Grange Stone Circle: the largest in all of Ireland

This is Timothy Casey.

Timothy is a dairy farmer. He is a very gentle soul and he is also very funny.

Timothy loves his cattle.

He referred to these five as “my bebbies” and said that they are not quite three months old. Notice where they are laying.

Timothy inherited some land. The same land he’d helped his father farm, and his father before him had helped his father, and on back so it goes. It’s beautiful countryside way out back in Limerick County, perfect for those well cared for calves and the mothers that were grazing, waiting to be milked, across the road.

On one part of Timothy Casey’s land there is something very important. Something which has been there since before 2000 B.C. And that something is the largest sun circle, more commonly known as a stone circle, in all of Ireland.

Grange Sun Circle (in Irish, Lios na Grainsi. Stone of the Sun) is 46 (138 feet) meters in internal diameter. The bank is over 9 meters (27 feet) wide and is raised up about a meter and a half.

Lios na Grainsi is designed so that the entrance gate lines up perfectly with the rising sun during both the summer and winter solstices. You can see the “gate” in the photo above off to the right.

At 5:00 ish on those days the sun pours its light directly through the gate into the center of the circle. Timothy showed me a photo he had taken of it doing just that. It was amazing.

He also told me that last year the sun made an appearance both for the summer and winter solstices but that this year it was overcast, so the fifty or so people who gathered to experience it did not. “Still, they do their dancin’ and singin’and what not and nobody leaves unhappy.
These are some of the happy people from last year.

Timothy Casey is a good steward of his land. After all, it is located along Lough Gur, the oldest continually inhabited area in Ireland. There are hundreds of ring forts, stone circles, ruins of castles, and paleolithic as well as neolithic grave sites all around the Lough. I visited many of them (and will share photos on a future posting) but this sun circle is the main reason I went off to visit that area.

Timothy recognizes the importance of his inheritance and is committed to keeping it undeveloped for the benefit of the people to come. Out of his own pocket, which is not deep (I saw the condition of his old stone barns), he built a fence around the entire Circle to keep his big cows from grazing it down. He also put in a grab bar so that people like me could hold on as they make their way down the steep and slippery slope into the main field leading to the circle.

I thanked Timothy for sharing his land and his stories, then made my way into the circle.

First, I walked counter clockwise as one should do when entering a holy stone ring circle.
Walking the perimeter before entering

I then encountered this interesting symbol carved into a tree trunk at the entrance to the stone gate. I have no idea what it means and if any of you do, please let me know.

I passed down and through the stone gate and into the circle

where I began to look at it from inside, which is where the center of power lies.

Moving in for a close up of the Cleft

This stone is known as Rannach Cruim Duibh.

The name, translated, tells us that this circle was associated with the festival of Lughnasa, one of the four great Celtic feasts, traditionally celebrated on August 1, as an honoring of the harvest.

Crom Dubh means “Dark Bent One”. He is a Pagan deity credited with bringing the first sheaf of corn to Ireland. This named stone, set within this particular Sun Circle, tells us that I was standing within a very important Pagan ritual site, honoring the sun.

Take a very close look at this photograph. I stopped immediately upon passing because I felt something unusual. Then I realized what it was. Do you see it?
The roots of an ancient oak, since felled, embracing and engulfing one of the ring stones. A marriage of powerful elements.

And this section of the circle made me laugh out loud. for obvious reasons. Cocky thing.

Finally, I made my ablutions, spoke my intention, and gave my thanks. I laid a Euro on the offering stone, now hosting donations for Timothy, who is growing older and finding it a challenge to keep up with his farm.

His own children have gone away and he recently had to give away half his herd, which caused him much grief. As I mentioned, he is a gentle soul. I am glad someone started this practice. He said it wasn’t him and I believe him.

After I laid my coin on the offering stones, this tree, which towers over them, reached a branch down and caressed my head.
Oh, you can say it was just the wind, but this is Ireland and I was inside the Grange Sun Circle at Lough Gur.

That tree gave me a blessing. I received it with thanks.