Those of you who know me can honestly say you never know where I’ll turn up, this week it’s in magickal Ireland. Home of fairies and legends, kings and craic, Ireland does not disappoint. There has been a lot written lately about the magick of Ireland, and I tip my furry wool cap to those writers, but this is how I do … Ireland. As both an anthropologist and a ritualist burial sites excite me to no end. I’ve seen tombs big and small, bog bodies, and sacred bones. This trip around I was looking forward to visiting the “Hag’s Bed,” a neolithic tomb site.
The sign at the site reads :
This is one of the biggest wedge-shaped gallery graves in the country. These graves were erected in many parts of Ireland during the early Bronze age around 1500 B.C.E. and are particularly common in the South-West of Ireland. This tomb consists of one large and one small chamber covered by three massive capstones. The burial chamber is surrounded by a stone cairn flanked by further upright stones in a U-formation. Excavation in 1934 produced inhumation burials and fragments of pottery, bone, and stone.
Magickal Ireland is full of stories and legends and this site is no different. According to my local friends, who were also my very gracious hosts for this portion of my journey, the tale is as follows ” Essentially it belonged to, or it was the place of, the wife of the last ArchDruid of Ireland, back in the mythological mists of time. She was a great power, and he was having a dalliance, or not paying her the right attention. There is a boulder in the river, and the story is he annoyed her one day and she threw it at him. Lots of that in Ireland. But when they opened it up, when they opened the mound up ….and went into it they found in there the mortal remains of a very tall woman minus her head. The head was buried in the next chamber along inside it. Now it is one of these with a light box that on the equinox sunset shines down into it and illuminates the inner chamber where the head was. ”
Magickal Ireland: Equinox at the Hag’s Bed
My friends also made a film of this event, you can watch here
The burial mounds here at the Hag’s Bed dates to over 4,000 years ago. It is full of magickal energy and power and I highly recommend visiting if you are in this part of Ireland. Like it’s larger cousins, Newgrange and Knowth, these tombs illustrate the importance of ancestral worship and Pagan magick in Ireland. Have you been here ? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. As always if you have enjoyed what you read here please remember to share, share, share !
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