To The Birth Of Columcille & Before

by John Willmott of Celtic Ways

A beautiful warm sunny day
It was my next attempt to Innishmurray island
but the swell of the seas banished my attempt again.

There are still some missing links to my developing
"Following Columcille" guide, and Inishmurray
is not the only one, a visit to his birthplace, Gartan,
was also needed
..... so off to Gartan I went.

In some way this was a calling.
The night before I had overseen a wonderful wedding
reception, dinner and dance at Markree Castle
attended by mainly Donegal farmers.
These are wonderful people, family farmers who live
a connected life of land, family, conservation and business.

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Colmcille Heritage Centre
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Beautifully located beside Lough Gartan, I arrived as
it opened and browsed quietly amongst its gathered
relics and photos. There was a lot on Iona.

The Heritage Centre is a huge building
yet so little of it seemed to be used.
Was this a euro-government funded excess
to improve Co. Donegal employment statistics?
I did feel it needed much more use
....... and then some answers happened.

Soon after thinking the above
a bus of young schoolchildren from a school in Tyrone arrived.
While talking to their priest I mentioned I was a stone mason on Iona.
The heritage centre people quickly found out
..... so after their presentation video I was asked to give the
children a talk on my experiences on Iona and connections
I knew of Iona to Columcille. I kept it simple.

They seemed to enjoy it and asked some incredibly intelligent
questions for 9 and 10 year olds. I forgot how young people are
very much in tune with so much that we may lose as we get older.
I forgot that I explored my first passage tombs at 6 years old.

After the talk it was off to the Heritage Centre dining room
for tea, coffee and the best scones.

I had seen the Heritage Centre in action
a wonderful large theatre for groups
followed by an equally large dining area for refreshment
and casual chat.

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Columcille's Birth Place ?
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Lacknacoo ........
This is one of the strangest places I have visited
and was possibly more symbolic than fact,

First, this is the site of a large ancient cairn,
possibly the remains of a small portal tomb,
and probably an important site of Columcille's
family on his father's side.

An intriguing large stone with several cupmarks
is beside it along with iron ore stains.
It was probably an ancient ceremonial stone.
These are often found beside ancient tombs.

Legend says this was a healing stone to lay on
for overcoming sorrow, grief and loneliness.

Beside the tomb is also a modern high cross.
Intriguingly, there is no crucifixion or Christian story images
carved, only some pre-Christian symbols.
Often, Christian crosses or images are planted on
top of cairns or even dug into them.
It was good to see this one at the side.

Between the high cross and cairn someone has gathered
the cut grass and formed a neat Celtic Cross with it.

Next to the high cross is a birth stone
looking more like a tomb stone.
Intriguingly the English version of the inscription
calls him St. Columba, but the Gaelic version
retains the name Colm Cille, as it should be.

Overall, this was probably not Columcille's birthplace
but a sacred place that was, for some reason,
adopted by the Adares, former owners of Glenveagh Estate,
as Columcille's birthplace. The probably reason is that
this site is on the estate but the "real" birthplace is not.

As I left I noticed nearby fields had fallen standing
stones and one had mysterious markings.
A local told me it was a crow's foot.
A crow with a foot about 2ft by 1ft ????

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Columcille's 1st or 2nd Monastic Site
-----------------------------------------------------

Next was to the site of Churchtown where there are remains
of a church, abbey, holy well and crosses.

These form a 7 station Turas but I only found 6 of them.

I suspect Turas 2, which I could not find, is the Natal Stone
within the church, and this is more likely to be the place of
Columcille's birth.

The whole area was an early monastic site.

After Columcille escaped the threat of famine while staying
at Glasnevin, now part of North Dublin city, it seems to make sense
that he first returned to his birthland and set up small monasteries
both in Gartan and Glencolumbkille before the prestigious Derry.
There are signs of a fusion between the old druidistic ways and
early Christianity at Gartan and Glencolumbkille that may not be
in Derry, perhaps his first all Christian monastery.

Finally, while at Gartan, I went south of the Lough to the Catholic church
which is sited near what is called Columcille's Holy Well and Bed.

Both the well and bed are quite hard to find and quite a walk from
the church. I found the well, surprisingly, as its entrance is very
overgrown. The bed I did not find as it seems to be lost in a
thick forestry plantation.

This lack of care and access to the well and bed surprised me
because the Catholic church is one of the most pristine I have seen.
I presume the church's site was chosen due to its closeness
to the Columcille's well and bed , yet there's no attempt to maintain a
path and access to these.

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Doon
----------------

I forgot to check out Templedouglas church south of Church Hill village,
which is where Columcille was baptized, and did not quite make it into
Kilmacrennan where Columcille lived as a child with his foster-father
and teacher Father Cruithnechán.

Instead I turned off into Doon near Kilmacrennan.

Doon is most famous for Doon Rock, the site of the ordination of
O'Connell chieftains. Columcille's father was an O'Connell
This ceremonial rock provides a spectacular view of
most of Donegal. Lucky I had a clear sunny day.

