Ó Carragáin, Tomás

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Title Iveragh's mountain pilgrimagesAuthor(s) Ó Carragáin, TomásEditor(s) Crowley, JohnSheehan, JohnPublication date 2009-07Original citation Tomás Ó Carragáin (2009) 'Iveragh's mountain pilgrimages' In: J.Crowley and J. Sheehan(Eds.). The Iveragh Peninsula. A Cultural Atlasof the Ring of Kerry. Cork : Cork University Press.Type of publication Book chapterLink to publisher'sversionhttp://corkuniversitypress.com/The_Iveragh_Peninsula:_A_Cultural_Atlas_of_the_Ring_of_Kerry/254/Access to the full text of the published version may require asubscription.Rights ©The authors and contributors.Item downloadedfromhttp://hdl.handle.net/10468/443Downloaded on 2017-02-12T08:28:49ZIveragh is famous for its mountains. In particular peoplecome from around the world to climb Macgillycuddy’sReeks, Ireland’s highest and most challenging peaks. In thepast, however, it was two lesser mountains that attractedthe majority of climbers on the peninsula: Drung Hill, nearKells, and Knocknadobar, near Cahersiveen. The high val-leys of  Macgillycuddy’s Reeks, with their relatively poorsoils, are not ideal for settlement and the massif formedsuch a formidable barrier that no important routeways passthrough this part of the Iveragh peninsula. Consequently,for all its popularity among modern-day tourists, this wassomething of a cultural desert in the pre-modern period. Bycontrast, the dense distribution of archaeological monu-ments, such as megalithic tombs, rock art and ring-forts,around Knocknadobar and, to a lesser extent, Drung, indi-cate that substantial communities were clustered aroundthese mountains for many centuries. Furthermore, the mostimportant routeway to the west of the peninsula ran acrossthe spur of Drung which, therefore, acted as a gateway tothe territory beyond. These mountains loomed large in the65Iveragh’s Mountain PilgrimagesTomás Ó CarragáinFig. 1 Mountain pilgrimage sites in Iveragh.Iveragh introduction.qxd:CorkAtlasSample.qxd  26/03/2009  12:24  Page 65imaginations of the early Iveragh communities and at somepoint they came to be identified as sacred.HOLY MOUNTAINSThe phenomenon of Holy Mountains is found in societiesof various periods throughout the world. In many tradi-tions they are believed to be points at which heaven andearth meet and are therefore places of revelation and, mostnotably in the Christian tradition, places where pilgrimscould expiate their sins.1 The possibility that Drung andKnocknadobar were foci for pilgrimage activity in prehis-toric and Medieval times is supported by the presence of rit-ual monuments of various periods on their slopes andsummits, more than on any other mountains on the penin-sula.2 But this is not to imply that the modern pilgrimagesare pristine survivals from ancient times. They are not, assome have suggested, pagan rituals disguised with a thinveneer of Christianity. Rituals such as these are subject tochange according to changing social circumstances. Andyet, as we shall see, there is evidence to suggest somedegree of continuity from the Medieval period at least.DRUNG HILLDrung is a steep 641 m high hill in the north of Iveragh, fourkilometres east of Kells. The principal prehistoric monu-ments on it are two cairns. On top of its north-west spur, inGleensk townland, is a large irregular cairn, over 2.5 m high.Some distance west-north-west of this is a much larger cairn,about thirty metres in diameter, known as Laghtfinnan. Thiscommands panoramic views in all directions with DingleBay to the north and the valleys of the Fertha and Carhanrivers to the west.3 Few mountain-top cairns of this sorthave been excavated to modern standards, but what littlecomparative evidence there is suggests that Laghtfinnancould be a burial cairn of Bronze Age or even Neolithic ori-gin. In this case the cairn remained a focus of ritual and pos-sibly burial  until at least the beginning of the EarlyMedieval period, for on top of it is a rectangular platform,or leacht, surmounted by an ogham stone. We are unlucky inthat the least helpful part of the inscription is all that nowsurvives: […] MAQI R[…]. All this tells us is that the nameof the father of the person commemorated begins with ‘R’.A small cross-in-circle motif hints that he may have beenChristian, but equally this could be an addition to the mon-ument. BURIAL MONUMENT AND BOUNDARY MARKERLike many ogham stones, and indeed like the cairn that under-lies it, this may well have doubled as a burial monument andboundary marker. Drung marked the boundary between twoearly kingdoms and references in the early sources to Rí Dru-ing (The King of Drung) indicate that it gave its name to oneof them: probably the kingdom west of the hill. Boundaryburials were an important way of staking claim to a territoryand according to one early law tract ‘the ogham on the stoneis like a witness of ownership’. Burial grounds on boundariesTH E IV E R A G H PE N I N S U L A66Fig. 2 The sacred mountain of Knocknadobar, near Cahersiveen. (Photo: John Crowley)Iveragh introduction.qxd:CorkAtlasSample.qxd  26/03/2009  12:24  Page 66were often a focus for fairs or assemblies (oenacha) and in thisregard it is interesting that the name ‘Drung’ comes fromdrong, meaning a gathering of people for a particular purpose.They were also commonly chosen as places of inaugurationand it has been argued that the smaller of the two Drungcairns was where the Mac Carthaigh Mór was inaugurated bythe Ó Súilleabháin Mór in 