Croagh Patrick

Croagh Patrick

 

Location: County Mayo Map

Elevation: 764 m (2,507 ft)

Official site

 

Croagh Patrick is a mountain named after Saint Patrick who fasted here for 40 days and subsequently expelled a demon Corra from the lands who was worshipped here by the local pagan tribes. The legend also goes that the saint built church here and expelled snakes from Ireland. Approximately 15,000 make pilgrimage here every year.

 

He has the nickname the Reek. For hundreds of years, Croagh Patrick has been a pilgrimage site in honour of Saint Patrick. In 441, the patron of Ireland rose to this mountain, fasting there for 40 days and building a chapel. According to legend, he threw down a bell on one side of the mountain and thus distributed all snakes from the Irish island. The place where the bell supposedly landed is a U-shaped valley. It originated during the ice age and flows into Clew Bay.

The small chapel on the summit was consecrated on 30 July 1905. On 31 July 2005, on the occasion of the annual pilgrimage, Michael Neery, Archbishop of Tuam, revealed a plaque commemorating the centenary of the consecration.

On the so-called Reek Sunday (also called Girland Sunday), the last Sunday in July, a pagan appointment, about 25,000 pilgrims ascend the mountain; many do so barefoot.

At the foot of the mountain lies the village of Murrisk, north of the megaliths of Killadangan.