03/09/2026
We highly recommend a jaunt up the hill!
AN INTERESTING ARTICLE - QUEEN MEAVE.
Carrowmore, County Sligo.
Article: 1907; photograph 1896.
The following article, from the pen of Mr Samuel Seaton, appeared in a recent issue of "Ireland's Own”:-
There are few places in Connaught more interesting than Carrowmore and the surrounding districts in county Sligo. Should the pen of an Irish Sir Walter Scott arise up in the twentieth century, it is all that is necessary to make Connaught one of the most favoured tourists' resorts in Ireland or perhaps in Europe. If the beautiful and romantic scenery of the West was batter known, tourists would soon cease to visit Switzerland and Norway. The air from the rough unshorn heathery hills is more beautiful and invigorating. Nowhere is it more so than around Carrowmore, the Glen, and Knocknarea.
The distance from Sligo to Knocknarea is not more than six or seven miles, and those who are too lazy to walk can cycle. If too lazy to cycle, one may drive, but no person in the full enjoyment of health and strength car enjoy the wild scenery better than on foot. I have walked almost twenty miles in a day, stopping occasionally to make inquiries, and never felt the least fatigued.
The peasantry are courteous and obliging to strangers. They gave me all the information I required, and even more. As to their hospitality, it could not be equalled by that of princes. A walk over the side or a circular drive can be taken round the base of Knocknarea, and charming views may be obtained of the Bays of Ballisodare and Sligo, glinting in the sun like mirrors of silver.
When passing over the level ground on the Sligo side of the hill, I called at the house of a small farmer to rest and make some inquiries about the place. There was an old man in the house between seventy and eighty years of age, who offered to tell me all he knew, and when I told him I came from Donegal, he was more friendly than ever, and said he was glad that I took an interest in the history of the place, for be was sorry to say that the young people who were now growing up took no more interest in the history of their native district than the beasts of the field that grew and fattened on the soil.
After I had rested and refreshed myself he took me out to see the places where the battle of North Moytura was fought, and pointed out to me no less than seventy sepulchre stone monuments, which are mementoes of that great fight. They extended over a district of of about two square miles. Any tourist with antiquarian tastes could not do better than to visit them. He would be amply repaid for his trouble. In all my travels over Ireland I have never come across anything to equal them. The Cromleach is the grandest of the series. It is over seven feet in height, and I entered it by stooping slightly. My companion told me that it’s ancient name was Leaba-na-Fian but it is now called the "Kissing Stone.” Only the day was too far advanced the old man promised to show me a still more interesting sight. I promised that if next day would be favourable I would go back, and he agreed to accompany me.
The next day was fine, and I hired a conveyance lest it would be too far for the old man to walk, and we started for the Glen, which lies within a short distance of the base of Knocknarea hill. It is of most wonderfully wild formation, and one of the most curious laces that ever came under my notice, and well worthy of a visit that I would not hare missed it on any account. Many rare fems and plants grow here, and extend up the slopes of the steep hillsides, and are sheltered on almost every side by the huge perpendicular rocks hill which stand up like gravestones.
The hill or mountain of Knocknarea rises to a height of a thousand feet above the level of the sea on the shore where it is situated. Stranger still on it’s highest summit is built a huge gigantic monument of sepulchral design, and can be seen for almost a radius of twenty miles. It is shaped like an immense pyramid. I walked round its base and measured it. As near as I can calculated, it is between six and seven hundred yards in circumference. I also measured its sloping sides at several places, and they rise on an average to about seventy feet. At the top it is over eighty feet in breadth.
I have stood on the summit of many an Irish hill, but the view from the top of this cairn was grander and more comprehensive than any I had hitherto experienced. The Gap of Barnesmore in County Donagal, more than fifty miles distant, came distinctly under my notice. Away to the west the Atlantic Ocean extended out and died away in the distance and mists of the horizon. On the opposite side of Sligo Bay a range of hills extending from Lough Erne to Benbulben seemed to be within an easy distance. On the other side the great cliffs of Slieve Liag appeared close at hand, although twenty-five miles distant.
The hills that lay between where I stood and Manorhamilton, and further round towards the south the chain of the Ox Mountains, together with the peak of Slieve Daene on the distant shore of Lough Gill, stand out in bold relief against the clear blue sky. The stupendous cliffs, the lakes, rivers and high mountains within a radius of more than fifty miles, came all under my eve, and formed a picture which for grandeur, sublimity and varied beauty, I am unable to find language to describe.
I began to inquire what such a rough pile or monument was raised for. The stories and the legends that were told to me by the peasantry were both weird and wonderful. After wading through a mass of legendary information, gather that this was the tomb and monument of a famous Queen of Connaught, who reigned in the pre-historic ages between two three thousand years ago, and that her name was Meave. If this be true, it is the oldest monument in Ireland, and will doubtless last as long as the hill on which it is built. Queen Meave, from what I was told about her, must have been a prominent personage in her day.
No queen ever born within these islands could have equalled her for wisdom, knowledge, education, and refinement. She was a queen in her own right, and so graceful and pretty that she had offers of marriage from all the young princes and sovereigns of Europe, who flocked to Ireland to be educated. At this remote period Ireland was the only country in Europe in which there were seats of learning. Each proposal was met with a kind and courteous refusal, stating that she could never think of insulting her subjects by marrying a foreigner.
At length, when wearied out refusing foreign princes, she married her Prime Minister on account of his great wisdom and abilities. His name was Ailill, but he did not live long. After his death she had an offer of marriage from an Ulster hero called Cuchullian. The offer was declined, and soon afterwards she married her late husband's cousin, whose name was Ailill.
On hearing the news of her marriage. Cuchullian became enraged, raised an army, and began to march towards Connaught to invade her territory. When Queen Meave heard of the army of the invaders she fitted out an expedition and a fierce battle ensued. Although Cuchullian defeated and killed in single combat the bravest champion in Meave's army, he was afterwards overpowered and killed. Queen Meave ever afterwards enjoyed peace, and lived to be more than one hundred years of age. After the death of her second husband she was married a third time, and lived many years afterwards.
Queen Maeve's monument has never been opened, and what treasures of antiquity it may contain are unknown. It is, however one of the most interesting spots in Connaught, and no tourist will regret paying it a visit.
Photograph: Queen Maeve's cairn photographed by Robert John Welch on his way to visit Carrowmore in 1896.
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