Katies Cottage

19/05/2024

Check us out on Airbnb for availability https://airbnb.com/h/katiescottage

19/05/2024

Beautiful day for a walk in the hills 🥾🥾
We’ve some availability in June 😎

22/01/2024

Free trees for biodiversity – Communities invited to spruce up the landscape, with the gift of free trees Schools, youth groups, community groups and landowners are invited to tackle Northern Ireland’s lack of woodland cover by getting their hands dirty...

21/09/2023

17/07/2023

As part of the Mourne Wall 100 Year Celebration Calendar, we are delighted to announce that we have teamed up with NI Water for this years’ amateur photography competition. To mark 100 years of the Mourne Wall the management teams...

08/06/2023

Attention pasta lovers! Our carbonara is an absolute delight! The pasta strands are coated in a rich, velvety sauce made with eggs, cheese, and crispy pancetta bits. It's comfort food at its finest! 🤤🍝 "

28/05/2023

Thinking about a wee break - Check our availability ..👇

‘New ! Katie’s Cottage , Killeavy’

14/04/2023

😎Beautiful morning to get out and about on Slieve Gullion 🥾🥾

28/03/2023

🐣Time to book that Bank Holiday break. We're open from 17th April. To check availability and bookings -🚴‍♂️🥾🥾 bit.ly/3sbDNn8

13/08/2022

Walk in the footstep of soldiers and saints as part of this year's Mourne Gullion Strangford Aspiring UNESCO Global Geopark Lúnasa Festival. Join your guide and host Venora O'Brien on the Gap O’The North Walking Tour on the 17th August. Enjoy a linear historical walk through time, exploring the borderland hinterland through the prism of the sacred and secular.

Book here https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/gap-of-the-north-walking-tour-tickets-383855701737
Discover Northern Ireland Tourism Ireland Dundalk Tourist Office Visit Armagh Heritage Week The Heritage Council Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Mourne Gullion Strangford Geopark Visit Mourne

08/07/2022

The management teams the Ring of Gullion, the Mournes and Strangford and Lecale AONBs are launching their joint Photography Competition...

08/07/2022

Fame at last! The stars of the show just passed our door! Great to Slieve Gullion getting the promotion it deserves. ⛰

Watch all your favourite TV shows Live or On Demand on your PC, smartphone or tablet for free.

04/05/2022

Swan nesting along the towpath

30/04/2022

Looking towards Slieve Gullion

24/04/2022

The Calliagh Berra’s Lake on top of Slieve Gullion.

23/04/2022

South Cairn on top of Slieve Gullion. The huge burial cairn located on the summit of the mountain, is known as The Calliagh Berra’s House and is the highest surviving passage tomb in Ireland or the UK.

25/02/2022

We want to bring you and a friend to see us live in studio on Friday March 4th.

You’ll also enjoy a night for two at the 4* Morrison Dublin Hotel, on Dublin’s Ormond Quay.

To win: 📺 LIKE this post & FOLLOW us on Insta 📺

instagram.com/p/CaVRNn0siuu

23/02/2022

Nothing like coming home to a real fire after a day trekking in the hills. 🥾🥾

22/02/2022

It was a great day for getting the boots on and heading up Slieve Gullion. Loads of walks and activities close by 🚴‍♂️

22/02/2022

🐣Have you got your Easter break organised? We have availability in April and a few dates left in March, but they're going fast.

Entire home/flat in Newry, Mourne And Down, United Kingdom. Katies Cottage is a luxurious self catering cottage nestled at the foot of Slieve Gullion mountain located 1 mile from Killeavy Castle and Slieve G...

31/01/2022

Get your tickets on Eventbrite!

17/10/2021

Plans have been announced to extend a major walking trail in Co Armagh. Newry, Mourne and Down District Council revealed on Monday (October 11) that…

31/08/2021

31/07/2021

31/07/2021

History of Lughnasadh.

Lughnasadh or Lughnasa is an ancient Irish festival marking the beginning of the harvest season. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man on August 1st.

“At the Ould Lammas Fair boys were you ever there
Were you ever at the Fair In Ballycastle-O?
Did you treat your Mary Ann
To some Dulse and Yellow Man
At the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle-O!”

