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On August 18th, as part of Heritage Week, the Quin Heritage Group hosted an engaging talk on the historic Creevagh Beg Fort on Power’s land. Presented by Michael Houlihan, the event attracted history enthusiasts and locals eager to learn about the rich heritage of the area.

The talk provided a deep dive into the significance of Creevagh Beg and its surrounding stone forts, highlighting their construction methods, historical context, and archaeological findings that date back thousands of years. Michael shared fascinating insights into the various types of structures found in Clare, including crannogs, earthen forts, and the unique drystone construction methods employed in the region.

Attendees heard of the lifestyle of the communities that once thrived around these forts, including their agricultural practices and the vital role of cattle farming. Ann MacNamara spoke about the intriguing folklore surrounding fairy forts, enriching the narrative of these ancient sites.

The event celebrated the architectural marvels of the past and fostered a sense of community among attendees, sparking conversations about preserving and promoting our local heritage.

Michael discussed the archaeological significance of Creevagh Beg and other stone forts in Clare, highlighting their historical context from the Upper Palaeolithic period to the medieval era. The key points of his talk are as follows:

Progression of  Earlier Clare Habitations through different types:

  • Caves– Butchered bear patella found in the Alice andGwendoline Cave in 1903 pushed our history back to 12500 years ago (Upper Palaeolithic). 14 of 259 Clare caves show occupation at some time.
  • Post holes on Mooghaun Hill indicate the presence of round huts of wattle and timber, from the Neolithic into the Late Bronze age. One hut site stands in Ballymarkahan near fort.
  • Crannogs in East Clare lakes were present from the Bronze Age to early medieval times (eg Knocknalappa Lake). There are 39 crannogs in 20 locations across the county.
  • Forts – Both earthen and stone structures. Predominant in the Iron Age/ Early Christian period. Possibly 1,400 remain in Clare.
  • Peel Towers– Anglo-Norman technology quickly adopted by the Gaelic Irish. Clann Cuileán/the MacNamaras raised ~ 80 towers.
  • Tudor/Cromwellian builds (Lemanagh) and the ‘Big Houses’.
  • Vernacular homes.

Proliferation of Archaeology (Westropp, 1909):-

‘Of forts Doora, Clooney, Tulla and Kilnoe had some fifty each; Quin had over eighty. There are nearly fifty Dolmens and at least twenty-five peel-towers, showing how important a centre  of population the plain must have been from early time down to and past the Norman Conquest.’

Stone forts are known as cashels, cahers, lioses, raths, dúns etc. Busiest in the late medieval in a Gaelic (not Anglo-Norman) area. 600AD to 900AD seemed to have been the main building period.

Quin Stone Forts

Construction:  Dry stone construction methods began in the Neolithic e.g. The Céide Fields in Mayo. There are over 900 stone forts in Clare. Quin forts are described as ‘Dispersed individual farmsteads’. (No ‘towns’ in the area).

Stone Forts were typically:

  • Clustered around a high status fort, with circular wall having a single opening, generally facing South/South East or towards the main fort.
  • Secured gate at the entrance, sometimes but not often with a hut for sentry.
  • Some had short causeways.
  • Walls were up to 12 feet high and four feet thick.
  • Many had an inner floor higher than the surrounding field.
  • Unlike Earthen forts, cashels generally had no fosse or ditch. Where you had double ramparts, the inner one was the strongest.
  • Dwellings were back from the walls and were of wooden construction and thatched.

Creevagh Beg has a souterrain for storage and shelter. Its outer wall has a diameter of about 100 metres. Relied on the community and not just the occupiers for defense due to its size. 

Finds: Some iron pieces found in Cahercalla and a few bronze pieces elsewhere.

Creevagh Beg forts known as Caherbane (bán– white) and Caherumine (méan-middle )

Cattle were the mainstay of the family, with an average of 20 animals per unit. Light tillage was practiced, usually in a small field beside the fort. Sheep and pigs were also retained for wool and home consumption.

Notable structures of the era nearby (from Westropp):

– ‘Two cahers south of Ballmarkahan Castle

– In the crags to the north-east of Ballymarkahan, partly in Knappogue and partly in Ballymarkahan, is a remarkable oblong stone fort.

– Ballymarkahan: The foundation of a little circular hut-ring lies near the more southern caher in this field; the northern caher is barely traceable.

– 100 feet to the north of these is a fine and perfect rath. The garth is not raised, nor has it a fosse; but it consists of a steep ring of earth and stones 7 to 8 feet high, planted with hawthorns.

– Creevagh: Across the river is a remarkable double fort. The fort on the summit is a circular ring-wall; the faces are nearly destroyed; but enough remains among the heaps of filling (15 to over 20 feet wide, and 3 or 4 feet high) to show that it was from 12 to 16 feet thick.

– The next reach has lintels, the outer only 3 feet 6 inches long, and is nearly filled; the sides incline, and it runs southward. The wall is 21 feet thick, and 15 feet beyond it is another fort of earth on the slope of the hill.

– Creevaghbeg: there is another caher, thickly planted with hawthorns, near the great fort. It has a wall greatly dilapidated, nearly circular outside, evidently 12 feet thick.

– A caher lies at a short distance down a gentle slope to the south-east. It was a massive fort, 87 to 90 feet across the garth, and 114 feet over all. The wall is 12 feet thick, and 8 feet high.
– There are three forts close together on the border of the townland near Dangan and Cahercalla. The southern is a caher. The wall is nearly uniform, 12 feet thick, with two facings of excellent masonry set with great skill to the curve.

