Teltown, Donaghpatrick, Co.Meath

Venue: Teltown - named after the Irish goddess Tailtiu.

Above: River Blackwater at Teltown House

Teltown – Tailteann- Site of the August Oenach, aka Lughnasadh assembly, where games, meetings and marriages took place. These are replaced today at the Trim Haymaking festival by the Scurlogstown Olympiad on the 3rd Sunday of June every year in the Porchefields in Trim, Co. Meath. Scurlogstown Olympiad

Place where the Tuatha de Danann lost a battle with the Milesians and they were forced underground.

According to the Senchas na Relec in Lebor na Huidhre it was one of the chieftain burial places.

Three marvels:

Headless man,
7 year old father and son small enough to sit on a finger,
ships in sky....

"The Annals of Ulster in the year AD 749 report that ships were seen in the air (some said above the monastery of Clonmacnois). Other sources report a similar episode at Teltown, during the reign of Congalach mac Maele Mithig (d. AD 956), when a ship appeared in the air above a market fair (oenach) and a member of the crew cast a spear down at a salmon below.

When he came down to retrieve the spear a man on the ground took hold of him, whereupon the man from above said:

'Let me go! I'm being drowned!'

Congalach ordered that the man be released and he scurried back up to his shipmates,

'who were all that time looking down, and were laughing together.'

Well they might. There is no point in trying to explore the Otherworld with the apparatus and outlook of the science laboratory: flying ships are not subject to the laws of quantum mechanics."

Black associations

-Rath Dubh, Dubh Loch & Abha Dubh, Crom Dubh

River Blackwater,abhainn saile

- aka Bo Guaire, Guaire's cow, possibly rising in Sliabh Guaire.

The Blackwater is a tributary of the Boyne, relating to the Goddess Boann, the white cow, and the Milky Way.

Donaghpatrick

- built on old earthwork, founded by St Patrick. There is said to be a passage from Rath Airthir (Eastern Fort) to the church, a vast treasure in the crypt of church. Men and women looking for the fortune follow a piper and never return.

Blind loughs

- several artificial lakes are in the area

Dubh Loch

- at entrance to Teltown House – Leary's Hole. St Patrick is said to have condemned King Laoghaire to remain in it until Judgement day. It is also said to be the entrance to Hell.

Knockauns

– deep long rectangular cleft sometimes recognised as a marriage site, although this could have been at the more circular hollow lower on the hillside.

In 1997 the Knockauns was bulldozed in what a leading archaeologist described as "a tragedy for Irish heritage". Due to the importance of the Knockauns, an archaeological investigation of the site was undertaken and the bulldozed bank was reinstated.

References for the text - LeborGabala, Dindshenchas, Annals of Four Masters

Teltown House....

Set among three hundred acres of rich pasture land in the heart of the Boyne yet just 55 minutes from Dublin Airport. and only a short drive from the towns of Navan, Kells and Slane, Bertie and Renée Clarke’s lovely creeper-covered 17th century country house overlooks the River Blackwater Valley.

Teltown House Bed and Breakfast Instagram page and Teltown House Facebook page