“I went on Thursday to see the ruin of the work of Rigriu and Garvan on the summit of a hill which derives its name from the building. It is amazingly interesting, but to me wonderfully puzzling! Is it possible that this can be the ruin of the celebrated palace of Aileach? A palace called Grianan i.e. Solarium (not the Temple of the Sun) for its splendour and Aileach (Ail-theach i.e. Stone House) from its being built of stone, where the three sons of Kermad were disputing about the sovereignty when they were visited by Ith, the brother of the Spanish Milesius? Can this be the palace called Grianan Ailich, which was destroyed by the O’Brien in 1101? Petrie says unquestionable.

I made every enquiry about it in its vicinity but could discover nothing; all the neighbours have lost their traditions and their old language. They could only tell me that the hill was called Grianan Gormley, and the ruin, the Ould Fourth. I have been very much disappointed, but I do not give it up yet.”

Scrolling through pages and pages of elderly manuscripts at Irish Script on Screen in days of shades of grey, I came across a fragment, consisting of placenames from the territory of the O’Cahans, dated 17th century, in native hand and language.

Collection of University College Dublin, MS A 31,  item 4 r.

Tamlás could be todays Tummock and Dún Graigain Baile Fe(?)rain the townland of Lisfannon. (See Tracing the ancient route, part III)
I am uncertain of the line below Grianán Gormlaig. The first word appears to be uit, which could be Latin. If Irish, it means alas. First letter of the second word seems to be q (ceart). When spelled with a d as the ending letter, as perhaps indicated, its meaning is craftsman, craftsmanship, skill, etc. If this would proof, by some remote notion of fate, to be a rough interpretation of its original intent, than in the mind of the writer an utterly unheard of Alan was the builder of this monument, called Grianán Gormlaig, of which, of course, no further mentioning can be found in any of the available manuscripts.

In Celtica 1 from 1946, two articles appeared, seemingly an edited translation by Rev. Canice Mooney and ‘Notes on place-names in Derry and Tyrone’ by Séamus Ó Ceallaig, hopefully shedding some light on this issue but a copy of this enticing edition has yet to be found.

* The Cave at the base of Greenan Hill is now blocked up ; but we obtained some account of it from a gentleman—Andrew  Ferguson, Esq., of Burt—by whom it was examined in 1838. It was known to be situated in a field forming part of the farm of John Alison, in the town-land of Speenogue, and parish of Burt. It had been closed since A. D. 1785, in which year Mr. Ferguson recollected his having explored the several apartments. It was then discovered by a boy engaged in digging potatoes, whose spade forced itself between two of the flags which form the roof of the “cave.” It remained open at that time for a few months, when it was again closed up by the then occupier of the farm. The only person alive (in 1838) who had any idea of the exact locality of the building, was an old man, named William Dunn, who had lost his sight in early youth, but who remembered to have heard from his brother, that the subterraneous building was situated nearly opposite, but rather north of, a quartz stone in the wall, which bounds the field on the east side. The entrance was accordingly discovered.

The chamber into which we first obtained entrance—writes our informant—is somewhat dilapidated, and appears to consist of the original apartment of the building and of a sloping passage leading to it. It is much encumbered with loose clay and stones, and declines a good deal towards the lower extremity, where we were able to stand perfectly upright, although we were at first obliged to creep in on our hands and knees. The form of this chamber is oblong, or rather oval. On the arrival of lanterns we proceeded into the second apartment. The passages between the first and second, as well as between the second and third apartments, resemble much the mouth of a large pipe, or the apertures (called in Ireland “kiln-logies,” i.e. the eyes of the kiln) by which the fire is introduced into lime-kilns. These entrances are compactly built of large stones, and they both decline a little towards their lower extremity, a remark which is also applicable to all three apartments. The second chamber is nearly circular, but approaches in form to the oval. Here, as in the other two apartments, the floor is of clay, and the walls are regularly built of large stones without mortar or cement of any kind, and incline perceptibly inwards at the top and bottom. In all these apartments the ceilings are composed of immense flags resting on the walls on either side, and smaller stones are advanced to support them in one or two instances where the flags were too short to cover the whole extent. The stones employed in the construction of the building are the common schist of the country intermixed with whin-stones and some quartz. The walls were found by measurement to average about three feet in thickness. The passage between the second and third chambers branches off to the cast, and is situated on the right immediately as you enter from the first apartment. In the corner of the second chamber between the two passages, and nearly on a level with the ceiling, there is built a recess in the wall answering the purposes of a cupboard, and similar to the “boles” which are placed in the walls of Irish cabins. The architecture is the same as that of the rest of the building; it extends to the north-east ; the entrance is nearly square, but the interior is circular. The floor of the third apartment is 1 foot 8 inches below the end of the entrance passage, of which fact the first of us who crawled in was informed to his cost, as may readily be imagined. The third chamber runs parallel to the second, viz. due north and south, and its form and architecture are similar, except that perhaps the second apartment is more circular. The following account gives the dimensions of the several apartments of this building:—

  HEIGHT.               BREADTH.               LENGTH.

