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Welcome to Tara Tree Trail
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Photographs and words celebrating the
beautiful trees and landscape
of Hill of Tara, Co Meath, Ireland
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HAZY LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER
looking from Tara to Skryne
You will always find a welcome at the Hill of Tara
whether you come to share in a ceremony with one of the many spiritual groups that connect to the Hill,
enjoy a walk on the Hill, have a guided tour,
sup a cuppa and snack in Maguires and find that present you need in the gift and craft shop,
browse and, he hopes, buy a book from Michael Slavin
or visit Mary, and she hopes, make a purchase in the Pottery shop.
 
New Book available
2nd edition of Eight Festivals is now available - softcover edition 15 euros - available through Blurb...
we feel this book is different - there is a wealth of information on the seasons and how to celebrate them on the internet and in published books.... but this recounts through picture, verse and story what TaraCelebrations have actually done at their gatherings - providing ideas on how to structure ceremony and most of all what you can enjoy when tuning into the energies of the moment...
Guided Tours of the Hill of Tara - Summer 2009
Tours by appointment - suggested times -
Every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening
meet at the gate 7.30pm
Saturdays and Sundays
meet at the gate 11am, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm
tour approx. one hour
adults 5 euro / families 10 euro
other tour times and groups by arrangement
During the tours we shall explore this sacred site by sharing our experiences of the Hill.
We shall connect the threads of archaeology, history, myth, earth energies
and the mystery and magic that make Tara a special place.
Organised by your tour guides Martin Dier and Nora Judge
www.NativeSpiritTours.com
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The Hill of Tara had five names...
The first was Druim Descuin, or the Conspicuous Hill;
the second was Liath Druim, or Liath's Hill from a Firbolg chief of that name who was the first to clear it of wood;
the third was Druim Cain, or the Beautiful Hill;
the fourth was Cathair Crofinn;
and the fifth name was Teamair (now Anglicised Tara, from the genitive case Teambrach of the word), a name which it got from being the burial place of Tea, the wife of Eremon, the son of Milesius."
from Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish by Eugene O'Curry, 1873.
- spring equinox - This is the time of balance
... the time when the human reunites with all beings and recognises there is no separation. There is a renewal of brother/sisterhood between humans and all beings.
We welcome the energy, wisdom and magic of the woodland and of this place. The vast and hidden world beyond our normal human perceptions.
We come in respect, peace, love and blessing for each other within all realms.
We acknowledge, in harmony, all before us, behind us, to our rightside, to our leftside, the sun, moon, stars and the earth and all surrounding us.
We invite all beings of this land to join us in joy today.
"kept, like any other jewel, in the treasury of Tara."
From:Celtic Myth and Legend by Charles Squire [1905]
The "yew-tree at the head of Baile's strand" had grown out of the grave of Baile of the Honeyed Speech, and it bore the appearance of Baile's love, Ailinn. This Gaelic Romeo and Juliet were of royal birth: Baile was heir to Ulster, and Ailinn was daughter of the King of Leinster's son. Not by any feud of Montague and Capulet were they parted, however, but by the craft of a ghostly enemy. They had appointed to meet one another at Dundealgan, and Baile, who arrived there first, was greeted by a stranger.
"What news do you bring?" asked Baile. "None," replied the stranger, "except that Ailinn of Leinster was setting out to meet her lover, but the men of Leinster kept her back, and her heart broke then and there from grief." When Baile heard this, his own heart broke, and he fell dead on the strand, while the messenger went on the wings of the wind to the home of Ailinn, who had not yet started.
"Whence come you?" she asked him. "From Ulster, by the shore of Dundealgan, where I saw men raising a stone over one who had just died, and on the stone I read the name of Baile. He had come to meet some woman he was in love with, but it was destined that they should never see one another again in life."
At this news Ailinn, too, fell dead, and was buried; and we are told that an apple-tree grew out of her grave, the apples of which bore the likeness of the face of Baile, while a yew-tree sprung from Baile's grave, and took the appearance of Ailinn. This legend, which is probably a part of the common heritage of the Aryans, is found in folk-lore over an area which stretches from Ireland to India.
The Gaelic version has, however, an ending unknown to the others. The two trees, it relates, were cut down, and made into wands upon which the poets of Ulster and of Leinster cut the songs of the love-tragedies of their two provinces, in ogam. But even these mute memorials of Baile and Ailinn were destined not to be divided. After two hundred years, Art the "Lonely", High-King of Ireland, ordered them to be brought to the hall of Tara, and, as soon as the wands found themselves under the same roof, they all sprang together, and no force or skill could part them again. So the king commanded them to be "kept, like any other jewel, in the treasury of Tara."
a branch of a tree bearing apples, nuts, acorns, and berries
From: Survivals in Belief Among the Celts, by George Henderson, [1911]
"The Bile Tortan stood in Magh Tortan in Meath, near Ardbreacan, and was blown down in the reign of the sons of Aedh Slaine, about the middle of the seventh century. This tree was one of the three wonderful trees of Eirinn, and had stood at the time of the Milesian conquest, more than a thousand years."
"Bile Tortan, Eo Rossa, Craebh Mughna, Craebh Dathi, Bile Uisnigh were five ancient trees which sprang up in Erin in the reign of Conaing Begeglach (Anno Mundi 4388).
Conaing held a certain assembly at Tara . . . and they saw coming towards them from the west a man of wonderful size, carrying in his hand a branch of a tree bearing apples, nuts, acorns, and berries. . . . He told them he had come from the place of the sun's rising in the east to the place of its going down in the west, to know why it had stood still for a day, and having obtained the cause of this irregularity that he was now on his return again to the east. He shook the produce of this branch on the ground; and these being taken up by various persons and planted in various localities, produced these wonderful trees which were all blown down in the seventh century.
The Bile Tortan near Ardbreacan, in the Co. Meath, was ash. The Eo Rossa near Leith-Ghleann (Leithlin) was a yew tree, and became the property of St. Molaise of Leith-Ghlenn, from which St. Moling obtained as much of it as made shingles for his Duirthech or Oratory, at Tech Moling, now St. Mullin's, on the river Barrow in Co. Carlow, and which was built for him by . . . Goban Saor. According to an Irish life of St. Moling . . . the Craebh Mughna was oak, and stood near Bealach Mughna in Magh Ailbhe, in the southern part of Co. Kildare. The Craebh Dathi was ash, and stood in the district of Fir Bile (now Ferbil), to which it gave name, in Co. Westmeath. The Craebh Uisnigh was ash, and stood on the hill of Uisnech, in Co. Westmeath."
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