We're here in Athgreany, Hollywood, and it's
about 2, 2.5 kilometers south of Hollywood on the N81. It's a very ancient
site. It consists of a ring of stones, the Piper's Stones it's known as.
There's an outlier stone at [inaudible], which is referred to as the Piper, and
the stones are referred to as dancers. And the Mason folklore is that the
dancers were defying the Sabbath Day and they were turned into stones.
Archeologists believe that these two stones here
are the entrance stones to this ancient circle of stones. And they're directly
up from the pilot stone, the Piper's Stone. They're actually to the northeast
from me here. And this circle of stones is very much in the tradition to Newgrange
and Stone Hedge. It's our own local circle of stones here in Hollywood and West
Wicklow. This is very much the keystone or the pilot stone, the key to this
circle of stones, and it's referred to as the Piper's Stone. And it's very --
you see markings on it, north, south, east, and west. East coming here, north there,
and during the Autumn Equinox, the sun would rise over there and shine directly
across that line. And, as the sun moves around the circle, it marks the
different months, the different calendar of the year. But, there's no doubt
about it, this is a very ancient site. It's here, as I say, probably 1,000 up
to 2,000 years before Christ, which makes it 3,000 to 3,500 years old. And it
links the same with a very ancient and pagan past of when there was sun worship
going on here. And, indeed, people are superstitious about a place like the
Piper's Stones and it would be considered bad luck -- if you notice the tree in
the middle, it's a lawn bush, a Hawthorne tree, a hawthorn tree or a whitethorn,
and Sceach Gheal as it's called in Irish. And it would be considered highly
unlucky and, especially given its location in this ancient ring fort, in this
ancient stone, ring of stones, to go near it or to interfere with it in any
way.
There was a tradition like where people used to
leave petitions or offerings here, very much in the same tradition as people
leaving offerings or money coins even in holy wells and so on. So, again, this
shows the continuity between our ancient pagan past and our Christian past
which replaced it. There's a number of Piper's Stones in this general area, but
this would probably be the most famous one at Athgreany. Athgreany is an Anglicization
of Achadh Greine, which in Irish means the Field of the Throne. And, again,
this shows this ancient association with the stone and its ancient purpose as
sort of a stone calendar where people would judge the seasons of the year and
celebrate certain rituals. And this ancient circle is very much at the center
of that pre-Christian pagan world. And that's why people still have this huge
respect and farmers still -- and local people have a huge respect for it and
its association with the past.
Click here for more info on the Piper's Stone
Wactch interview here
Click here for more info on the Piper's Stone
Wactch interview here