1600.4FESTIVAL OF LUGHNASABeyond this tentative identification, we can say little for cer-tain about the activities that took place at Drung in theMedieval period but it seems likely that, as in modern times,people gathered there at the end of July for the harvest festi-val of Lughnasa. The modern pilgrimage had died by about1880 and we know of it only from accounts given to PádraigÓ Fiannachta in 1942 by two elderly local farmers who hadnever taken part in it themselves. The activities theydescribed are similar to those at other Lughnasa sites aroundthe country. A cattle fair was held on the hillside, and on thesummit there were games, singing and dancing contests. Aspecially prepared cake was cut by an engaged couple, orelse by the best pair of dancers, a tradition unique to the Iver-agh Lughnasa festivals. A meal was cooked and peoplestayed on the summit until midnight before continuing thefestivities in houses and shebeens at the foot of the hill.5The surviving accounts have a distinctly secular air tothem. There is a holy well on the summit – Tobar Fhíonáin –and it is likely that it was a focus for devotions, but no detailsof the religious aspects of the pilgrimage survive. The tradi-tion that St Fionán, Iveragh’s most important saint, wasburied in Laghtfinnan along with his dog may not be of greatantiquity, for saints were invariably buried at their principalchurch and a leacht on Inis Uasal, in Lough Currane, nearWaterville,  is also identified as his grave. Nonetheless, thesaint may have become associated with the mountain in thesame way that St Brendan was associated with Mount Bran-don by around 800. More evidence survives for the involve-ment of the church in the pilgrimage of Knocknadobar. KNOCKNADOBARWhile Drung is the northernmost peak in a range of hills,Knocknadobar (673 m) rises independently between the seato the north and the Fertha River to the south and is there-fore a particularly prominent landmark. One cairn of uncer-tain date is situated on its western slopes and another,measuring over six metres in diameter and one metre high,occurs on its flat western summit.6 This may be prehistoricin origin and has been carefully positioned to optimise theview of the Fertha valley below. Two monuments of interest also occur closer to the footIV E R A G H’S MO U N TA I N PI L G R I M A G E S67Fig. 3 The larger of the two cairns on Drung Hill, known as Laghtfinnan, may well be of prehistoric origin. However, it remained a focus of ritual until atleast the beginning of the Early Medieval period, for on top of it is a rectangular platform, or leacht, surmounted by an ogham stone. (Photo: Paddy Bushe)Iveragh introduction.qxd:CorkAtlasSample.qxd  26/03/2009  12:24  Page 67of the hill at the south-west. St Fursey’s Well, sometimesknown as Glaise Chumhra (Fragrant Stream), comprises alarge pool lined by a low wall and fed by a natural stream.A slate slab inscribed with a simple cross lies at the bottomof the pool, while a modern cement cross stands nearby.Fursey was born in south Munster but there is no evidenceto suggest he visited Iveragh before beginning his exilefrom Ireland in East Anglia and later in Gaul. However, hiscult became established there at some stage and local tradi-tion holds that water from Glaise Chumhra cured him ofblindness.7OUTDOOR ALTARSome distance east, in Ballydarrig townland, is a massiveflat-topped boulder. Its upper surface is inscribed with anEarly Medieval cross-in-circle motif. It is similar to that onthe Drung ogham stone except for its triangular base and thefact that its lower left-hand quadrant is divided into two seg-ments by a diagonal line. These details suggest that this wasan outdoor altar at which masses were sometimes celebrat-ed, possibly coinciding with the pilgrimage. The eighth-cen-tury Irish Stowe Missal specifies that when breaking the hosta priest must first remove a segment from its lower left-handquadrant in order to recall the wounding of Christ’s sidewith a lance on Calvary. On an early cross at Nigg, in Scot-land, the host is shown above a chalice with a triangularbase and with this segment removed. The Ballydarrig designis a rare parallel for this Insular eucharistic motif.8 It is sur-rounded by four little crosslets of a sort one normally findsat the corners of altar tops. This altar may mark the begin-ning of an alternative or earlier route to the summit. On theother hand it may have been an initial stopping point formedieval pilgrims who had crossed the Fertha River southof Ballydarrig, for an old roadway ran westwards from Bal-lydarrig in the direction of St Fursey’s Well. Like the Drung pilgrimage, that to Knocknadobar tookplace on the last Sunday of July and involved games, singingand dancing and the choice of a young couple to cut a spe-cially-prepared cake.9 But while the Drung pilgrimage haddied out by the late nineteenth century, this one was revivedin 1885 by Canon Brosnan, parish priest of Cahersiveen, whoerected the Stations of the Cross on the route from Fursey’sWell to the summit. These were refurbished by An FórsaCosanta Áitiúil in the 1950s and they still mark whatremains the most popular route to the summit. TH E IV E R A G H PE N I N S U L A68Fig. 4. The Early Medieval eucharistic motif on the cross-inscribed boulderat Ballydarrig, at the foot of Knocknadobar Mountain. (Photo: Tomás ÓCarragáin)Iveragh introduction.qxd:CorkAtlasSample.qxd  26/03/2009  12:24  Page 68

Iveragh's mountain pilgrimages

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