Loughcrew
Determined now her tomb to build,
Her ample skirt with stones she filled,
And dropped a heap on Carnmore;
Then stepped one thousand yards, to Loar,
And dropped another goodly heap;
And then with one prodigious leap
Gained Carnbeg; and on its height
Displayed the wonders of her might.
And when approached death’s awful doom,
Her chair was placed within the womb
Of hills whose tops with heather bloom.
Jonathan Swift, c. 1720
The cairns at Loughcrew are the largest complex of passage graves in Ireland. There are two groups of cairns originally built about 4000 bc as burial chambers. Legend has it that Garavogue, the local incarnation of An Cailleach Bhéara was attempting a magical spell that required she drop stones on each of the three peaks at Loughcrew peaks.. Had she succeeded, she would have ruled over all of Ireland. She was able to drop her cairns of stones on the first two peaks, but missed her mark and fell to her death on her last leap. the point of her death is marked by one large stone called the Throne of the Goddess. Its said that if you sit on the throne on a star filled night your hearts wish will come true.
