Once upon a time there was a fair Irish maiden who, on a lovely spring morning, went down to the shore of Lough Gur to wash some laundry. As she worked, she noticed that a handsome man was approaching her. She had never seen him before, but he was finely dressed with a high hat. She assumed he was a gentleman who had come from the big house nearby.
He showed her his hand, and in it was a golden ring. He said she could have the ring if she would come away with him. She told him she needed to finish doing her laundry first, so he set the ring down upon on a stone. But the ring slipped and dropped into the lough, where it turned into rings of blood!
Shocked with fear, the girl made the sign of the cross. Instantly, the man vanished into thin air!
Irish folklore is rich with tales about mysterious events happening at Lough Gur and the surrounding area, and one of the richest is Grange Stone Circle.
Located just a short walk from the west side of the lake, the Grange circle is named after Grainne, a central figure in Irish mythology.
The second largest stone circle in Ireland, the ring is formed with 113 upright stones, with the biggest measuring more than 13 feet (4 meters) tall, and weighing an estimated 2,200 pounds (40 tonnes).
Built at least 4,000 years ago, and possibly as far back as 6,000 years, Grange is a perfect circle, aligned to the east, so the rising sun at the Summer Solstice shines directly towards the entrance. This geometry and orientation suggests the site was built for ritual purposes, and that is how it is still used today.
Your Invitation To Join Our Small Group
We will be in the Grange circle on May 1st, 2024 – Beltane – doing a Druid ceremony to honor the ancestors and the fertility of the land, and we invite you to join our small group. It’s our “Enchanted Ireland” tour – a spiritual travel adventure in the land of the faery faith, happening April 29 through May 8, 2024.
Here are a few more highlights…
- Exploring the Boyne Valley, featuring Ireland’s most notable sacred sites, Newgrange and Knowth
- Skellig Michael, with its extraordinary beehive huts
- On the Dingle Peninsula, 8thC Gallarus Oratory, 7thC Kilmalkedar Monastery and St Brendan’s Oratory
- In Kildare, St Brigid’s Holy Well and Cathedral
- The Hill of Tara, traditional burial place of Tea, ancestor queen and goddess of the Celts
Click Here To See All Ireland Tour Details
Want more Celtic small group travel options?
We’re also visiting Wales, May 14 – 23, 2024, and Scotland July 23 – August 1, 2024.
Photo credits:
Lough Gur No machine-readable author provided. Christian1965~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Grange Stone Circle The original uploader was Sverdrup at English Wikipedia., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
LoughGurStoneCircle Lukemcurley, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons