Ireland Guide
Limerick and Clare
Lough Gur
Twenty kilometres south of Limerick city on the R512 towards Kilmallock, a cluster of grassy limestone hills spring unexpectedly from the plain, sheltering in their midst Lough Gur, the site of dozens of largely prehistoric monuments. Their importance lies in the fact that many of them are not ceremonial sites but stone dwelling places, dating from around 3000 BC onwards, which have furnished archeologists with most of their knowledge of the way of life in Neolithic Ireland. That's not to say that this curious landscape did not have a ritual aspect, as it was also revered as the territory of the sun goddess, Áine, and accrued a powerful mythical reputation, for example as the location of some of Fionn Mac Cumhaill's adventures in the Ulster Cycle.
Before it was partly drained in the nineteenth century, the lake (now C-shaped) formed an approximate square, with a nine-kilometre shoreline around a large triangular island, Knockadoon. The drainage, which left a marsh on the eastern side of the island and lowered the lake's level by 3m, revealed hoards of prehistoric items. These included myriad bones of ritually slaughtered oxen, gold and bronze spearheads, a bronze shield, swords and dozens of stone and bronze axes, all of which appear to have been thrown in as offerings to the gods of the lake but which are now scattered around the museums of the world. The tranquillity of the lake, broken only by the sounds of geese and a wealth of other birdlife, allows you easily to set your imagination to work on how life would have been here five thousand years ago.
You'll need your own transport to get to Lough Gur, as the only buses from Limerick are in the late afternoon. We've described the sites below in the order you'll come to them, though you may want to get the background at the visitor centre first before your explorations.
The first site you'll come to, on the R512 to the west of the lake, is the largest and finest stone circle in Ireland. Now set in a grassy glade surrounded by majestic trees, it consists of 113 large stones propped upright in sockets, around an artificial floor of gravelly earth 70cm above the original ground level; all of this is surrounded by a huge bank of earth, turf and small stones. Built around 2100 BC, the circle is associated with Crom Dubh, the harvest god, with its only entrance, to the northeast, precisely aligned to receive the sunrise on the quarter-day of August 1, the harvest festival of Lughnasa. On the opposite side to the entrance, large quantities of organic debris were found behind two especially tall stones, which point to sunset at Samain, the November 1 quarter-day; it may be that ritual bulls were eaten here to celebrate the traditional start of winter (when it made sense to cull the herd before the fodder shortage).
About a kilometre south of the stone circle at Holycross, the access road to Lough Gur heads west off the R512 around the south shore. Just over a kilometre in, on the south side of the road, you'll see the so-called Giant's Grave, a wedge-shaped gallery grave dating from about 2600 BC, where the remains of eight adults and four children were discovered. It's yet another ancient Irish site where Diarmuid and Gráinne are meant to have lain together on their flight from Fionn Mac Cumhaill, though it has added significance as Gráinne is the alter ego of Áine, the sun goddess. Until about a century ago, couples would mimic their divine coupling by making love in such graves.
Nearly 2km on from the gallery grave, at the northeast corner of the lake, lies the visitor centre (May to mid-Sept daily 10am–6pm; €5; 
www.shannonheritage.com ). Housed in replica Neolithic huts, it gives a fair idea of what life was like for the early inhabitants through artefacts, display boards and an audiovisual.