Exploring The Legendary Keshcorran
by John Willmott of Celtic Ways
I have lived near below the Keshcorran or Ceis Corann caves and mountain for a few weeks, but it took until a beautiful warm sunny day yesterday before I explored my legendary neighbourhood.
There is a gate south of me that I was told leads to a path that creates an easy climb. Easy climb is debatable, but once up on top the stunning views make it worthwhile. Croagh Patrick dominates the west even though its about 90 miles away, Ben Bulben looks surprisingly small, the Joyce Mountains entering into the Connemara are seen too. To the east was some haze or mist, but I suspect without that the Wicklow mountains and Mourne mountains come into view. If so, that's about 50% to 75% of Ireland that can be seen here.
After an hour's walk, some tricky, I reached the cairn. Its a point where several more sights come into view such as the cairns of Carrowkeel, which look surprisingly much lower, Lough Key, Lough Arrow and their mysterious islands, the County Sligo coastline of beaches and cliffs and, most important, Maeve's cairn.
Keshcorran's cairn is unopen, but there is a section that dips in suggesting an entrance pointing to a cross quarter sunset like the Carrowkeel cairns. I suspect, like the Carrowkeel cairns, this will also have a passage with a backstone that aligns to Maeve's cairn. As this is the highest cairn in the area I suspect it was tributed to someone incredibly important as far back as 7000 BC.
Walking away I came across two piles of stones that looked like collapsed cairns of the more modern wedge or portal tomb model. More modern, meaning as recent as 2000 BC.
Next destination was the legendary Keshcorran Caves that, for one, are a major inspiration behind Lord Of The Rings. I noticed a tractor track and followed it and soon discovered this was the "easy" way to get to the cairn in future.
I was told that visiting the caves were a disappointment and not worth the visit, but I was knocked out by them. I was told that it was impossible to walk around the large cave, but that's not quite true either. Its a fascinating cave with tunnels going in several directions. Next time I'll bring a torch. There is part where if you stick your foot in the mud it seems to be bottomless. I did not attempt to see how deep it really is.
A lot of the cave's floor is dry. There's plenty of room to shelter, rest, have picnics and admire the stunning view. Most intriguing is the view of Lough Feenagh with a shoreline that is almost the shape of Ireland.
There are several caves and the archaeologists have given them letters but I was not in an academic mood to follow them on my first visit. One cave had a tiny trickling waterfall dropping water into a seemingly natural bowl. It was very enchanting and fairy tale like, though the water, somehow, did not seem appealing to drink.
I returned home by returning to the tractor track I had found from near the cairn that led to the road. Walking along the road I found a much easier way to climb to the caves, which I will now use when I guide people there. Conveniently, the easy track has a wonderful area for parking a minibus.
Somehow, I passed Cormac's well, a foundation for one of Keshcorran's main legends. Cormac MacAirt was the King Arthur of Ireland and his soldiers are said to be asleep in Keshcorran waiting for when Ireland needs them.
There's still so much to see here and within a year or two I will release "Following The Tales Of Kesh" sharing the legends and sites that are abundant here.
I have lived near below the Keshcorran or Ceis Corann caves and mountain for a few weeks, but it took until a beautiful warm sunny day yesterday before I explored my legendary neighbourhood.
There is a gate south of me that I was told leads to a path that creates an easy climb. Easy climb is debatable, but once up on top the stunning views make it worthwhile. Croagh Patrick dominates the west even though its about 90 miles away, Ben Bulben looks surprisingly small, the Joyce Mountains entering into the Connemara are seen too. To the east was some haze or mist, but I suspect without that the Wicklow mountains and Mourne mountains come into view. If so, that's about 50% to 75% of Ireland that can be seen here.
After an hour's walk, some tricky, I reached the cairn. Its a point where several more sights come into view such as the cairns of Carrowkeel, which look surprisingly much lower, Lough Key, Lough Arrow and their mysterious islands, the County Sligo coastline of beaches and cliffs and, most important, Maeve's cairn.
Keshcorran's cairn is unopen, but there is a section that dips in suggesting an entrance pointing to a cross quarter sunset like the Carrowkeel cairns. I suspect, like the Carrowkeel cairns, this will also have a passage with a backstone that aligns to Maeve's cairn. As this is the highest cairn in the area I suspect it was tributed to someone incredibly important as far back as 7000 BC.
Walking away I came across two piles of stones that looked like collapsed cairns of the more modern wedge or portal tomb model. More modern, meaning as recent as 2000 BC.
Next destination was the legendary Keshcorran Caves that, for one, are a major inspiration behind Lord Of The Rings. I noticed a tractor track and followed it and soon discovered this was the "easy" way to get to the cairn in future.
I was told that visiting the caves were a disappointment and not worth the visit, but I was knocked out by them. I was told that it was impossible to walk around the large cave, but that's not quite true either. Its a fascinating cave with tunnels going in several directions. Next time I'll bring a torch. There is part where if you stick your foot in the mud it seems to be bottomless. I did not attempt to see how deep it really is.
A lot of the cave's floor is dry. There's plenty of room to shelter, rest, have picnics and admire the stunning view. Most intriguing is the view of Lough Feenagh with a shoreline that is almost the shape of Ireland.
There are several caves and the archaeologists have given them letters but I was not in an academic mood to follow them on my first visit. One cave had a tiny trickling waterfall dropping water into a seemingly natural bowl. It was very enchanting and fairy tale like, though the water, somehow, did not seem appealing to drink.
I returned home by returning to the tractor track I had found from near the cairn that led to the road. Walking along the road I found a much easier way to climb to the caves, which I will now use when I guide people there. Conveniently, the easy track has a wonderful area for parking a minibus.
Somehow, I passed Cormac's well, a foundation for one of Keshcorran's main legends. Cormac MacAirt was the King Arthur of Ireland and his soldiers are said to be asleep in Keshcorran waiting for when Ireland needs them.
There's still so much to see here and within a year or two I will release "Following The Tales Of Kesh" sharing the legends and sites that are abundant here.
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