An Chraobh Airgid
At dusk a great fire burns on Uisneach's summit, small figures round it, while the split grey Catstone and a white hawthorn stand in the grass below, first stars out.

Mide · Meath

Uisneach

The Hill of Uisneach · Co. Westmeath

Say it: ISH-nukh

The navel of Ireland, where the five fifths meet.

Open it on the full site There it is marked on the map of the five fifths, where the road of a tale can be traced.

On its slope lies Ail na Míreann, “the stone of the divisions”, a great cracked boulder also called the Catstone; tradition says the provinces meet at it. The Dindshenchas tells how Mide lit a fire here that burned for seven years. Geoffrey Keating, writing in the seventeenth century, describes a great assembly here at Bealtaine. In the Book of Invasions, the sons of Míl met Ériu here.

In the tales

  • The Fate of the Children of Tuireann Three brothers stone Lugh’s father to death. His price sounds small: three apples, a pigskin, a spear, a hound’s whelp, and three shouts on a hill.
  • The Song of Amairgen A poet sets his right foot on Ireland and sings that he is the wind on the sea. Three queens of the old gods meet him, and each asks for the island’s name.
  • The Colloquy of the Ancients The last two of the Fianna part in tears. One goes into a hill to his mother; the other finds Patrick blessing Fionn’s old fort, and tells him the story of every hill.
  • The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel A king bound by geasa breaks them one by one on the road, and knows exactly what it means.
  • Niall and the Hag at the Well Five brothers go looking for water. Only Niall comes back with it. The hag who guards the well is Sovereignty.
  • The Adventure of Connla A woman only Connla can see calls him to a land without death, and throws him an apple that feeds him for a month and never grows smaller.

See also

  • Bealtaine The start of summer. The lucky fire.
  • Conn of the Hundred Battles King of Ireland, whose son Connla went away in a boat of crystal.
  • Connla The son of Conn of the Hundred Battles, called away by a woman only he could see.
  • Corann The druid of Conn of the Hundred Battles, who sang against a voice from the other world.
  • Donn son of Míl The eldest son of Míl, who said he owed Ireland to no one, and did not live to enjoy it.
  • Ériu The woman whose name became Ireland’s.
  • Nuada of the Silver Hand King of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who lost a hand in battle and was given one of silver.

Sources

Each tale above lists the sources it is retold from. Every source the site draws on is listed on the full site.