Queen Maeve the birthplace of halloween.and Rathcrogan

Rathcroghan

Across into the west of the island we find Rathcroghan, over 240 archaeological sites in but a few square kilometres. From Stone Age tombs and royal burial mounds to ringforts and places believed to be sacred sites of ceremonial inauguration. Many archaeologists are of the opinion that the first tribes came down into the west coast of Ireland long before the last great ice age had pulled back from the rest of the island. This might make some of the sites in Rathcroghan amongst the oldest places of occupation in Ireland.

In the mythology there is much that can be said of Rathcroghan as the seat of the great warrior Queen, Medb ruled all of Connacht. It was here that she held control of her province and extended her influence across the entire island. When the great heroes of Ulster were sent to her for judgment of their worth, she went into the dark Otherworldly cave of the Morrigan and brought out the three stones headed cats against which the warriors would be tested. From this tale the cave itself now carries the name ‘Oweynagat’ or Cave of the Cats.

It was upon the great main mound that she gathered all those loyal to her so that her invasion of Ulster could begin in Ireland’s great sage known as the Táin Bó Cuailnge, or the Cattle Raid of Cooley, at it was in Rathcroghan that the last battle between the two great bulls, the Finnbennach and the Donn Cuailnge, was decided, with the demise of the white bull.

Taking a tour of this place today is still inspiring to many pagans. Walking in the footsteps of so many great heroes of our legends and seeing the places that they stood and gathered makes them sacred sites in and of themselves, yet there is more here than just mounds of grass and rolling fields. The cave of the cats, said to be the ‘fit abode’ of the Morrigan Ireland’s Goddess of Battle Poetry and Prophecy, is still used by some as a sacred site of pilgrimage. Down in that darkness beneath the earth, a place where light does not reach and nothing lives or grows, some still choose to sit and open themselves to the Goddess to seek her attention and wisdom.