The association of mythological figures and energies with the physical landscape is common in the Celtic world. The use of place names for features such as hills, rivers or monuments allows each pilgrim to partake in the supernatural energies invested there.
One type of man-made monument which carries such a name are the Irish "Giants' Graves" or "Giants' Beds." Long, long ago in a time before time but which may have been last week, the Fenian hero Diarmuid fled with Grainne, Finn's bethrothed. The lovers were warned by a friendly god "where they had slept once, never to sleep again." As a result, the hero and the princess fled throughout the countryside taking shelter in great beds of stone. Their flight must have lasted some time because there are approximately 329 of these type of monuments known in Ireland. Over time the sites became known as areas of particular fertility and barren women and desperate lovers often trysted in the quiet arms of these places.
Giants' Graves are also known as court cairns or gallery graves and were constructed in the neolithic period. They generally consist of a long gallery, subdivided with a forecourt at one end and are composed of and capped by enormous stones. The layout of the tombs often bears a striking similarity to the human body, chambers and walls designed such that the tomb becomes an symbol of the god or goddess. To enter the tomb is to return to the cosmological world.
The drama of Finn, Diarmuid and Grainne is compelling and the myth was carried forward into the later tale of Tristan and Isolde and the still later lore of Arthur and Guinivere which survives to present day. However, according to scholar P. MacCana, the Fenian story is itself an echo of the earlier proto-Celtic relationship between the dark, underworld god Diarmaid Donn and the sun goddess Grainne, who is another aspect of the goddess Aine. The bright Grainne embraced the dark under-earth and the product of their union is the golden, singing swords of wheat which stave off the hunger of mankind.
The hilltop sidhe home of Diarmaid Donn is found in County Limerick, Ireland, about 12 miles from Lough Gur at Cnoc Firinne. Aine, the goddess of Ireland, resides at Lough Gur and whispers of her can still be found there in the plentiful neolithic monuments. In her bright aspect she is Grainne whose sidhe home is Cnoc Grene, also in the vicinity of Lough Gur.
Dating from approximately
2600 BC, a Giants' Grave known in the locality as "Leabthacha
Dhiarmada is Ghrainne" (the bed of Dermot and Graney) exists near the
south shore of Lough Gur. From this particular site archeologists
O'Riordain and O'hIceadha recovered the remains of approximately 8
adults and children along with neolithic pottery sherds, animal bones
and flint when the tomb was excavated in 1938.
As an early habitation site Lough Gur has housed the living, the dead and their deities for over 5,000 years. The ancient relationship between the physical and the Otherworld was evidenced when the Giants' Grave underwent excavation and the remains which had rested for so long were removed. On that night a tremendous keening was heard as "if every bean si' (banshee) in Ireland were clanned together." The banshees cry was reportedly heard all around the Lough and over the hills, charged no doubt, by Aine as guardian of the land and its monuments.
The energies of such sites are still available to those who visit today. In our everyday lives we can also experience the same energies simply by the soulful investment of faith and respect in a special place, tree, mountain or common household object. Even a tiny, worn stone turned over and over in a pocket for blessing can return the Old Ways to our day-to-day lives.