Niamh & Robinson’s Easter Rambles – St. Colmcille

5th April 2023
Colmcille Ramble part 1 – Gartan, Donegal.
This Easter, we are going to ramble in the footsteps of one of Ireland’s three patron saints, Saint Columba (Latin version), aka Colmcille (Gaelic). Colmcille, like his fellow boss saints Patrick and Brigid, is both an authentic historical person and a folkloric superstar – it’s the folklore and tradition that we are exploring over the next few rambles. Each of the three saints mentioned here were at the earliest stages of Christianity in Ireland, so they were very much part of the transition from pre-Christian belief systems into a modern system that accommodated a lot of the old ways into a new framework. This means they are not just historical players, but symbols, influencers and celebrity figures in the unfolding story of the early Irish church.
We will get to Colmcille’s very significant role as missionary later in the series, but today we are visiting his birthplace at beautiful Gartan, in our own home county, Donegal. Tradition holds it that it was upon this flat stone, known as ‘Leac Na Cumha – LACK NA COO-A) that Colmcille’s mother Eithne (ETH-NA) gave birth in 521 EC. Curiously, the same stone is part of an ancient stone tomb, so we are seeing a pre-Christian sacred space becoming relabelled as a very special Christian space. The word ‘Cumha’ means a type of loneliness best described in English as homesickness, and there’s a tale that Colmcille left a blessing on the stone that would cure this condition; a bitter-sweet tradition in this area of Donegal was to spend a night at Leac Na Cumha before emigrating; Colmcille himself would emigrate to Scotland later in his life, and of course, hundreds of thousands of Donegal people would emigrate to Scotland and beyond for centuries afterwards.
The folklore and tradition of Colmcille is all around Gartan- you’ll find place names, crosses, holy wells,church sites, and plenty of stories involving cures and mystical manoeuvrings. This adds a magical dimension to an already beautiful and historical landscape.
Colmcille Part II- Glencolmcille 
We move on to a beautiful Glen in West Donegal which is actually named after our chap – Glencolmcille. There is a very famous pilgrimage or ‘Turas’ (thurras) that takes place here annually, and a host of stories and legends about the saint’s appearances here in the Glen- although there is no historical evidence that he was ever there. But the force is strong, and there is no doubt that Colmcille would train many future missionaries who would have established churches all over Ireland, so perhaps this explains the placename. Religious pilgrimages were most popular and important in medieval times and since then – they were considered as very constructive for getting into heaven. As you know, wealthier people found their way to the Holy Land, and to Rome, but there were more local pilgrimages established in medieval Ireland, and they were very important sources of revenue for the early church. It always helped if you could attach pilgrimages to superstar saints like Patrick and Brigid and Colm, and the tradition of celebrating saints’ days became very popular, and sometimes, a bit wild! When the reformation came, a stern stop was put to these practices, but of course, banning cultural and religious traditions that were centuries old only made them more popular and they also became associated with traditional values and a sense of Irish nationalism.
Although we call Colm, Brigid and Patrick ‘Saints’, they would never have been officially canonised, this was a practice that came in long after they went to their heavenly reward. But they are acknowledged as profoundly devout and holy, and active missionaries who built churches and monasteries and inspired many more to go and do Christian preaching and teaching. Legends and stories that could be located in and around the monastic sites, churches and abbeys flourished, with a generous dose of some miracles, magic, myth and hyperbole, and over centuries of repetition on dark winter nights by the fire, who is to say Colm Cille did not banish the demons sent to the Glen by Patrick, or turned poisonous water into curative water, and all the rest?
Anyhow, Glencolmcille has a lot going for it. It is staggeringly beautiful, and it is Irish-Speaking, and as an aside, I’ll say some of the nicest people in the universe live there. A very smart priest by the name of Fr. McDyer had the brainwave of creating a folk village, which is an extremely popular tourist amenity, and Liam O’Cuinegáin’s Oideas Gael School also brings thousands to this tiny, gorgeous glen. The turas itself is still very popular, and features 15 ‘stations’ – all stone monuments, and many of them pre-Christian, and the whole enterprise keeps Colmcille very much present in Donegal tradition- whether he was there or not!
#niamhandrobinson #easterrambles #glencolmcille #turas  
Easter Rambles- Good Friday and Irish Crosses.
We will digress slightly from our Colmcille turas as it is Good Friday, and so I thought we might ramble to some of the most stunning examples of old Irish crosses here in the Northwest. The earliest cross here is the slab cross at Kilaghtee, probably dating back to the seventh century, very early times in Irish Christianity. As the conversion of Ireland proceeded, crosses became taller and more decorative, many engraved with scenes from the Bible, but maintaining ornate patterns that pre-date Christian times. The unusual t-shaped Tau Cross is on Tory Island, and is a common icon in Greek Christian symbolism, so perhaps a bit of global influence here? Both the Tau Cross at Tory and the Drumcliffe high cross are associated with Colmcille, and although the Downpatrick cross is about Downpatrick, there was a claim that the bones of Colm and Brigid were brought to Downpatrick so that Ireland’s three patron saints would be buried together. I think this is as likely as finding W.B. Yeats’ bones in Sligo, but it tells us about the very real competition between church sites to claim ‘primacy’. There are very many crosses and carvings on the islands of Lough Erne, most require a boat to visit, but so worth it- I’ve included the decorative Devenish island cross here, but there are many more. The Inishowen Peninsula has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to crosses- but I do love the shadow cast by the impressively tall Cloncha cross- and that might be considered a suitable metaphor, because as you know, the church in Ireland would cast quite the shadow over the lives of many in times to come. However, so many of these old crosses mark much earlier sites of spiritual ritual – you’ll find old wells, wishing trees, tombs and cairns almost always in the vicinity – and plenty of stories about astonishing miracles and cures engineered by the associated early Christian saints.
Happy Easter to you all!

