21/06/2026
The Summer Solstice. For millennia our ancestors have marveled at this, the longest day of the year. Across Ireland many places are aligned with this special day; Dowth, Uisneach, Tara and Lough Crew, to name just a few. Locally, it has long been held that the Grange Stone Circle is aligned to the Summer Solstice and Ken William’s 2023 discovery of artwork on Stone 9 might be what confirms this. On the back of the stone, amongst other carved lines, are several concentric circles. Crucially, these are facing towards the east, to the rising sun. Could it be that this art was created almost 5,000 years ago to mark this important day? If you venture to the circle in the morning, perhaps it might be behind this stone you watch the sun rise from.
Interestingly, Áine, our local territorial goddess was also celebrated around this time of year, and we know that on each Saint John's Night the men used to gather on that hill from all quarters. They were formed in ranks by an old man called Quinlan, whose family once lived on the hill. Clíars, bunches, that is, of straw and hay tied upon poles, and lit, were carried in procession round the hill and the little moat on the summit, Mullach-Crocáin lámh-lé-leab'-an-Triùir. This tradition survived until the end of the nineteenth century. Though impossible to completely verify, it is nevertheless enticing and not so difficult to imagine that there is a link between the solar obserations at the neolithic Grange Stone Circle and the much more recent traditions of Knockainey.
Má beidh tú ag dul go dtí an Ciorcal Liag na Gráinsí amárach (bá choir duitse a bheith sa leaba anois!), bain sult as an lá speisialta. Éireoidh an grian timpeall a cúig a chlog. Bígí ag smaoineamh fé bhur seacht sinsir, anois agus an todhchaí. Fan sábháilte agus bíodh sláinte agaibh. Beannachtaí an bhandé agus beannachtaí an Ghrianstad ó Ionad Oidhreachta Loch Gair.
Photo: Tony Grehan
