Donegal Ancient Legends?

mrmac

The Summer Touring season is about to start in my family (about to get my Sundays off again - wooohoooo!), so I've been trying to encourage my daughter to do a bit of research on Donegal townlands.

Failing miserably!

But she did come up with this about Fintown:

"Both Fintown and Lough Finn take their name from a mythological woman, Finngeal, who drown in the lake trying to save her wounded brother Feargamhain."

Does anyone have any interesting Donegal Legends they know about?
(No stories of heroics outside the Grill on a Saturday night please )

muffler

Grianan of Aileach is a great place to visit and has the story of 50,000 wariiors buried beneath it in that one day they will rise and reclaim Ireland from the English

irish1967

Not sure if this actually qualifies as a 'legend' but there is the story of stumpys brae on the back road between Lifford and St. Johnston. I am sure Smashey could probably relate it better than me but basically the ghost of a legless man can be seen walking (yeah i know... wrong verb) on a brae there at night. I know the legend scared the bejaysus outta me when I was growing up in Lifford. ........ (edit - just googled stumpys brae and it scared the bejaysus outta me all over again!) :-)

muffler

irish1967 wrote: »

but basically the ghost of a legless man can be seen walking

mrmac

irish1967 - that's a great story - and some google info to back it up :eek:

muffler - I've never heard that story about Grianan! Thanks.

muffler

mrmac wrote: »

muffler - I've never heard that story about Grianan! Thanks.

Its 1 thousand men actually (too many vodkas ). From this link

will they make it so tedious for those who do? But on turning the leaves of that booklet over I was inclined to a suaver mood, as I came on a paragraph devoted to an ancient stronghold called the Grianan of Aileach, or Greenan-Ely, in the highlands of Donegal. Here I read that a thousand armed men sit resting there on their swords, and bound by magic sleep till they are to be called forth to take their part in the struggle for the restoration of Erin's freedom. At intervals they awake, it is said, and looking up from their trance they ask in tones which solemnly resound through the many chambers of the Grianan: 'Is the time come?' A loud voice, that of the spiritual caretaker, is heard to reply: 'The time is not yet.' They resume their former posture and sink into their sleep again.

smashey

irish1967 wrote: »

Not sure if this actually qualifies as a 'legend' but there is the story of stumpys brae on the back road between Lifford and St. Johnston. I am sure Smashey could probably relate it better than me but basically the ghost of a legless man can be seen walking (yeah i know... wrong verb) on a brae there at night. I know the legend scared the bejaysus outta me when I was growing up in Lifford. ........ (edit - just googled stumpys brae and it scared the bejaysus outta me all over again!) :-)

Ah, good old Stumpy. We used to go looking for him when we were younger.

nmg-lky

smashey wrote: »

Ah, good old Stumpy. We used to go looking for him when we were younger.

That was the ghost stories of all ghost stories in Lifford when i was growing up as well. There was another one about the big house up behind the connyburrow. cant remember its name, just over from doohers farm. well anyway it was said that someone died in that house years ago and they just blocked up the room instead of burying them!! None of us would go near the place, maintained we could see someone looking out the window at us:D

homer simpson

anyone remember sharon house just off the N13, to your right, about 1 mile outside newtowncunningham?

It was said that a man by the name of Dr. Hamilton (a man who's job it was to detect and kill rebel irishmen) was killed on the doorstep of this house in march 1797, but the tennants of the house wallers, whom hamilto was staying with didn't get away unscathed his wife was shot n the ear and died from a loss of blood, there is numerious storys but the one that scared me is that the step of the house would always have a red stain on it said to be the docotrs blood, i was at the house many times when i was younger (grew up in the area) and the step was always red! even though it was changed many times, sure scared the living daylights out of me anyways!!

The house was renevated a few years ago, googled sharon house and got this!!!!
http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=442310

it'd be class to own this place a great story to it which can be read here and well worth the reading ,enjoy reading!!!

http://www.travel-library.com/europe/ireland/ie_20061114162330.html

More on this here: http://www.propertynews.ie/property/houses-for-sale/Manorcunningham/Donegal/Sharon-Rectory/PP10020632

smashey

nmg-lky wrote: »

That was the ghost stories of all ghost stories in Lifford when i was growing up as well. There was another one about the big house up behind the connyburrow. cant remember its name, just over from doohers farm. well anyway it was said that someone died in that house years ago and they just blocked up the room instead of burying them!! None of us would go near the place, maintained we could see someone looking out the window at us:D

I know that house well and the person now living in it. Legend had it that the ghost also used to roam what is known locally as the three lanes. Again, we could never find it.

muffler

smashey wrote: »

Legend had it that the ghost also used to roam what is known locally as the three lanes. Again, we could never find it.

Altogether now: Who you gonna call.............

smashey

danjo

A great legend of a one eyed giant on Tory called Balor who would fling men off the cliffs into a sea prison.

mrmac

danjo wrote: »

A great legend of a one eyed giant on Tory called Balor who would fling men off the cliffs into a sea prison.

