Sacred Soul Journeys

This is one of the most magical and beautiful places on the west coast of Ireland that I visited last Autumn. The drive alone to get there is worth it

The Places & Origins of the Cailleach Winter is traditionally the season of the Cailleach and there are probably more archaeological and geographical features o...n the Irish landscape, that are either named after - or have stories associated with the Cailleach - the divine hag of Irish mythology - than any other mythical character. She is credited with the creation of two, of Irelands four, passage tomb complexes, Carrowmore & Loughcrew; whose monuments are said to be stones that fell from her apron as she leapt from hill to hill; before in some cases, falling to her death. In Sligo, her home is said to be ‘Teach Cailleach a’Bheara', a passage tomb located at the summit of one of the Ballygawley Mts, from where it is said that she created the monuments of Carrowmore. In Meath, the Irish name for the mountain on which the Loughcrew monuments are situated is Sliabh na Cailleach - the Mountain of the Hag. There is even a large stone to the rear of the largest tomb in the complex which is said to have been her throne. Another passage tomb - the highest in Ireland - located beside a glacial lake at the summit of Slieve Gullion in Co. Armagh is also said to be her home. In one local story, the Cailleach entices Fionn Mac Cumhail to swim in the magical lake, only for him to emerge as an old man with white hair. The Labbacallee Wedge Tomb in Co. Cork is said to be another of her dwellings; which in this instance, she shared with her husband, the druid Mog Roith. Local folklore tells us that during an argument, a huge rock lying in the nearby river was thrown by the Cailleach at her fleeing husband, pinning him to the riverbed. However, the best-known representation of the Cailleach, is the ‘Hag of Beara’ a natural rock formation, in Kilcatherine, on the Beara Peninsula, which is said to be her petrified remains. According to legend, she was turned to stone as she faced the sea, waiting for her lover, Manannán mac Lir (the son of the sea) to return to her. Similarly, the Hag’s Head is the name given to the most southerly point of the Cliffs of Moher in Co. Clare, where the cliffs form an unusual rock formation that is also said to resemble a woman's head looking out to sea. As a creator of the land and controller of the weather, the Cailleach would appear to represent an archetypal sovereignty/mother goddess, whose origins come from Bronze-Age Indo-European, or even Neolithic, cosmologies. However, this may not be the case Despite her presence on the Irish landscape, the Cailleach is quite different from the other gods & goddesses of the Irish mythological cycle. She doesn’t share any genealogy with that literary pantheon of deities, nor does she directly interact with them; other than the odd cameo appearance under one of her many (presumed) pseudonyms (Buí, Birog, Miluchra, Mal, etc). The name Cailleach can variously mean ‘old woman’ ‘crone/hag’ or ‘nun’ in modern Irish and comes from the Old Irish ‘Caille’ (veil) - Caillech (veiled one). Many have suggested that this word is ultimately derived from the Latin, ‘pallium’, meaning ‘cloak’. However, this would make the Cailleach a ‘relatively’ late arrival - etymologically speaking, leading many academics to believe she is the product of later medieval folklore rather than ancient mythology. In fact, many of the tales we associated with the Cailleach can be traced back to the late-19th Century, Gaelic revival in Scotland, where she features much more prominently than in Irish folklore. However. although the Cailleach is best known throughout the Gaelic speaking lands of Ireland and Scotland, there are early literary references which suggest she may in fact, be of ancient Spanish origin. Classical writings indicate that she was known as early as the 5th Century BC, in the area known today as Galicia, which gets its name from a Celtic tribe known as the Callaeci. This tribe on the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula were first named as the ‘Kallaikoi’ by the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th Century BC; before being Latinised by Roman writers to ‘Callaeci’ in the 3nd Century BC - a name which Ptolemy suggested as meaning ‘worshippers of the Callaec’. Interestingly, in Spanish folklore, another name for Galicia is "Terra Meiga" (Land of the Witches). Given that recent linguistic and genetic evidence points to a possible migration from Spain to Ireland during the Bronze-Age (2500-500BCE) - It is possible that the Irish ‘Cailleach’ is a variant of an ancient sovereignty goddess, brought here in the Bronze Age by the same Indo-European people, from whom the Gaelic peoples of Scotland & Ireland are descended from.