Colmcille Part III -Croghan Hill 
Today’s ramble is around a hill, known as Croghan (Cruh-Han) hill, in East Donegal. According to Dr. Brian Lacey, who is my go-to source of scholarship on Colmcille, this was once a very important ritual site, and center of the tribe of Connell, the folk who occupy the land of Connell ( Tír Chonaill) – and Colmcille is thought to have been a high-ranking member of this clan or tribe. He certainly had links to power, but as we know, it was missionary work that rang his bell, and so he was more at home in a monastery than in the ceremonial forts of his people. As Dr. Lacey points out, the story of Colmcille relies on piecing together archeology, history, mythology, hagiography and geography, and almost everything we know comes armed with a ‘maybe’- but the word ‘Croghan’ is associated with important ritual spaces, – one of the most famous ‘Rath Croghan’ is home to Queen Maeve of Connacht, and there are many more Croghan Hills around the country. So let’s go with the theory that this beautiful ridge overlooking Donegal and Derry, with its passage graves and cairns, was once the center of the power base that was the Cénel Conaill, Colmcille’s people. And on Easter Sunday, about 1500 years after the birth of Colmcille, we still get to remember this. Happy Easter!
#niamhandrobinson #easterrambles #donegal #croghanhill #colmcille #studyabroadireland
Colmcille Part IV – The Scottish Island of Mull 
 
We must, as Colmcille did, go to Scotland, with the destination of the island of Iona in mind. If I had my own boat, (it’s an ambition!) we could go directly from the coast of Ireland to the island of Iona, like Colmcille would have done, but it’s a little trickier than that, and requires getting a ferry from Ireland to Scotland, from Scotland to the island of Mull, and from Mull to Iona. But this, of course, is delightful, especially the island of Mull, which is a combination of big, moody landscapes and cute and colourful fishing towns. Today’s ramble takes in both – the beautiful little village of Tobermory, and the wildness of the road to the Iona ferry.
Colmcille’s reasons to leave Ireland for Scotland are probably connected to his desire to continue to build monasteries and keep spreading the word of Christianity, and monks liked islands and relative isolation, although it’s also true to say that it was easier to navigate rivers and coasts as opposed to cutting through forests. You will find a huge amount of pre-Christian and early Christian structures on islands all around Ireland and Scotland. However, it has become part of the story of Colmcille that he self-exiled to a remote Scottish island as a penance for a war that he had caused over a copy of a manuscript. This story comes from a descendent of Colmcille’s family, one of the powerful O’Donnells of Donegal, and links a massive battle and the manuscript to the legend of Colmcille. Not only do we get a reason for Colmcille’s emigration, we also get some other great stories about him returning to Ireland blindfolded, and wearing sods of Scottish turf tied to his feet (so he doesn’t actually ‘set foot’ in Ireland ever again).
What is interesting is that the story of the Cathach or copied manuscript emerges at around the same time as the Printing Press, and the famous ‘judgement’ of the wise old kings of the 6th century – ‘to every cow her calf, to every book its copy’ may well be a far more contemporary warning to would-be copiers. It’s a lot more imaginative then a sticker on your photocopier!

Colmcille Part V: Iona
The journey to the Scottish island of Iona is still only possible by boat, and the boats are still liable to be thwarted by bad weather. We had a choice of visiting Iona late in the evening when the ferry was definitely going over, or waiting until the next day, when passage was unlikely. So we chose the evening, even though darkness was already falling as we made our way out. It is impossible to be on the water and not imagine what it must have been like for the 6th century monks. While the friendly cottages would not have been blinking out their welcome, the island contours and blustery skies would have been the same. My eyes were sandblasted and watery, from the wind, but also from some undefinable sense of awe at the raw elemental nature of the journey.
Stories abound in the reasons for Colmcille’s move to the island of Iona, and some were mentioned yesterday, but he arrived in 563 and built a wooden church, and a writing hut for himself, which was more than likely on the hilly lump that’s photographed here- it’s called ‘Tór an Aba’ or the Hill of the Abbot. Almost as soon as they arrived, Colmcille and his monks began writing stuff down- dates and events, which eventually was collected into a chronicle, and this was later included in the Annals of Ireland. This is a vital source of information for later historians. When Colmcille dies on Iona in 597, he is buried on the island, and people start making pilgrimages there, hoping that proximity to a saintly man like CC will help them on their own spiritual journey. In 690, Adómnan, a well respected scholar writes a biography of Colmcille, and by the 1400s, pilgrimages to Iona are big business, and include stations at high crosses and at the vault containing the saint. With the cult of Colmcille comes the stories and legends- the miracles, the cures, the folklore – and more hagiographies. And here’s me, in 2023, out to see what all the fuss is about. So how successful was that for a campaign!
I think it is the remoteness and the relative endurance of these sites that impresses you the most. It is, for the most part, cliff and ocean, stone and ruin. It’s light and shade, and myth and legend. It was worth it, every second of twilight.
#studyabroadireland #colmcille #iona #easterrambles #niamhandrobinson #earlychristianity

