Sliabh Na Calliagh (HILL OF THE WITCH)

On our travels north, I was adamant that we dispatch somewhat with the churchy/castley stuff and dig deeper for the pre-christian history and sites of Ireland.

Sliabh Na Calliagh (Hill of the Witch) was tailor-made for such a goal.  We stopped at the little shop down the hill from the site first to grab a sandwich and a bathroom break. Peter had a good chat with Niall and I poked around the little shop (not getting out empty-handed, I might add).  Niall does maintenance around the property and was a friendly sort with helpful information. It was kind of like chatting with our son, so we chatted a bit more. He was kind enough to let us take his picture too!

On previous trips to Ireland, we had been to Newgrange and Tara.  Like Tara, Sliabh Na Calliagh, (now known as the Loughcrew Cairns) has a mystique about it and is a remarkable testament to Neolithic culture.

It is quite a climb to the site, but if anything is worth it, this one certainly is. We arrived between tours and had a tour guide almost all to ourselves. He was extremely knowledgeable and engaging, and clearly fascinated with his work. These cairns are believed to be around 5000 years old – older even than Newgrange. The consist of 32 cairns spread over 4 hilltops.

What is known of these people is that they were farmers; growing wheat and barley, and keeping cattle and sheep. Though these people cremated their dead, bone fragments have allowed DNA analysis to tell us that these were family tombs. One of them contained 12 generations of a single family. This also gives some idea of how long the neolithic people were in Ireland.

It has also been discovered that these people were Mediterranean in origin, with darker skin, hair and eyes. Not the ancestors of current Irish inhabitants. Peter impressed the tour guide by knowing that the last major influx of DNA to Ireland was during the Bronze Age. The guide said those are the ancestors of modern-day Irish folk.  What is considered “Celtic” invasion was not a DNA thing – Celtic refers to cultural beliefs and practices, not blood ancestry.

Nothing is really known about what happened to the Neolithic folk. They just disappeared. Did they move on? Were they wiped out by a cataclysmic event – environmental, disease, war? We’ll never know.

Many of the cairns were pillage for their stone, but the central cairn still stands untouched, aside from the collapse of some of the stone off the mound. They think perhaps that because this cairn had a curb stone covered in carvings, that it was left alone due to superstition. The Irish are a very superstitious lot. 😊   The carvings on the curb stone have eroded away, but fortunately record of it was made before that happened. 

Inside the cairn are several carved stones. The instability of the mound means you can't go inside anymore, but photos of the carvings are incredible. Like many other neolithic mounds, this mound is aligned to the spring and autumn equinox sunset, which lights the passage for an hour. Much longer than the 7 minutes of the Newgrange sunrise light.  Cairn T (as it is unromantically named) is at the highest point of all of the hills and all surrounding mounds can be seen from it.  These sites have the highest number of carved stones of any site found so far in Europe.

One of the legends associated with these mounds is that of a witch who wanted to own this part of Ireland. The gods told her if she could leap from one hill to the next, she could have it. Carrying an apron of stones, she thought “No biggie, I've got this”. As she leaped, stones fell from her apron, creating these mounds, which we now know to be cairns. However, she stumbled on the last hill and fell to her death. There is a lone standing stone at the bottom of one of the hills said to be where she died and marks her grave.

Cairn T has a large curb stone. When originally discovered, it was ornately carved. Fortunately, they had the presence of mind to make a drawing of it because it has now eroded away almost completely. If you sit on the curb stone and wish, then walk around the cairn three times, you will get your wish.  Well, the curb stone is pretty high, but I did meditate on it, make my wishes and circle the cairn three times. After all, we Irish are a superstitious lot!

Again, I encourage you to visit Mythical Ireland (that’s a link) for photos of the carved stones we didn’t get to see and read more about the site. Simply fascinating.  

We called it a day at Toome, staying at the lovely Dunsilly Hotel where I ate all the cookies that they were foolish enough to leave in the room. It had advertised free breakfast, which was part of the reason I chose it. No muffin and rubber boiled eggs here - it was a full spread of Irish breakfast (if you wanted it), or yogurt, cereal, toast, croissants, cheese, or all of it at once if you have the appetite!  Lovely rooms, too - well worth the stay and I highly recommend it.