Hilltop raths are Ireland’s most common field monument. They date from the early centuries AD and were used to protect a house, its buildings, people and livestock in a safe enclosure. It is likely that the earthen bank was made stock proof by planting blackthorn, hawthorn, or gorse. If cut branches were used, these might […]
Trees of Folklore
Some trees are famous not because of what they are, so much as where they are. Such trees are usually associated with ancient historic or religious sites and are an integral part of their magic and mystery.
The Cranfield Well
At Cranfield on the northern shore of Lough Neagh is a most accessible rag tree. Like Ardboe on the southern shore, it is close to the shoreline beside the well-signed ruins of an old church, a scheduled historic monument which was once a monastic site. Here the well is still in good order with a […]
St. Patrick’s Well and Chair
The association of trees and wells is celebrated in various ways. Pieces of material – sometimes a small garment, like a glove, or a bandage from an injury – may be attached to a rag tree beside a well in a prayer for healing. The trees are always secondary in importance to the well, and […]
The Crab Trees, Ardboe
On the crest of a small hill on Battery Road, Ardboe, Co Tyrone close to the cross-roads known as Duffs Corner, is The Crab Tree. This low growing, multi-stemmed tree is held together and supported by binder twine tied to an old metal stake. It is a well known local landmark on a small island […]
The Gentry Tree, Kilrea
In contrast to fairy thorns standing alone in open fields, this is a town centre tree. Kilrea was developed under the Mercers Company as a local market town. In the 1770s mention was made of the ‘Gentry Tree’ (gentry being a euphemism for the special or fairy folk). When a wall was built around the […]
The Friar’s Bush, Belfast
There is still a bush in the Friar’s Bush graveyard, an old reclining hawthorn Crataegus monogyna at the end of the path into the graveyard. This ancient burial ground, with its distinctive entrance building now being renovated, is next to the Ulster Museum in Stranmillis Road. Now disused, the graveyard served the Catholic population of […]
Fairy Thorns
Throughout the Northern Ireland countryside, there is a special tree – not one tree, but many, – standing alone, unharmed through generations, guarding its special place. It is the Fairy Thorn. Most are hawthorn, the white thorn with its May blossom. Some ancient sites, especially in the uplands, are guarded by a rowan or mountain […]