Finn McCools Finger Stones, Cavan 2.91

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Finn McCools Finger Stones, Shantemon, Cavan
Cavan, Ireland
Ireland

About Finn McCools Finger Stones, Cavan

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Some of the folklore stories on Finn McCools Finger Stones:
The Shantemon Stone Row or Finn McCool Fingers and also said to be called The Kissing Stones is a row of pillar stones resembling a giant hand situated on the northern side of Shantemon Hill in County Cavan.
Shan-te-mon means the old house of the women. We know from indigenous peoples that these types of sites can be considered either male or female and are for initiation and fertility. So we can take it from the name that it was a woman’s site used for what indigenous people call ‘women’s business’. We have been told that there are three women beings taking care of the site and the three beings would have been the original keepers of Shantemon and that it was believed that Shantemon would come into its full use when it was time and the emperor would return.
Shantemon is historically recorded to be a site of worship for over 4,000 years but these dates are askew all over the world with indigenous peoples saying it goes back much further to possibly 6000-7000 BC.
The inaugural rites associated with the appointment of new chieftains in the O’Reilly clan of Breifne were said to have taken place at Shantemon. For the Celts the stones were the scene of the August Lughnasa (Lammas) celebrations on Bilberry Sunday and Samhain.
In fact, although there is very little information to go on, it seems that this hill and fort may have been the site of ancient inauguration ceremonies for the chieftains of East Bréifne from 1100AD until 1700AD, and most likely even earlier.
Certainly there are stories of various members of the ÓRaghallaigh (O’Reilly) family being crowned there. East Breifne was an ancient historic kingdom known as Muintir Maelmordha, which later on became what is Cavan today. The inauguration stone itself (something like the Lia Fail at Tara) was called Cois an tSiorragh, which means ‘the foal’s foot’, due to a curious indentation said to look like the imprint of a foal’s foot…strangely. Unfortunately, there is no longer any trace of this stone, but there is an interesting tale about it; the details are very sketchy, so it is hard to be completely accurate, but I believe there arose a dispute between two members of the Ó Raghallaigh clan over the kingship; in 1534, Maol Mordha Ó Raghallaigh outwitted his nephew by crowning himself there, ‘so that he (the nephew) would never be allowed to set his foot upon the stone of Cois an tSiorragh‘.
The stones are believed to be the fingers belonging to the legendary Fionn McCool.
OS Ref (IE): H465078 / Sheets: 27, 34
Latitude: 54° 1' 2.13" N
Longitude: 7° 17' 25.9" W

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