First apartment    6 feet 0 inches      4 feet 0 inches      20 feet 9 inches
Second do.           6    “   0     ”           4   ”   6     “            7    “   9     “
Third do.               6    “   0     ”           5   ”   5     “          12    “   3     “

From IRELAND: ITS SCENERY, CHARACTER, &C., Vol. 3, pp. 234 – 236 by Samuel C. Hall, Anna Maria Hall

The Red Book of Aileach

Ta mo hall – This is my hall.

The National monument, known as the Grianán of Aileach, has become over the last few years, more and more, a case of mistaken identity on the part of George Petrie, who in 1834 determined, as part of the Ordnance Survey, that the newly found ruin on Greenan Hill must be that of the palace of Aileach. Ever since the monument has been known and celebrated as exactly that. But recent research has come to the conclusion that the original palace stood some miles north-eastwards in todays townland of Elaghmore and only moved to Greenan Hill around 800 AD. But no traces of buildings, required to furnish a royal site, have ever been found inside or outside the monument. The mistake perhaps occurred, as a poem was discovered on an old manuscript, claiming to have been written in 942 AD and calling for the first time the palace of Aileach the Grianán of Aileach. What was unknown in 1834, was the true date of the writing of this poem – 200 years later in the 1150′s. By this time the palace of Aileach had already been destroyed, fifty years earlier, in 1101.
Doubtless, whatever the nature of this monument used to be, it is in its own right royal and a seat of power. But perhaps not necessarily of the man-made power, it is usually attributed with.

Stone 1
Lengths: 1.66 m
Height: 0.70 m
Thickness: 0.25 m

Stone 2
Lengths: 1.30 m
Height: 1.20 m
Thickness: 0.41m

Stone 3
Lengths: 1.60 m
Height: 1.32 m
Thickness: 0.28 m

Stone 4
Lengths: 1.20 m
Height: 0.63 m
Thickness: 0.43 m

Additional stones found southwards of stone 1. What appears a third stone in this group is a rock outcrop ( right top of picture)

Stone above
Lengths: 1.00 m
Height: 0.70 m
Thickness: 0.15 m

Stone below
Lengths: 1.00 m
Height: 0.67 m
Thickness: 0.20 m

The conversation of Colum Cille and the youth at Carn Eolairg; some say that he was Mongan mac Fiachna.
Colum Cille said to him: ‘Whence do you come, youth?’ said Colum Cille.
Respondit iuuenis: ‘I come,’ said the youth, ‘from lands of strange things, from lands of familiar things, so that I may learn from you the spot on which died, and the spot on which were born, knowledge and ignorance.’
Respondit Colum Cille: ‘A question,’ said Colum Cille. ‘Whose was it formerly, this lough which we see?’
Respondit iuuenis: ‘I know that. It was yellow, it was flowery, it was green, it was hilly; it was rich in liquor, and strewn rushes, and silver, and chariots. I have grazed it when I was a stag; I have swum it when I was a salmon, when I was a seal; I have run upon it when I was a wolf; I have gone around it when I was a human. I have landed there under three sails: the yellow sail which bears, the green sail which drowns, the red sail under which bodies were conceived (?). Women have cried out because of me, although father and mother do not know what they bear, with labour for living folk, with a covering for the dead.’
Colum Cille said again to the youth: ‘And this sea to the east of us, what is under it?’
‘Not hard to answer,’ said the youth: ‘there are long-haired men with broad territories beneath it; there are fearsome greatly-pregnant cows beneath it, whose lowing is musical; there are bovine oxen; there are equine horses; there are two-headed ones; there are three-headed ones-in Europe, in Asia, in lands of strange things, in a green land, whose border is a border as far as its river-mouth (?).’
‘That is enough,’ said Colum Cille. Looking toward his followers, Colum Cille arises and went aside with him, to speak with him and to ask him about the heavenly and earthly mysteries. They were conversing (?) for half the day, or from one day to the next, as Colum Cille’s followers watched them from a distance.
When [the conversation] ended, they suddenly saw that the youth was hidden from them. They did not know whither he went nor whence he came. When Colum Cille’s followers were asking him to reveal to them something of the conversation (?), Colum Cille told them that he could not tell them even a single word of anything that he had been told; and he said that it was better for mortals not to be informed of it. Finit.

Full article available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/30008178

The conversation of Bran’s druid and Febul’s prophetess above Loch Febuil

Was it myself, was it I,
that would not know its warrior race?
I was not a man of little knowledge
until I was defeated in battle.

