby kingdom, but as he was coming to see her one dark November evening, who should come upon him but the warriors of a jealous lo ... [more]
One evening in late November, which is the time of year when the spirits of Ireland have the most power, the prettiest girl in all the land was going to the ancient well for water. Then, as chance would have it, her foot turned on a loose stone, and she fell. It was bad luck, but when she got back to her feet, it seemed as though she was in a stran ... [more]
Baile the son of Buan was renowned through Ulster and all of Ireland for his tale-telling, and loved for his his kindly nature, but most of all by by Aillinn, daughter of Lughaidh. From afar they shared sweet messages and poetry, and as time passed she grew to love him more and more, and he in kind. Everyone spoke well of them and looked forward to ... [more]
In the olden days there was a man who played the pipes, but he was not famous for it, or if he was it was for the wrong reasons, since he had but the one tune, a jaunty jig called The Black Rogue. Now it happened one dark night that he was on his way home after entertaining the gentlemen, and with a few pence in his pocket and a few drinks under hi ... [more]
Times were hard in Ireland back years ago, and while some might say they've had it tough today, it was not a patch on the hardships people endured in times gone by. And so it was with Michael McGovern, a poor farmer with hardly an acre of stony soil to rent, who looked upon his three young sons with love for the life of them and fear for their ... [more]
There was a prince in Ireland a long, long time ago, back when Ireland still had princes, and O'Donall was his name. A brave fellow he was, and powerful, but given to risk and heedless thrills in his hunting and leaping and running and swimming, all the better to impress his friends. He was lord of a wide land, and he wasn't hard on the poo ... [more]
A woman was out one day looking after her sheep in the valley, and coming by a little stream she sat down to rest, when suddenly she seemed to hear the sound of low music, and turning round, beheld at some distance a crowd of people dancing and making merry. And she grew afraid and turned her head away not to see them. Then close by her stood a you ... [more]
They say that in Ireland you will enjoy all four seasons in a day, but on this day the four seasons were high and glorious summer, or so it seemed to Tom Fitzpatrick as he walked along a narrow road between two tall hedges in harvest time. As he walked, he chanced to hear a strange ringing like a tiny bell, and he paused, puzzled as to what it migh ... [more]
Connla of the Fiery Hair was one of the sons of Conn of the Hundred Battles, and his favourite son, a swift and agile warrior with a voice that could make the mountains tremble. Himself and his father climbed the heights of Usna on Samhain, when he saw coming towards them a slender maiden of great beauty, clad in strange clothes. “Where do ... [more]
Strange are the ways of the Fairies of Ireland, and strange the look about them, but for all their wild and untamed manner they follow rules written in the ripples of willow-branches on still ponds, and laws murmured by the echo of birdsong in deep wells. Once there was a woman sitting in her cottage, a humble enough abode, and she was making wo ... [more]
There are many types of fairy in Ireland, some more risky than others, and some to be avoided due to their habits rather than out of any particular malevolence. Such a one is the Gan Ceanach, whose name means “Without Love”. Although you might think such a title would indicate a friendless creature of a lonely nature lacking in socia ... [more]
There are a great many raths or fairy forts of old scattered throughout Ireland today, numbering in the tens of thousands, and it is here, the wise say, that the good people or fairy folk gather to hold their revels. Nobody would dare to cross, let alone build on a fairy dwelling in the past, marking as they did the boundary between our civilise ... [more]
Near to the town of Fermoy in Ireland lies the great stack of Cairn Thierna, not as wide about nor as tall as some mountains perhaps but feared and respected by the local people nonetheless. For all around it and along its flanks are tall heaps of stones they say are the work of the fairy folk, or the old people who lived here long ago. And you ... [more]
On the road going down to Cork there's an old set of four walls that used to once be called Ronayne's Court. Although there's little enough to see of it nowadays still the stack of the chimneys stands proud, and on it can be seen the coat of arms of the family that built it and used to live there. They were a fine couple and had one ... [more]
It was known in times past in Ireland that there were men and women who could talk to the fairies, ask favours from them, and even live among them, and some used this acquaintance to work their will on the world, for good or for ill. Most famous, perhaps, among these people were the fairy healers of old. Biddy Early is the best known of their ki ... [more]
James Mac Neill was as strapping a young fellow as you could hope to meet, and likely with it. Never did he walk away from a tussle or a drink, and never far from his hand was his shillelagh. He had no fears save the lacking of a pint, no cares except for who would pay for it, and not a thought in his head but how to have fun after it. One cold ... [more]
Maurice Mulreaney was well known for travelling about the countryside without fear of anything living or otherwise, as quick to cross a graveyard or fairy mound as you or I would be to cross the street, for he didn't believe in that which he couldn't see with his own two eyes or touch with his own two hands, and he didn't bother with ol ... [more]
It wasn't a bad life for Fergus O'Hara in Owenmore, for all that himself and his wife Rose had little, the little they had was enough for them. Some goats, pigs and poultry ranged far and wide about their few acres, and a field of oats and potatoes kept them busy for the harvest and brought in a few pennies. It so happened that there lay ... [more]
The children of De Danann once ruled the island of Ireland, before they departed back to their own lands in the farthest west or went below the earth in their fairy mounds to dance and sing forevermore, but if you're lucky – or unlucky! – you might still come across them in the wild places and those deep forests yet untouched. An ... [more]
Some of the Sidhe in times of old would take a fondness for one particular family, protecting it and helping it rise in the world, and so it was with the O'Briens, who were known as the Dál gCais, or the Dalcassians. Their fairy guardian was called Aoibhell, whose name means burning ardour or beauty, depending on who you ask. She had ... [more]
Irish legends from time immemorial have a great deal to say about the land of the fairies, the home of the Tuatha De Danann, or the world of the Sidhe. There are those who claim it lies beneath fairy mounds or on the other side of deep caves where Druids once held tryst and shared magical secrets, while other tales tell of heroes and adventurers, e ... [more]
It's well known among those who know of such things that fairies love to dance more than anything else, and they take it ill should anything interfere with their merriment. And if someone wanted to spoil a dance, they could come up with few better ways of doing so than to send a herd of cattle wandering through! The hill atop Knockshegowna w ... [more]
The cheerful Leprechaun is about as well known an emblem of Ireland as you could want, but what truth lies behind the stories? Well the truth is nobody really knows the truth, for leprechauns are are a cagey bunch at the best of times, not prone to gossip or holding forth on the important events of the day or the local hurling results, even after a ... [more]
After the Tuatha De Dannan were defeated in battle by the great race of Milesians, who held sway in Ireland long after, some of the Tuatha decided to leave and go elsewhere while some chose to stay in Ireland. Those that stayed agreed that they must live beneath the earth, and they were led by a great King in the west, Finnbhear son of Dagda, who i ... [more]
The Pooka or Puca is one of the most ancient fairy creatures of Ireland, and is known further abroad as well, called Puck or Pook. In some places he is feared and in others respected. He can take many shapes, most commonly that of a wild horse wrapped in chains with sulfurous or blazing crimson eyes - the night mare - a huge dog, a raging bull, a h ... [more]
Some might wonder, who or what are the fairy folk? There are stories upon stories of them and their doings in many places, but most of all in Ireland, where it was said they lived longest and if they still walk the earth, where they can yet be found! The country folk claim they are fallen angels lacking the merit to stay in heaven while being kindl ... [more]
