Maeve's Cairn, Sligo, Ireland

Day 11

The Cafe de Paris is located directly across the street from our hotel. Instead of the usual overwhelming Irish breakfast, we enjoyed a more simple fare of tea and scones while chatting with the young waiter.

Afterward, the first order of business was trying to locate “Tipperary”, a novel by Frank Delaney. I had just finished reading “Ireland” by the same author, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and therefore wished to continue in his good company. All things considered, I thought this would be a relatively easy task but to my chagrin not a copy was to be found in any of the bookstores. However, the stroll through the alleys and winding streets of Sligo was pleasurable in its own right. This is a real walking town. The River Garavogue wends its way through the city and is part of the scenery here, with many shops and cafes lining its canal.

After a fine lunch we drove out to Knocknarea, near Strandhill, in search of the mythical Irish Queen Maeve's tomb. After several wrong turns we finally located the small parking lot where the 45 minute hike to the top the of mountain would begin. The local tradition is that visitors pick up a stone along the way and when they reach the summit, add it to the millions of other stones that make up Maeve's cairn. Maeve, according to legend, rests undisturbed beneath this massive pile of stones, protected by the fairy folk who are now her devoted subjects.

Reaching the top, after an uphill climb past many stone walls and sheep, we were greeted by incredible sweeping vistas of the sea to the west and lush green valleys and lakes behind us. The flatness of the summit made the construction of the tomb much easier. My first impression was that it looked like a nipple on top of a massive tit. Seeing that it was a matriarchal tomb I didn't think the comparison all that far off. Carol, I think, had a different impression. Anyway, I slowly made my way to the very peak and took in a quick 360. If in fact Maeve was buried below, she sure did have a spectacular resting place. We later learned that of all of Ireland's ancient tombs, Maeve's was the only one known not to have been looted. The two previous sanctioned archeological digs had ended in failure when they either ran out of funds or patience. Someday in the future there might be some new scientific breakthrough that will allow a non-invasive search of the tomb, but for the time being it seems as though the fairy folk are truly holding their own.