Those lines from John Henry McCauley’s famous ballad tell the story of a festival that is held over a two-day period in August in Ballycastle, County Antrim, in the province of Ulster. The “Ould Lammas Fair” is one of the oldest fairs in Ireland and has been held without interruption for more than three centuries. Its roots can be traced back to the early inhabitants who migrated to Ireland after the end of the last ice age, 11,000 years ago and gets its name from ‘Lammas’ which is derived from the word Lughnasagh [Lughnasa].

The story starts with Lugh, the son of Cian of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and his mother, Ethniu, daughter of Balor, the leader of a race called the Fomorians. Their union was a dynastic marriage, following an alliance between the Tuatha and the Fomorians. His father gave Lugh to Tailtiu, queen of the Fir Bolg, in fosterage, a common practice of the times that ensured peaceful relations. Later in life, Lugh had a son, which he named Setanta, later changed by the Druid Cathbadh to Cúchulainn, on the steep slopes of Slieve Gullion in South Armagh. Lugh is one of the most prominent gods in Irish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Lugh is portrayed as a warrior, a king, a master ...

Tailtus’ people, the Fir Bolgs, meaning the men of bags or breeches wearers, are said to have come to Ireland from Greece, where they had been put into servitude and forced to carry soil from the fertile plains up to the higher ground in an effort to expand the arable areas. To do this, they fashioned leather bags which they wore around their waists and which they later used to build boats and escape from their enslavement. After many years of land and sea voyages, they eventually arrived in Ireland.

The Firbolg lived in Ireland and ruled until they were conquered by a new race called the Tuatha de Dannan, the people of the Goddess Dana. According to legend, the Tuatha forced Tailtiu and her people, the Fir Bolgs, to clear large areas of woodland for the planting of crops. This land clearing required a huge amount of effort and eventually, Tailtu died from exhaustion. She was buried under a great mound, which was called the ‘Hill of Tailtiu.’ Lugh decreed that each year a festival should be held to commemorate his foster mother’s death and that there should be games and feasting with the first fruits of the harvest.

The funeral games in her honor were held at Tailtin in what is now County Meath. The games were similar to the Ancient Olympic Games and included ritual athletic and sporting contests. The event also involved trading, including animals, the drawing-up of contracts, and matchmaking. Trial marriages were conducted, whereby young couples joined hands through a hole in a wooden door, a form of handfasting. The trial marriage lasted a year and a day, at which time the marriage could be made permanent or broken without consequences.

Another solemn ritual performed was the cutting of the first of the year’s corn. After the cutting, some of it would be brought up to a high place and buried. A meal of fresh corn and bilberries would then be made and everyone would partake -- a sacrifice of a sacred bull, a feast of its flesh, with some ceremony involving its hide, and its replacement by a young bull; a ritual dance-play perhaps telling of a struggle for a goddess and a ritual fight. An actor, impersonating Lugh would preside over the proceedings.

Many of Ireland's prominent mountains and hills were climbed at Lughnasagh up to the modern era. Over time, this custom was Christianized and some of the treks were recast as Christian pilgrimages. The most well-known is Reek Sunday—the yearly pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick in County Mayo in late July. As with the other Gaelic seasonal festivals, feasting was part of the celebrations. Bilberries were gathered on the hills and mountains and were eaten on the spot or saved to make pies and wine. The Catholic Church in Ireland established the custom of blessing fields at Lughnasadh.

The Puck Fair, held each year in early August in the town of Killorglin, County Kerry, is believed to be a survival of a Lughnasadh festival.

Throughout ancient Irish history, we find references to the ‘Tailthiu Games’ and the ‘Games of Lugh.’ However, with the arrival of Christianity, the old pagan festival was modified and adapted to suit the teachings of the Church. In the northern part of Ireland, the name was changed to Lammas, which means ‘loaf mass,’ and this was reflected in the custom of placing loaves of bread baked from the first harvest grains on the church altar.

Many thanks to Wikipedia for some of the info used in this article.
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© John A. Brennan 2021. All Rights Reserved.
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