Corleck Hill is an drumlin in the townland of Drumeague, County Cavan, Ireland. It is best known as a major site for the pre-Christian Lughnasadh festival, which continued to be celebrated at Corleck until the early modern period.
Ancient site
editCorleck Hill was a significant Druidic site of worship during the Iron Age,[1][2] described as once being "the pulse of Ireland".[1][3] From the early Christian period, it became a major site for the Lughnasadh, an ancient harvest festival celebrating the Celtic god Lugh, a warrior king and master craftsman of the Tuatha Dé Danann—one of the foundational Irish tribes in Irish mythology.[4]
Its Irish names include Sliabh na Trí nDée (the "Hill of the Three Gods") and Sliabh na nDée Dána (the "Highland of the Three Gods of Craftsmanship"). It is one of six regions in Ulster where clusters of seemingly related stone idols have been found.[5] Other ancient objects from the area around Corleck include the 1st century BC wooden Ralaghan Idol,[a][6] a small contemporary spherical stone head from the nearby townlands of Corravilla, and the Corraghy Heads.[7][8]
Until the 19th century, the hill contained a stone circle and three Neolithic passage graves, the largest of which was known locally as the "giant's grave".[9][10] The monuments were excavated during the 18th and 19th centuries.[9][10] The excavation uncovered a cruciform chamber, while the mound's stones were used to build a dwelling house nearby, known locally as the "Corleck Ghost House."[10]
See also
edit- The Corleck Head and Corraghy Heads, Celtic stone idols found on the hill, usually dated to the 1st century AD
Footnotes
editExplanatory notes
edit- ^ The townland of Ralaghan is about 7 km (4.3 mi) south-east of Corleck Hill.
References
editSources
edit- Barron, Thomas J. "Some Beehive Quernstones from Counties Cavan and Monaghan". Clogher Record, vol. 9, no. 1, 1976. JSTOR 27695733 doi:10.2307/27695733
- MacKillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-1986-0967-4
- Paterson, T.G.F. "Carved Head from Cortynan, Co. Armagh". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 92, no. 1, 1962. JSTOR 25509461
- Ross, Anne. Druids: Preachers of Immortality. Cheltenham: The History Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7524-1433-1
- Ross, Anne. The Pagan Celts. Denbighshire: John Jones, 1998. ISBN 978-1-8710-8361-3
- Rynne, Etienn. "The Three Stone Heads at Woodlands, near Raphoe, Co. Donegal". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 94, no. 2, 1964. JSTOR 25509564