It is a recognised facet of many ancient Irish sacred places that those which are mythologically important are generally also archaeologically or historically important. One of the many sacred sites in Ireland that fits that mould quite well is the hill in the county of Meath known as Tlachtga or Hill of Ward.
Tlachtga is important in mythology, but it is also a fascinating archaeological site, which presents as a quadrivallate earthen enclosure measuring 150 metres in diameter. Quadrivallate means that the monument has four banks and four ditches.
The Hill of Ward is situated just 2km east of the town of Athboy in County Meath, and is composed of a gently rising outcrop of ‘Calp’ limestone and shale whose summit is 140m above sea level. From Tlachtga, an impressive view of some of the most important ancient sacred sites in Meath is afforded, including Hill of Tara, Hill of Slane and Hill of Lloyd. To the south, the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains can be seen.
I recently visited Tlachtga just after Samhain, a time of year that was very important in the prehistoric and pre-Christian traditions of Ireland, to take some lovely aerial photos of the monument just before sunset, highlighting the complex earthen embankments of the monuments on the summit of the hill. You can purchase your own high-quality aluminium print of this photo here, or alternatively a limited-edition print (in four different size variations) here.
Tlachtga is often translated as meaning ‘earth spear’. It is described in the Metrical and Prose Dindshenchas, an important collection of place name lore contained in a number of manuscripts surviving from the Middle Ages.
A claim has been made in numerous media outlets and on social media that Tlachtga lays claim to the origin of the celebration of Halloween. This claim has spread like wildfire on the internet, and although there was undoubtedly an important Samhain celebration there in ancient times, the evidence that Halloween/Samhain actually began there is not sufficient to support that claim. It is likely that Samhain was celebrated across Ireland, and indeed other parts of what is now Europe, in pre-Christian times. For instance, there is evidence in the manuscripts of a Samhain Oenach (assembly) at Brú na Bóinne, and there was a triannual Samhain gathering at the sacred Hill of Tara (Temair) once every three years, known as Feis Temro.
In the early decades of the first millennium AD, Tlachtga (pronounced Clock-ga) was one of four important fortress sites established by the high king of the kingdom of Mide (Meath, the ‘Middle Kingdom’) Tuathal Techmar.
In the 17th century, Roman Catholic priest, poet and historian Geoffrey Keating recorded that Tlachtga was the centre of Irish Samhain traditions, telling us that on that sacred hill ‘the priests, augurs and druids of Ireland would assemble on the eve of All Saints, in order to consume the sacrifices that were offered to their pagan gods’. This claim, more than any other, has led to Tlachtga being labelled as ‘the birthplace of Halloween’.
An excellent book on Tlachtga, authored by John Gilroy, was published in the year 2000 but now sadly seems to be out of print. Called Tlachtga: Celtic Fire Festival, it is a comprehensive account of Tlachtga’s mythological and archaeological significance. In the past decade, excavations led by Dr. Steve Davis of UCD School of Archaeology, supported by the Heritage Council, Office of Public Works, Royal Irish Academy and Meath County Council, revealed that the largest enclosure at Hill of Ward is likely to date to the Late Bronze Age, and that the present enclosure is ‘part of a complex of three partially overlapping enclosures on the hilltop’. Furthermore, ‘it overlies a much larger, 195m diameter closely-spaced trivallate enclosure and a smaller subcircular enclosure to the south, c.40m in diameter’.
The manuscripts tell us that Tlachtga was the daughter of a powerful druid called Mog Ruith. In 1919, Westropp wrote that ‘Tlachtga bore the name of the ill-reputed sorceress, for whom the Church had a hatred not found against other of the Celtic gods and heroines’. She is described in some modern sources as a witch.
