Bruiden Da Derga

The hostel of Da Derga of Leinster, a friend of Conaire Mór. In the tale the road of Cualu ran through the house, which had seven doorways and a single door that was turned to whichever side the wind blew on, and the river Dodder flowed through it. Bohernabreena, in the valley of the Dodder south of Tallaght, below Glenasmole, is Bóthar na Bruíne in Irish. In 1836 John O’Donovan, writing the Ordnance Survey name books, glossed it “road of the fairy fort” and noted that “Bruighean da Bhearga, a fort, was in this townland”, and Eugene O’Curry, who worked for the Survey in those years, is said to have reported a local tradition that put Da Derga’s Hostel in the district. The hostel is usually placed on the Dodder, or at Stackallen in Meath.