Cailleach - Equinox Line

Martin Explores a Line across Ireland

Autumn Equinox 2024 I didn't feel like doing anything ceremonial but instead I had 2 trips planned either side of the equinox. The theme was quite literally exploring !

About twenty years ago I became aware of an alignment than ran for over 200km east to west across Ireland. The alignment is an equinox line and connects landscape features and sacred sites. I felt drawn inrecent months to re-examine the alignment and see how it looked on the ground as opposed to a map.

The line runs from the islands of Rockabill to Boffin. An amazing equinox alignment joining many ancient sites and natural landscape features such as Fourknocks, Skryne , Lismullin Henge, Tara - near the confluence of Skane and Gabhra (east/west drainage from the hill), Belinter House, Corlea trackway and a host more sites across the midlands and west.

Rockabill, the first point on the line shares a very similar story to Bofin in the distant west. The creation myth of Rockabill is about Balor of the baleful eye (solar god) turning to look at a calf and cow he was leading down the east coast of Ireland. When the calf separated from its mother it bellowed out causing Balor to look around to see what was going on. But his eye turned the calf and the cow to stone, becoming the Rockabill islands.

Similarly, on the west coast at the same latitude, two fishermen encountering fog lit a small turf fire on a stone slab on their boat to keep warm. But when some of the burning embers fell out of the boat and hit the water they were amazed to see the fog form into an Island. Then as they went ashore they spotted the Cailleach chasing a white cow with a stick, striking it and turning it to stone. The island became the island of the white/fair cow, Inish Bó finn.

Two islands with creation mythology involving cattle being turned to stone through enchantment, linked in myth and alignment.

As I mentioned, over the previous few months I felt I was being magnetically drawn back into completing my exploration of this line.

So during a conversation with Mary, a friend advanced in energy work and sacred site tours, I asked when her next trip to Inish Boffin was planned. As luck would have it, it was shortly before the equinox and coincidentally I had a few days off work so I jumped at the chance to go out to the Island.

(The photo is of Inish Boffin from the mainland Aughrus Peninsula - The placename means 'Promontory of the horses' - it derives from the older 'Each-ros'.)

A week later I was on the ferry out to the island when a large cave caught my attention on the southern most tip of the island. I photographed it following internal prompts and later found out it was called Uaimh na gCailleach, the cave of the witch.

The following day I went on a walk to the west part of the island where I spotted many archaeological remains and low mound walls, most likely prehistoric.

Mary introduced me to a large boulder that had a huge mind expanding energy field all around it. On closer inspection the rock seemed to be non native to the area being an Old red sandstone in an otherwise Schist landscape.

It stood in a prominent position and looked incredibly similar to the cat stone on Uisneach.

Mary told me this is where her groups liked to come and bask in the energy. They had called it the Cailleach stone and its western face even looked like the face of an old Cailleach. On the maps it was labelled as "large boulder" and on other maps as Carraig an Riaghailligh.( I'm currently trying to translate this term, but it may be something to do with kingship rituals and the goddess is the one who confers kingship through marriage of the land).

The strong earth energy at this point was like the strong type of force found at Dowth neolithic passage tomb. So I left feeling confident I had made contact with the energy associated with the Equinox line or perhaps what could be called the Cailleach line.

Coincidentally I was flying into Dublin airport a week after equinox and again was prompted to take pictures out the window. As it was a lovely sunny day I could see over the estuary in Malahide and past Lambay island to a light house 20km distant, Rockabill!- the opposite end of the line.

I had a reverie when I came back home and what came to mind was an image of a thin straight blue line balanced by a triangle in the centre so that it was like a see saw. At the balance point was the Cailleach, chuckling to herself, watching to see if the line balanced.

I realised that at the sunrise position near Rockabill was the young goddess Brigit and at the sunset end of the line in Bofin was the Cailleach. In the reverie the line represented the continuum of the goddess young to old, naive to wise. It represented an archetypal life journey.

Reflecting, I felt where I was along this continuum within myself and noticed that my balance point had shifted from where it had been years ago, not good or bad just changed.

So I’m relaying my equinox story as it has unfolded. And just the other day a member of our Tara Celebrations group asked me would I be interested in doing something for Samhain......... and who is the Goddess at Samhain only the Cailleach.!!!!!