– Cragataska This townland, with Cahercalla, lies north of the Creevaghs. It has the foundations of a caher, evidently the “Cahercragataska” mentioned in 1729. The wall was 12 feet thick, and the garth 102 feet wide, with curved enclosures inside.

– Cahercalla is the most famous for being the MacNamara triple-walled stone ringfort and homestead.’

References:
– Types of the Ringforts and Similar Structures remaining in Eastern Clare (Quin, Tulla and Bodyke), Thomas Johnson Westropp M.A., 1909.
– The Irish Ringfort, Matthew Stout, 1997.

 

 

 

Seán na Gealaí

Halloween is the direct descendent of Samhain. It was the night when the gap between this world and the spirit world narrowed.  Known as Oiche Shamhna or ‘spirit night’, the souls of the dead were expected to return to the family home. The Church introduced the Feast of All Saints (Nov1) and the Feast of All Souls (Nov 2nd) to counter Samhain. Evil spirits were also thought to be abroad and people avoided travelling alone on this night.

   “Deireann na daoine go mbíonn sidheogaí amuigh oidhche Shamhna”, Schools’ Collection (NFCS 249).

Origins of Samhain

Contender 1- Tulsk, County Roscommon

Oweynagat Cave, Uaimh na gCat, meaning the ‘Cave of the Cats’ in Rath Croaghan. The Book of Leinster names it as dorus iffrin na Hérend – Ireland’s Gateway to Hell. Demons and all kinds of creatures emerge from here on Oiche Shamhna.

 Echtra Nerai (the Adventures of Nera) is first mentioned in the 10th century Cath Maige Mucrama story,  happening at Samhain.

Oweynagat Cave is also said to be the home of the Morrigan. She is portrayed as a goddess of battle and war, with the power to transform into crows or ravens. Her dreaded cry was frequently heard over battlefields.

Echtra Nerai, the Adventures of Nera

An Irish text taken from the Ulster Cycle, dating to the tenth century entitled ‘Nera and the Dead Man’, tells of the warrior Nera who accepts a dare during a dark and stormy Samhain night to tie a withy around the ankle of a hanging dead man. As he does so, the corpse suddenly comes to life and asks Nera to carry him on his back. Nera complies. After some adventures Nera gets the dead man back to his tree. All of this takes place at Samhain at Rath Croaghan/Cruachan, hence its association with Halloween.

Contender 2 – Tlachtga, Meath

The original Tlachtga was a druidess of considerable power and importance, the daughter of Mug Ruith who lived on Valentia Island in Kerry. He is said to have lived through the reign of nineteen kings, with his lifespan stretching back to the time of Christ on earth. Tlachtga and her father could travel the world on the Rath, a fabulous spinning wheel of fire that easily transported them. Mug Ruith sought out knowledge and learning like few before him and it was in this manner that he and Tlachtga travelled to study under Simon Magus (Simon the Sorcerer), who is mentioned in the Bible.

Simon Magus and Mug Ruith sent Tlachtga out into the world to gather as much knowledge as she could find. Upon her return they realized that her knowledge far surpassed their own!
They were outraged and such was their jealousy that they set the three sons of Simon Magus upon Tlachtga, who defiled her. She returned to Ireland where she gave birth to three sons, Dorb (Doirb), Cuma (Cumma) and Muach.

It was on the hill of Ward in county Meath that Tlachtga brought her three sons into the world, and it was there that she died, unable to sustain her life in the face of the utter grief and despair she felt at the indignity she had endured.

In recent years a renewal of the annual gathering on the hill of Ward now attracts hundreds of people at Halloween. A walk from Athboy up towards the Hill itself culminates with a celebration, with elaborate ceremonies and an acknowledgement of the cultural gift to Ireland and the world that Tlachtga represents.

In the ancient kingdom of Mide, Tlachtga was considered an important assembly place alongside Tara, Teiltun and Uisneach. These four ‘corners’ are recorded as having been the location of fortresses constructed by high king Tuathal Techmar at the foundation of Mide in the early decades of the first millennium AD.

‘Much of the (archaeological) evidence points towards a long history of ritual activity. Large quantities of animal bones – a sign of large scale feasting have been found throughout all phases of the site. The lack of evidence of any residential or day to day activity strengthens the idea that it most likely it was set aside purely for ritual or celebratory activity.

There have been finds in all three phases of the site, including scattered Bronze Age human remains and the skeleton of an infant between seven and ten months old… The child burial, next to a ritual deposit of cow bones, dates to AD 450 – around the time of the arrival of Christianity.

“The child was clearly buried with care and having not found any evidence of burials on the site, we’d have to guess that This child belonged to someone significant”.

Harvest knots and Guises

 

 

Homemade masks made by village boys calling to local houses on Oiche Shamhna

Outdoors

Unlike May when the fairies are active, November Eve brings malevolent spirits. It is the night for community bonfires, especially in housing estates in the cities and towns. Collecting the last handful of fruit and nuts.

Indoors

Families would attempt to have a celebratory supper on Oiche Shamhna. Family supper might be colcannon or pandy. They would first secure the house by sprinkling Holy Water and possibly placing a religious object in the thatch near the front door.

Typical Samhain Food included pancakes, stampy (a potato and apple cake, crusted with barley, enhanced with sea spinach and rock samphire & cooked with oil) apple cakes, nuts, blackberry pies.

An bairín breac/the barmbrack or the ‘speckled loaf’, containing oodles of dried autumn fruits is still a favourite treat, with lashings of butter.

Tokens inside the traditional loaf included the ring as a symbol of love and marriage,  a thimble (spinsterhood); a button (bachelorhood); a stick (to be beaten by the spouse); a rag (poverty); a coin (wealth) and a crucifix (the taking of religious orders).

Future Reading