According to the Dindshenchas, Tlachtga accompanied her father, Mog Ruith, to go to the east (some sources say Italy) to ‘learn the world’s magic’ from the powerful Biblical figure Simon Magus, a powerful magician who was portrayed by the early church as the first heretic, or the ‘father of heresies’. It is now believed that medieval ecclesiastical scribes identified the sorcery of Simon Magus with the druidism of Mog Ruith, using this parallel to discredit the pre-Christian religion. This can be seen in the incredible blending of Biblical learning and Irish myth that claims that Mog Ruith was the man who wielded the axe that cut off the head of John the Baptist.
Together, Simon, Mog Ruith and Tlachtga constructed the fabulous ‘Flying Wheel’, known as the Roth Ramach. John Gilroy, in his book about Tlachtga, tells us that ‘they used this marvellous machine to sail through the air and demonstrate that their power was greater than that of the apostles’.
While Tlachtga was studying with her father and Simon Magus in Italy, three sons of Simon ‘ravished her’ and she became pregnant. She fled, coming back west to Ireland, bringing with her the Flying Wheel. It was apparently constructed, in part, from two pillars of rock, and was later ‘seen at the fair at Tlachtga’. John Gilroy tells us that ‘it was a particularly destructive machine as anyone who looked at it was struck blind and anyone who touched it was struck dead’.
The Medieval scribes imagined that the Flying Wheel was a ‘great engine of destruction’ that would pass over Europe on Judgement Day, to punish all the nations of the earth for giving disciples to Simon Magus’.
Tlachtga died on the Hill of Ward while giving birth to three sons. The great earthworks on the hill were raised over her grave and a festival was held in her honour. In this regard, the traditions of Tlachtga are remarkably similar to other sacred monument complexes such as Teltown (burial place of Tailtiu where games were held afterwards) and Tara (burial place of Tea, wife of the first Milesian high king). There are other similarities between the story of Tlachtga and, for instance, the story of Emain Macha (Navan Fort). At the latter, myth tells us that Macha gave birth to twins after racing against the king’s fastest horses, dying afterwards. At Teltown, the funeral games were inaugurated by the Tuatha Dé Danann god Lugh, in honour of his late foster-mother, Tailtiu). The festival of Tlachtga was likewise inaugurated by Lugh.
It is interesting that the tradition of an annual Samhain fire at Tlachtga’s hill is not attested in either the Metrical or prose Dindshenchas. It was Geoffrey Keating, writing in the 1630s, who first described an annual fire ceremony at Hill of Ward:
Now when Tuathal [Teachtmhar] had put these four parts together and made them into one territory called Meath, he built therein four chief fortresses, that is, a fortress in each of the portions. Accordingly he built Tlachtgha in the portion of Munster which goes with Meath; and it was there the Fire of Tlachtgha was instituted, at which it was their custom to assemble and bring together the druids of Ireland on the eve of Samhain to offer sacrifice to all the gods. It was at that fire they used to burn their victims; and it was of obligation under penalty of fine to quench the fires of Ireland on that night, and the men of Ireland were forbidden to kindle fires except from that fire; and for each fire that was that was kindled from it in Ireland the king of Munster received a tax of a screaball, or three-pence, since the land on which Tlachtga is belongs to the part of Munster given to Meath.
It is fascinating that Keating suggests human sacrifice was an aspect of the Tlachtga ceremonies, but a significant caveat here is that Keating was a Churchman, who would have been propagating the anti-pagan bias of his peers, with all the usual exaggerations about the nature of pre-Christian behaviour in Ireland.
Tlachtga continues to fascinate archaeologists, historians and mythologists because of its multifaceted and indeed fascinating past. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of human presence at Tlachtga going all the way back to the Bronze Age, with evidence of a central mound which – we could speculate – might just be the resting place of Tlachtga, daughter of Mog Ruith and the woman who gives her name to the place.
Further reading:
Dr. Steve Davis gave an overview of the archaeological findings at Tlachtga to an Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland Heritage Week talk in 2023, which can be watched here on YouTube.
A book about the excavations at Tlachtga was published by Steve Davis and Caitríona Moore in March 2024 and can be bought online here.