Places

The place index. The mythological places of Ireland, each with an entry of its own, browsable by cycle and theme.

Cross-cycle Brú na Bóinne / Newgrange Brú na Bóinne, the Palace of the Boyne, is Ireland's great Neolithic passage-tomb complex in County Meath, known in myth as Síd in Broga, the otherworld mound of the Dagda and Aengus Óg.
Cross-cycle Connla's Well / Tobar Segais Connla's Well (Tipra Chonnlai) is the Otherworld well of wisdom in Irish mythology, lying at the mythical source of the Shannon, ringed by nine hazels whose nuts feed its salmon and release the bubbles of poetic inspiration.
Cross-cycle Croagh Patrick Croagh Patrick is Ireland's foremost pilgrimage mountain, a 764-metre quartzite pyramid above Clew Bay in County Mayo where tradition says St Patrick fasted forty days, and where pilgrims still climb each Reek Sunday.
Cross-cycle Cruachan / Rathcroghan Rathcroghan, ancient Cruachan, is the royal capital of Connacht: the seat of Medb and Ailill, the opening stage of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, and home of Oweynagat, the cave medieval texts call Ireland's gateway to the Otherworld.
Cross-cycle Eó Mugna Eó Mugna was one of the five great sacred trees of medieval Irish tradition, a colossal oak in south County Kildare said to bear acorns, apples and hazelnuts together, revealed at the birth of Conn of the Hundred Battles and overthrown by the poets.
Cross-cycle Eó Rossa Eó Rossa, the Yew of Ross, was one of the five great sacred trees of early Ireland, the famed yew of Leinster at Old Leighlin in County Carlow, praised in a litany of thirty-one poetic epithets and felled, tradition says, by the prayer of Saint Laserian.
Folklore Fairy Forts Fairy forts are the earthen and stone ringforts of early medieval Ireland, up to 60,000 of which survive, held in folk tradition to be dwellings of the Sídhe and guarded by some of the most enduring prohibitions in Irish culture.
Folklore Holy Wells and Rag Trees Holy wells are sacred springs venerated across Ireland for healing, visited on pattern days for sunwise rounds, and typically paired with a rag tree hung with votive cloth.
Ulster Knocknarea Knocknarea is a 327-metre limestone hill west of Sligo town crowned by Miosgán Médhbh, Medb's Cairn: one of Ireland's largest unexcavated Neolithic monuments and, in later folklore, the standing tomb of the warrior queen of Connacht.
Kings Royal Inauguration Trees and Assembly Sites Royal inauguration trees, each called a bile, stood at Gaelic assembly sites where kings were made; felling a rival's sacred tree was a supreme act of political desecration.
Cross-cycle Tara Tara, the Hill of the Kings in County Meath, is the ritual heart of Irish sovereignty, where high kings were inaugurated, the Lia Fáil was said to cry out beneath the rightful ruler, and the five provinces of Ireland meet.
Folklore The Lone Hawthorn and Fairy Paths The lone hawthorn, or fairy thorn, is a solitary whitethorn left uncut in Irish fields because tradition holds it belongs to the fairies, whose invisible paths run between forts, hills and lone trees.
Cross-cycle Tír na nÓg Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth, is the great Irish Otherworld: a realm beyond the western sea, beneath the waves or inside the hollow hills, where time runs differently, no one ages or dies, and abundance never ends.