Jeez, never heard of any of these?

danjo - any more info about Balor?

irish1967

smashey wrote: »

Ah, good old Stumpy. We used to go looking for him when we were younger.

Ah well do I remember myself and Danny mc L (RIP) cycling out there to find him too.

smashey

irish1967 wrote: »

Ah well do I remember myself and Danny mc L (RIP) cycling out there to find him too.

Ha, you used the bikes so you would have a quick getaway. We walked. :cool:

irish1967

smashey wrote: »

Ha, you used the bikes so you would have a quick getaway. We walked. :cool:

Ah but you had longer legs than me!!

smashey

irish1967 wrote: »

Ah but you had longer legs than me!!

danjo

mrmac wrote: »

Jeez, never heard of any of these?

danjo - any more info about Balor?

I have forgotten most of what I heard when i visited tory a few years ago. However there is plenty about him on Wikipedia. Just search on google for Balor.

Cul a cnoic

danjo wrote: »

I have forgotten most of what I heard when i visited tory a few years ago. However there is plenty about him on Wikipedia. Just search on google for Balor.

Dún Lúiche,translates as the fort of Lú. Legend has it that Balor of the evil eye (grandfather of Lugh) was killed by Lugh in the Poisen Glen. Lugh is said to have driven a sword through Balors evil eye and that the blood from the eye poisened the Glen. Thus the Poisen Glen. Well thats how I heard the story..:D

The picture below of the sculpture of Lugh, is just down from Ionad Cois Locha, in Dunlewey.

sneakerfreak

Balor was the king of the Femoraigh,amphibians who lived on Tory,his druid told him his grandson would kill him.Balor locked his daughter in the tower on Tory Island with only female servants so she could never get pregnant.

Cian a man who owned a magical calf (An Glas Gaibhainn) heard of this and got a wee boat and sailed to Tory dressed as a woman,when he neared the shores he wrecked the boat and let himself be washed up on shore.
The servants from the tower saw him and took him to the tower to nurse him back to health thinking he was a woman.During the night he crept into Balors daughters room and got her pregnant before escaping.
When Balor discovered the pregnancy he ordered the child thrown from the cliffs at the back of the Island but when he was born the midwives swapped him for a stillborn child from another woman and smuggled him off the Island throwing the stillborn baby to the rocks.
This grandchild of Balor was Lú lamh fhada (Lou of the long hand) as he had an abnormally oversized hand.He became a great young warrior but with a tendency to disobey orders.
During a great battle in Dún Luiche he was told to stay out of the fracas as he was too valuable to be lost early in battle and was positioned on a small hill a distance away.
He grew restless however seeing Balor remove his eye patch and killing swathes of his fellow warriors.He drew his sling,loaded a large stone onto it and swung hitting Balor straight in his third eye and pushing it out the back of his head where all the femoraigh saw it and perished.
The blood from Balors eye is said to have cracked a great rock and burnt the land away creating the glen.

The glen is actually Glen of Heaven or Glen of Paradise,it is not Poison Glen as its commonly known.The words for Poison and Heaven in Irish are very similiar.

Creaturbocht

Does anyone know anything about the story of the haunting/poltergeist activity in Fosters Farm in Fanad?
I think the story is briefly involving floating cackling banshee type female figure, milk going sour, and a white rooster being used to herald away the spirit or pooka thing.A large battle was said to have taken place many times in a barn, with ungodly noises emitting from it, and the people afraid to go in, knowing that the only creature inside wasa white rooster, who eventually conquered the spirit. In the event of the passing of the white rooster the spirit always returned, and they would then replace the rosster with one white rooster. The Foster family eventually left the farm and sold it. It was then owned by a person unknown to me, but a late Michael Shiels i think ran the farm.I am unware as to whether it is active at present, but the late Mr Shiels, was appartantly very wary of the place himself.

I am curious about this story and would like to find a full written account of it, but haven't been able to yet. I have also visited the homestead, now in a state of disrepair, but still showing that it would have been a fine large house, with servants quarters etc. it still contains many fine original features.

Creaturbocht

I forgot to say that it is also a place to defintely avoid, if you go by the locals, as it has 'something evil about it, and stomach sickening' (I defintely found that when i visited and i have some experience in visiting derelict houses, and have rarely had that feeling. But still i can't find any written info on the place!

ednwireland

at the bottom of my road is supposed to be a house where a guy lived, who basically grassed people up to the black and tans, a priest cursed the house and said no one would ever live there again and there wouldn't be a stone left. it was a couple of walls when i moved in, a couple of years the farmer went in with a digger and lifted out the foundations ..... spooky, the curse fulfilled. well thats the best i've got.

Beanstalk

Isn't there one about Killydonnell Abbey being sacked by raiders who also stole a huge bell from the abbey and put it on their boat in lough swilly.

The bell was too heavy and suck the ship, drowing all the raiders onboard. Now when you hear a bell at night coming from Lough Swilly, it means someone nearby has died.

I heard this as a kid, just remembered it there!