Transhumance and Irish mountains

There is archaeological evidence from almost as early as 4,000 BC that the hunter/gatherer practices of the people on this island were being replaced by the cultivation of the land - farming was being undertaken.  As in the rest of north-western Europe, early faming in Ireland was in all probability mixed, being based on the cultivation of cereals and on animal husbandry.

(see The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland by John Waddell).

Likely Booley site in Comeragh Mountains

Transhumance is a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures and evidence survives of such practices in the Alps dating from the later Neolitic period (c. 3,000 BCE.  See Prehistoric farming in Europe by Graeme Barker).

  Booley house in Knockmaeldowns

That the earliest farmers on this island made use of the practice is unlikely to be verified.  Nevertheless, by the late Middle Ages the practice seems to have been established in Ireland and the 'uplands' were being used in this manner.

(see: Transhumance and the making of Ireland's Uplands, 1550-1900 by Eugene Costello).

This was the Booley.

The term ‘booley’, ‘buaile’ in Irish, refers to a temporary dwelling or shelter at a place for milking cows, and the ‘booley house’ served as a home mainly for the farm hand or for an entire family where occasionally livestock were also sheltered.

Booley in Knockmaeldowns.

P.W. Joyce, in his ‘Irish Names of Places’ provides many examples, “Great numbers of places retain the names of these dairy places, and the word ‘buaile’ is generally represented in modern names by the forms of Booley, Boley, Boola, and Boula, which are themselves the names of many places, and form the beginning of a still larger number.

For Booley sites in Galway, see:    here                   

and about 100 potential sites in Donegal, see:       here

and Achill:        here

The lost art of 'booleying' in Ireland by Eugene Costello.  Here

It is clear from all this that the Uplands of Ireland were used – to be looked at in due course

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Mountains in prehistory

                          

       

    

Summit cairn on Slievenamon.

    In many cultures the high places (mountain tops) were venerated places. In some they were regarded with awe as locations where the gods resided. It may have been felt that such sites were closer to God and were used as places of initiation, burial or ceremonial locations. In Tibet ancient cultures worshipped the mountains as manifestations of warrior gods - Shivling. There are sacred mountains in Africa - the Mountain of God (Ol Doinyo Lengai) in Tanzania, sacred to the Maasai people. In North America the Devil's Tower of Wyoming has been sacred to the native peoples since Neolithic times. In Greek mythology the foremost deities of the Greek pantheon were believed to have lived on the summit of Mount Olympus.

  In prehistoric Ireland, whatever the beliefs about the mountain summits, they were certainly held in some esteem by the people. There is hardly a significant hill summit that does not have a rock cairn, many of which have been shown to be ancient burial sites. They were also places of pilgrimage where some form of ritual was carried out. The prime example is Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo. This was a place of pilgrimage well before the Christian era and it's thought that the modern track to the summit is an archaeological artifact itself. Three summit mounds are recognised as being of ancient pre-Christian origin. 

  No one can tell what rituals took place there but one possibility is that they were 'Sun' related. There are numerous locations where topographical features align with sunrise or sunset on particularly significant times of the year. The most renowned might be Newgrange in Co Meath but there are numbers of others, some being on mountain summits.

Solstice sunrise from 'Ritual Site' near summit of Brandon Hill in Co Kilkenny, 

looking towards Mt Leinster.

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Some links to Sun phenomena:

Croagh Patrick  ;   Newgrange