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Cloonkee

Rath

Nearest Town:Crossmolina (5km SW)
OS Ref (IE):   G1792920592 / Sheet: 24
Latitude:54° 7' 39.84" N
Longitude:   9° 15' 19.96" W

Added by Rhiannon


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Folklore

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In the townland of Cloonkee there is a fort. There are some stories about it. One time there was a man living near the fort and he used to grow crops around it. He had a piece of oats growing up to it. It was almost ripe and he was looking at it. The end nearest the fort was all trampled and that night he lay at the gap to see what horses were trampling it. At bed time a number of horses went out the gap and men riding on them and on the last horse there was a girl and he pulled her off and brought her into the house with him. She was not able to speak. He went to the same place to listen for the horsemen. They rode in the gap and he heard one of them say he has the girl now and he won't have much pleasure but if he pulled the pin out of her hair she would speak. He came home and took out the pin. She was able to speak and told him that the fairies took her the night she got married and that her husband was dead. She lived there for three months and one November day a man was going to the fair of Newtown. He went into the house for a drink and he sat down. He saw the girl racking her hair and he said but for his daughter was dead that she was her. She came down to him and said that she was his daughter and that it was the fairies that took her. He told her that her husband was dead. He also told her to wait with the man and to get married and that he would give her a fortune.
A story by Seamus Ó Mullagáin, told in the Schools Collection in the 1930s for the National Folklore Collection.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
2nd April 2016ce