TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ritual site - pond

Stackallan, County Meath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ritual site - pond, Stackallan, County Meath, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Stackallan
County
Meath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Lugaree
Latest-edition OS map
Lugaree
Coordinates
53.68555, -6.60672
SMR number
ME025-047----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1799 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Get directions ↗

This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the NW bank of a SW-NE section of the River Boyne, at a point where the stream turns briefly SE (L c. 300m) before resuming a NE course. It is annotated as ‘Lugaree’ on the 1836 and 1908 editions OS. The god Lugh was one of the Tuatha Dé Danan and had many attributes, including the invention of horse-racing. The swimming of horses in the River Blackwater at Martry was an integral part of the Lughnasa celebrations of Tailtiu into the nineteenth century. The horse and its rider plunged into a deep pool of the river before sunrise as a protection against disease. Wilde (1849, 171) records the swimming of horses and cattle across the river at Lugaree or the ‘King’s Hole’ which continued until shortly before his time and this may be another Lughnasa association. (Mac Gabhann 2000, 233-4)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 30 March 2023

Mac Gabhann, S. 2000 Landmarks of the people: Meath and Cavan places prominent in Lughnasa mythology and folklore. Ríocht na Mídhe 219-39.
Wilde, W. R. W. 1849 (reprinted 1978) The Beauties of the Boyne and its tributary, the Blackwater. McGlashan, Dublin

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Ritual site - pond in Meath All County Meath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
See your own family's places on a living map