Easter Rambles Part 6
Returning from Iona to Mull, I had heard of standing stones near Glengorm Castle, so obviously you would expect me to investigate on our behalf. The weather was a predictable mixture of torrential showers and sunshine, and it turned out the standing stones were not accessible by car, so out to a mucky roadway, up and around the castle, wondering if it was going to be worth it… and of course, it was. You can actually see the rain above the stones, probably a bronze age circle, and the weather only made the whole landscape look even more ancient and impressive. What is this to do with Colmcille, you ask? Nothing, I was just on my way home 🙂 we’ll get back to himself tomorrow.
#easterrambles #niamhandrobinson #Mull #colmcille
Colmcille Part VI – we are back from Scotland now, and we will finish up our Easter rambles back in Donegal, with a few more interesting places associated with this impressive scholar and legend. Close to Gartan is the townland of Kilmacrennan, also known as ‘Doire Eithne’. This invites speculation about CC’s mother, who was named Eithne, and was also believed to be from a significant family in Donegal, possibly from further north than here, but it’s not certain. It’s also worth noting that Eithne was a very important Goddess in pre-Christian times, so it’s possible that CC’s mother was given the name of Eithne by those fantastic architects of the rebranding project of early Christianity – this is also a possibility in Brigid (the Saint) being named with a nod to Brigid the Goddess. The name ‘Kilmacrennan’ is also from some of Colmcille’s nephews. It is also very likely that Colmcille’s first encounter with Christianity was here, – a stone slab says it was so, and that a monastery was built here by the saint, and then much later, the powerful O’Donnells built a Franciscan Friary on the site, part of which still stands. It, like many of the other sites we’ve seen, is very atmospheric, despite the low grey skies. Plenty of lambs too, of all colours, gambolling around the fields, we’ve popped a few pictures here, and don’t be worried about Robinson and the sheep, he’s strictly on his lead and anyway, as you can see, he’s much more interested in the archaeological history than the wooly ones. Best doggie!
#easterrambles #niamhandrobinson #kilmacrennan #donegal
Colmcille part VII Close by Kilmacrennan and Gartan is a very large hill, and if you ascend the hill, you have amazing views all around West Donegal. The top of the hill is dominated by a rock, known as Doon Rock (Doon being an anglicization of an important Irish word Dún, which means a fort or stronghold). We will visit Doon Rock itself tomorrow, but right by the rock is, of course, something to claim this historical area for Christianity. Is it a church? Abbey? cross? nope, it’s a holy well, and one that is still very much in use by people today. Doon well is visited by thousands of people, who pray, leave tokens behind and take the water with them for the purposes of blessing or healing.
I am always fascinated by these holy wells, blending as they do, religion and folklore, the pagan and the Christian, the natural and the dogmatic…. I’ve mentioned before that holy wells are everywhere, and generally well maintained and visited for all sorts of reasons. I’m not so sure about the gifts left behind- this Child of Prague looks especially sinister, but maybe he’s there to stop the rain? That’s a tradition, by the way – if you want a dry day for an event, a wedding, for example, you put the Child of Prague statue outside.
Tomorrow, up the hill to the rock!
We began this little series of rambles at Croghan, and we’ll finish it here, at the impressively sounding Rock of Doon. There are plenty more sites connected with Colmcille, including Derry City, Durrow in County Offaly, and Kells in County Meath, and we’ll get to those another time. However, this heathery outcrop was the inauguration site for the O’Donnell Kings, who were the descendants of Colmcille, and would become an important and powerful family from the 12C until their ousting in the 16C. The legendary Red Hugh O’Donnell (Aodh Rua O’Domhnaill) would form an alliance with Hugh O’Neill to fight Queen Elizabeth’s army – and almost succeed, but this war would signal the fall of Gaelic Ireland and the demise of the O’Donnell power. So this hilltop is for the romantics, who like to think of Donegal being benevolently ruled by kind beardy men in skirts who spoke beautiful Irish and barbequed a lot of fish. Also, you’ll see that Robinson felt quite regal and important himself when he got up to that rock. King of the boglands.
More rambles to come, thumbs up if you’re enjoying it!