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BALLYMAGAURAN

CO. CAVAN · IE

Ballymagauran
Baile Mhic Samhráin

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 06 / 06

Baile Mhic Samhráin · Co. Cavan

A crossroads that was once the seat of lords and the plain of idols.

Ballymagauran is a crossroads village on the Cavan-Leitrim border, population well under two hundred. The road from Ballinamore meets the road from Ballyconnell and that is more or less the village. There is not much to see if you drive through at speed, which most people do.

Stop and look at the map. The plain around the village was called Mag Slécht — the Plain of Prostrations — where, according to every early Christian source that mentions the place, pagan Ireland kept its chief idol: Crom Cruach, a gold-and-silver pillar surrounded by twelve lesser stones, the whole assembly buried to their chins in the earth and worshipped with sacrifices at Samhain. Saint Patrick, the Tripartite Life says, came here specifically and knocked them all over. The field is flat and green and unremarkable now. It was, at some point, the most charged piece of ground in Ireland.

After 1400, the McGoverns — the Mac Shamhráin, the lords of Tullyhaw — moved their chief seat here from elsewhere in the barony. The Annals of the Four Masters mention the place first in 1431, the same year it was burned. It was burned again in 1455, 1459, 1485, 1498, and 1512. Six burnings in eighty years is not coincidence; it is what happened to contested ground in medieval Ulster. A fortified stone house replaced whatever came before it, built in 1611 after the McGovern lord recovered his estate from the post-Flight confiscations. Cromwell's forces destroyed that too, in 1649. The ruins remain on the townland. The McGoverns also left behind a manuscript: the Book of Magauran, a 14th-century vellum duanaire, the oldest surviving family poembook in Ireland. It is in the National Library now.

Population

under 200

Founded

c. 1400 (as McGovern seat)

Coords

54.0681° N, 7.6820° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 Mag Slécht

The Plain of Prostrations is a field outside the village.

Pagan Ireland worshipped its chief idol, Crom Cruach, here — a gold-and-silver pillar surrounded by twelve lesser stones. Saint Patrick overthrew all thirteen. The plain is still called Moyslecht on old maps. The stones are gone; the name is not.

Stories & lore → 02 The McGovern lords

After 1400, this was where the clan sat.

Ballymagauran was the chief seat of the Mac Shamhráin — the McGoverns — lords of Tullyhaw. The Annals of the Four Masters record it burning six times between 1431 and 1512. The castle ruins are still in the townland.

Stories & lore → 03 Ballymagauran Lough

A small lake on the Shannon-Erne Waterway.

The lough sits just outside the village and carries brown trout, pike, and perch. It is on the waterway connecting Shannon to Erne — passing boats are more common than passing tourists. Fishing is the reason most people stop here.

Walks & fishing →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

The chief idol of pagan Ireland

Crom Cruach

Mag Slécht — the Plain of Prostrations — was the site of Ireland's principal pre-Christian idol: Crom Cruach, a gold-and-silver pillar surrounded by twelve lesser stones covered in bronze, all buried upright in the earth. The early sources say the Irish came here at Samhain, prostrated themselves in the mud, and offered first fruits and, in darker accounts, firstborn children. Saint Patrick appears in the Tripartite Life making a special journey to this place to overturn the stones. Whether he came or not, the idol was gone by the Christian era and the pillar-stones had fallen. The plain became Moyslecht on the maps. The village that grew on its edge became Ballymagauran. The name Mag Slécht is older than either.

The Annals, 1431 to 1512

Six burnings

The Annals of the Four Masters first record Ballymagauran in 1431 — and immediately record it being burned. It was burned again in 1455, 1459, 1485, 1498, and 1512. Eighty years, six burnings. The McGovern lords had made their seat here after 1400, and the village paid the price of being the centre of a contested barony. Tullyhaw sat at the edge of three territories and the burnings track the politics of the Ulster lordships in that century: raids, succession disputes, and the long argument over who held what on the Cavan-Leitrim border. The castle the McGoverns eventually built in stone survived until Cromwell.

Ireland's oldest surviving family poembook

The Book of Magauran

The Duanaire Mhéig Shamhradháin — the Book of Magauran — is a 14th-century vellum manuscript compiled by the scribe Ruaidhri Ó Cianáin for Tomás mac Briain Mhéig Shamhradháin, chief of Tullyhaw, who died in 1343. A duanaire is a poembook: a collection of bardic praise poems commissioned by and for a lord, recording his ancestry, his victories, and the debts owed to his line. The Book of Magauran is the earliest surviving example of the form in Ireland. It contains poems describing events in and around Ballymagauran. It is now in the National Library of Ireland. The village that produced it has a population of under two hundred.

A Petersen Type H, c. 900 AD

The Viking sword pommel

Excavated from a fort on Ballymagauran Lake, a Viking sword pommel of Petersen Type H — dating to around 900 AD — is among the more unexpected objects to come out of this corner of Cavan. A Scandinavian sword part in a Cavan ringfort is not impossible: Viking raiding parties moved up the Shannon and Erne waterways, and the area around the Shannon-Erne junction saw traffic. The pommel is evidence that the plain was not as quiet in the early medieval period as it looks today.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Ballymagauran Lough shore The lough is a short walk from the crossroads. No formal trail — follow the road to the waterside and walk the bank. Brown trout, pike, and perch if you bring a rod. The lough sits on the Shannon-Erne Waterway; canal boats pass through on their way between the two river systems.

2 km informaldistance

30–40 mintime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

Quiet country roads, the lake starting to stir. Trout season opens in March. You will have the place entirely to yourself.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun–Aug

Shannon-Erne Waterway traffic picks up and boats pass through the lough. Long evenings in the fields. Nothing busy.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep–Oct

Pike fishing from September. The Cavan-Leitrim border country goes brown and gold. The roads are empty.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov–Feb

Remote NW Cavan in winter is genuinely quiet. Come for the pike fishing or not at all.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a visitor centre for Mag Slécht

There is no interpretation panel, no car park, no guided trail. The plain where Ireland kept its chief idol is a field. If you want to see it, you walk to it and stand in it. That is the whole experience, and it is enough.

Looking for Lough Ramor

Lough Ramor is in Virginia, 25km east. Ballymagauran has its own lough — smaller, quieter, less photographed — which is the correct one to visit if you are here.

Getting there.

By car

Ballymagauran sits on the R205 between Ballinamore (Co. Leitrim, 10km west) and Ballyconnell (Co. Cavan, 10km east). Cavan town is 45 minutes. No public transport serves the village directly.

By bus

No direct bus. Ballyconnell to the east is the nearest town with any service connection. You need a car for this one.