Below Doon Rock is a holy well .... in the garden of a Scottish lady.
The well has wooden doors.
Anyone wanting a drink or bottle of the water must first recite
5 Our Fathers and Hail Marys while walking around a nearby
hawthorn bush bare footed.
She actually sits by the well to make sure people do this,
then opens the doors to allow entrance to the well.
A modern day hag?

From the well is a beautiful path to a hidden mass rock.

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Driving Around
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Heading back to Co. Sligo the day was still light and sunny
so a great excuse for detours.

First, I was intrigued by a stone I had seen in a field at a junction
a few miles south east of Church Hill. It turned out to be a fallen
standing stone by a small cairn. This turned out to be the shape
of several standing stones I was to see during the trip home,
almost a palm shape with a finger pointing up,
or if looked at another angle a seat shape?

A mile or so on I visited Conwal cemetery that has a large
raised burial or ceremonial area full of interesting cross
slabs or different cross designs. They reminded me of the
closed museum of cross slabs at Iona's nunnery site.
One of the standing stones seems to have a faint sheela-na-gig.

Beside this whole area was another of those pointing standing stones.

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Beltany
-------------------

As I was close by I decided a trip to Beltany stone circle
could not be missed. I have been before but no matter how
often a site is visited you'll always see and feel something different.

On the way I was shocked to see a wrecked ancient tomb covered
by a modern electric pylon. The odd thing was its pylon was different
to the rest of them in the line. What had happened to the original?

Beltany, near Raphoe, is assumed to just a be a huge ceremonial stone circle
from around 1000 BC. My time at Carrowmore, a week previous,
definitely altered my perception of Beltany.

A regular ceremonial stone circle has definite entrance and
alignment stones and can be clearly recognized as a ceremonial place.
Beltany seems to be an adaption.

I'm sure the 64 stones, which were probably originally 80+,
form what was the kerb of a huge passage tomb of around
3000 BC with a similar presence and status to Knowth
and New Grange. It reminded me of being a larger Listaghill.

Somehow, with the coming of the big freeze of around 800 BC
that was threatening harvests I believe the cairn and tomb stones may
have taken to form more ceremonial circles like seen at
Beaghmore in Tyrone and Drumskinney in Fermanagh
as an attempt to pray for better climates and crops.

An alignment stone positioned outside of the circle is probably
more recent. It even has a faint sheela-na-gig carved.
This lines with a triangular stone with cup marks carved on
the side facing into the circle and both align to Tullywrap,
a small hill about 5 miles away but marks the May 5th sunrise,
Beltaine, which gives the circle and its townland its name.

While I was at Beltany it was also being visited by people on
horses and others taking their dogs for a walk.
Even if you know nothing about the Beltany circle
its a wonderful destination for a blast of clear air
and peaceful views.

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Returning Home After A Surprise Meeting
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Continuing to take narrow roads back to the main road
to return me to Co. Sligo I passed and photographed
several standing stones, tombs and cairns, mainly
in farm fields. I found a huge stash of field mushrooms
around one standing stone, that I cooked up that evening.
They are best eaten when still pink underneath before
going brown. Delicious !!!!

As I drove away from the mushroomed stone the road
was blocked by a combine harvester coming towards me.
I reversed to detour and then faced a herd of cattle coming
towards me. Driving this cattle was one of the farmers
who had been at the Markree Castle wedding the night before.
We were both surprised

He invited me to his house for tea etc.
..... and he has a finger pointing standing stone beside his house
that was not on the map.

Wonderful man. He's setting up something like
Live Aid in Ireland because family farms are being hit
hard by imports of food Irish farmers could provide.
Because Irish farmers have to cut their prices they also
reduce wages .... so most young farmworkers are going into
building and its leaving few remaining to work the land.
Family farming in Ireland is sadly dying fast.

He said the access issues are part of a frustration of
farmers fighting to maintain their incomes. A gate open
or animals disturbed, or worse still, the cost of a court
case is a huge fear for them. Most of them do not like
the government access schemes.

He says the best option is to always ask the farmer
who then advises if its ok or not. He says hardly any farmer
is going to say no just for the sake of saying no.
.... but a farmer always likes to know that people
are entering at their own risk
and also if they are dressed right !!!!

He liked my idea of a web site of farmers contact info
and information for walkers as most farmers have
mobiles and can discuss access over the phone
when someone wants it.

On my way home the moon rose
and I did capture a photo of the moonrise beside
Drumcliffe church on the site of the old
Columcille monastry there and burial site of W.B. Yeats
beside the mysterious Ben Bulben mountain.

The heart of Donegal is only 2 hours drive away.
Very handy. I look forward to some of you joining me
on future Donegal adventures.


To join me on visits to ancient and early Christian sites
plus accommodation and meals at Markree Castle, Co. Sligo
send your requests through this link