When we used to be in Bran’s stronghold,
drinking in the cold winter,
when my knowledge went to the high clouds,
it bound strong men in the presence of witnesses.

‘My knowledge reaches a pure well
in which is the snare of a troop of hundreds of women.
The treasures of the woman-troop, which was shaped:
it would be a great find for the man who would find it.

‘For wonderful are the pure treasures
which are beside Srúb Brain:
it would ennoble a tuath, or more than two (tuatha),
the equivalent of the host of the great world, of scions of kingship.

‘Respondit the prophetess:

Febul, dark and rich in horses,
used to proclaim [it] at the merrymaking:
I was not bereft of worth
in the eyes of the king of Mag Fuindsidi.

Beautiful the plains we used to ride over,
beautiful the lands to which we used to go,
beautiful the land where we used to encamp,
beautiful the music which we used to hear.

If it be to companions that you lament it,
that our people fled,
since Mag Febuil of the white flowers
is a stony grey sea:

Beautiful were the companies of women
of the assembly (in) which we used to be with Bran.
Sweetly the king used to say,
‘Though he goes, let him come back again.’

The words aildéi, aildi, alaind aildiu and alte ( original, text) have been used and translated as beautiful.

Aildi maige no reidmis,
aildi tire no teigmis,
alaind a tir ad-scuirmis,
alaind a ceol no cluinmis.
(Corrected version, Carey)

One of the oldest name for Aileach is Ailig (Ailiuch) Neid and has been often rendered the beauties of Ned. In this context it is also interesting to find “a troop of hundreds of women” and “companies of women of the assembly”. Although the lost kingdom had a king at its helm, the society itself seems to have been orientated towards matriarchy or at least a system of equality.
The kingdom now lies under the stony grey sea (inid glassfairrce clochach – glas is usually a shade of green) and the line may not necessary contain that much information, but I would read into it that the green ocean is closing the kingdom like a stone covers a well or grave, final and with no escape.

Full article available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/30008178

John Minahane; The Christian druids: on the filid or philosopher-poets of Ireland
Preview of its first 49 but magnificent pages

Tracing the root of a name or word and its journey might be in many cases the only opportunity we have left to solve some unsatisfactory issues of the past, like finding a somewhat mislaid kingdom and the name of a monument, which was not called the Grianán of Aileach until recently.
Scrolling through some pages of Pokorny’s Indo-European Dictionary, it became clear that most words have double meaning, seemingly indicating the opposite, as if they include the two sides/aspects of one. A philosophy in each single Irish word.
One that has caused much consternation is Aileach itself. The explanation of it deriving from Ail-tech, the house of stone, seems to be the most unsuitable name when applied to a territory, land and kingdom. It is also incorrect, since an ail is a rock, immovable and firmly attached to the ground, therefore not used in house building. Other variations are possible on Aileach but none invokes even a remote feeling of eureka.
In Irish legends a place, be it a territory or palace, called Aileach, does not exist and no one ever journeys, fights or feasts in a location of this name. But, and in all their wealth, there are very few occasions when someone comes from Aile(a)chthir and in one story, of the battle of Airtech, Aileachthir is given to Fiachu, son of Conchobar.
Among the words with the root al, two possibilities hold, at least for me, the answer to the riddle of the meaning of Aileachthir, the land of Aileach. It could have originated from the word alios -’others’ (1) for two reasons.

1 Irish aile as in a poem found in the Annals of Tigernach (Whitley Stokes) p.125
“In righ aile” – The other king, or “alii fundatoris Dairi Chalgaigh” – the other founder of Daire Calgaig, p. 175

One: Its geographical position.
What is now called Inishowen, was indeed and not so long ago (2) an island, or more precise, an island of islands. The still ongoing rise of the northern parts of the British Isles, as a result of the last Ice Age and human activity, have now changed, what must have been one of the most spectacular places within sight of the island of Ireland, for it was separated from the mainland. Islands as such have often proven to have attracted a special interest of spiritual nature throughout the ages. And at least one other island of islands, Anglesey, has been noticed in history as well as archaeology, to be a seat of power and learning of druids, by courtesy of the Romans.
Inishowen also lies north northwest, making it the perfect aligned gate to the otherworld, which spans the wintry half of the year, stretching from harvest (death) to the first growth (birth), from west to east, from the Swilly to the Foyle, where the sun sets or rises respectively. The place of rebirth where every departed soul would change into whatever came next.

2 Ashby’s map of Henry Dowcra’s fortification of Inishowen from circa 1601, Hollar and Parson map, The barony of Inishowen,1661

Two: Its political position.
As mentioned above, in both the Ulster and Fenian Cycle, no interest can be found in a place called Aileach. If it was, as claimed by my favourite annalists, a seat of power for the O’Neills, or anyone they could relate remotely to the Milesians, then surely one of the great heroes of Ulster would have either come from there or have at least passed through or fought there on occasion. But Aileach only seems to be something that is given away, often as part of a partition. A notion that is reflected in Irish annals, with the title of King of Aileach added to men, who do not appear to live at the palace of Aileach, most certainly do not feast there or have any other kinds of alterations and have their inauguration site outside Inishowen at Tulach Og. I have not been able to find a single written record of any king’s or chieftain’s inauguration at Aileach or in Ailechthir. In the earlier annals there is also no account of a death of even a single king of Aileach until the 850′s. (3) Aileach does not seem to have been considered as an integral part of what was then understood to be Ireland. There is a curious entry in the Annals of Tigernach, in which the writer felt obliged to state that the island of Oine (Inishowen) is in Ireland. (4) The county, Inishowen belongs to today, still bears the rudiment of the ancient word al, alios in Dun naGall – the fort of the foreigners, which may have been at one stage the largest extent of the land of Aileach. In a contemporary frame, Donegal is still known as the forgotten county and Inishowen does not even appear to belong to either side of the divide. Only a few years ago the entire peninsula was volunteered by the stroke of a pen into the arms of the UK in form of a map for tourists.

3  Annals of Clonmacnoise: 865 Moyledwin m‘Hugh Prince of Aileagh died (Mortaugh m’Ecka prince of Oileagh in 487);
Annals of Tigernach: There is a gap between 766 and 974, (Muircheartach, son Erc, king of Ailech in 489;
Fragmentary Annals of Ireland: 857 Máel Dúin son of Áed, king of Ailech, died (Áed, king of Ailech in 856);
Chronicon Scotorum: 867 Mael Dúin son of Aed, king of Ailech, dies
(Muircertach Mac Erca, King of Ailech in 487, Aed son of Niall, as king of Ailech in 862);
Annals of Ulster: 867, Mael Dúin son of Aed, king of Ailech, died ;
I excluded the Annals of the Four Master, since they were compiled in 1632 – 36 in Donegal, based on the annals mentioned above and other, now lost, books and it seems that the location of the Four Masters may have resulted in assigning anyone who was someone King of Aileach.

4 Entry for 733.4: “Flaithbertach classem Dal Riada in Iberniam duxit, et caedes magna facta est de eis in insola h-Oíne, ubí hí trucidantur uiri: Concobar mac Locheni & Branchu mac Brain, et multí in flumine demersí sunt quod dicitur in Banna.” This has been translated as: “Flaithbeartach led the classem{?} of Dal Riada into Spain and great slaughter was made of them in the island of Oine, where these men were slaughtered: Conchobhar son of Lochene and Branchu son of Bran and many were drowned in the river called the Bann.” (No translation of these lines in Whitley Stokes’ version) The translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise by Conell Mageoghagan (1627) carries a similar entry for the year 730 (p. 115): “Fergus brought an army out of Dalriada into Inishowen in Ulster, upon whom there was a great slaughter made, amongst whom Connor, son of Locheny and Branowe the son of Bran were slain and many others Drowned in the river of Banne.”
If Dalriadians get men drowned in the river Bann, called Conchobhar and Branchu son of Bran, one would not presume to be in Spain. Although “Iberniam” may have been misleading in this case, but it is not an unusual term for Ireland.

There is a second option, which may apply, for the meaning of al in the form of altis, alti-os, denoting a “holy grove”. It appears to be more than mere coincident that the most famous Irish saint after Patrick, Columba, was attributed with a sacred oak grove near the island of Derry in Inishowen.
Columba is also credited with having two strange conversations about a lost kingdom in Lough Foyle.

No doubt many other interpretations are possible. But any opinion, conservative or wild, will only be speculation. And until something more substantial has been found by means of archaeological research, it will remain a game of the mind. Etymology can provide valid options, but as for now, the reason behind the finally chosen spelling of Ailech/Aileach remains illusive, keeping in mind that there was no agreement to begin with, if its first letter should be an A or O.

“The knowledge of a land will die unless you know its name.”

A new approach has been taken by Dane R. Pestano to interpret the intriguing paper trail of the much famed and invoked King Arthur with a different and fascinating aspect. Unaware of its existence at the start, it led him to Aileach (Inishowen). Having read a multitude of material about the subject myself, even travelled, following the steps of the legend that is Arthur and Camelot some years ago, his conclusion did surprise. But his line of reasoning and cross-referencing would have led me most likely to the same. And the persistently named King of Aileach, Muircertach Mac Erca, does draw attention to further curiosity towards the true or amalgamated person behind.

Without protesting being impartial on the matter, the book is time exceptionally spend with Arthur and Aileach and a journey of what just may have been but failed to be mentioned in a more realistic context.

Book available from Dane’s blog:
http://darkagehistory.blogspot.com/2011/08/king-arthur-in-irish-pseudo-historical.html
or
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/irisharthur