Legendary Walks
You can walk almost anywhere in the mountains behind Carlingford and Omeath, and once you're up there the heather-tuffeted ground on top offers some of the most beautiful hill-walking imaginable, the setting for many episodes from the Tain Bo Cuailnge . It's at its best in the afternoon, with the light bringing out the colours of the Mourne Mountains across the water - in the morning the sun tends to get in your eyes. The road up behind the former youth hostel, a mile or so south of Omeath, a few yards off the main road behind the Ranch Pub and Restaurant , offers the best approach, switchbacking its way into the hills with the climb ever increasing the drama of the fjord below. At about 1200ft there's a car park where a map table marks out the major sights, and there's a long spiel on the formation of the lough: a valley gouged out by a glacier which was flooded at the end of the last Ice Age. With a little imagination, it's not hard to translate the gaps, boulders and fording points of rivers up here into the scenes of Cuchulainn's epic battles. And some of the places are clearly identified. From Trumpet Hill ( Ochaine ) he slew a hundred men of Medb's army with his sling on three successive nights as they rested in a plain to the west. This forced Ailill, fearing that his entire force would be destroyed, to offer up champions in single combat. Between Ochaine and the sea Cuchulainn slew the first of these warriors, Nadcranntail , by letting his spear fly high into the air so that it dropped down onto Nadcranntail's skull and pinned him to the ground. Then he sprang onto the rim of Nadcranntail's shield and struck his head off and then struck again through the neck right down to the navel so that he fell in four sections to the ground. From Slievenaglogh ( Sliab Cuinciu ) Cuchulainn swore to hurl a sling stone at Medb's head - no easy task as she never moved without her army in front holding a barrel-shaped shelter of shields over their heads. Then one of Medb's bondmaids, Lochu, went to fetch water and, thinking it was Medb herself, he loosed two stones, killing her on the plain in the place known as Reid Locha , Lochu's level ground. In fact, when he had the chance, Cuchulainn couldn't bring himself to kill Medb. During the final battle an earthy episode is inserted in which Medb suddenly gets a gush of blood that makes her need to urinate. Fergus, her chief warrior and lover, is furious at her bad timing and takes his place in the army of shields raised to protect her while she relieves herself, creating three great channels known as Fual Medba , Medb's foul place. Finding her in this delicate position, Cuchulainn was too honourable to kill her from behind (though he seems happy enough to kill everyone else whenever and wherever he can). Fual Medba is not clearly identified, but you can find the scene of an earlier episode, the Black Cauldron ( Dubchoire ), where Medb divides her armies to search for the white bull, which has last been seen here: it's a recess north of the Glenngat Valley (the valley above Ballymackellet). When the spoils are brought back and the cattle have to be driven over the mountain at the source of the Big River (the River Cronn ), Fergus decides that they will have to cut a gap in the hills to get the cattle. This is the Bernas Bo Ulad , today known as Windy Gap . It's also the point in the story where Fergus and Medb hang back behind the army to make love, and where Ailill, aware of their tryst, sent a spy to take Fergus's sword, thus acquiring proof of his unguarded weakness and providing the basis of a phallic joke which recurs throughout the story. Windy Gap is also the setting of a far later tale, the tragic legend behind the Long Woman's Grave , marked by a pile of stones at the roadside. The story concerns two sons at their father's deathbed: the elder promised to give his younger brother a fair share of the estate, saying he would take him up to a high place in the mountains and give him all he could see. He kept his word, but the place where they stood was Windy Gap, where if you look around you see nothing but the immediate hills rising on all sides. The younger son instead became a trader, and on one trip wooed a Spanish beauty to whom he gave the same promise, tempting her hand in marriage. When he brought her home and took her up to the Windy Gap to show her his estate she dropped dead on the spot from shock. Thus the Long Woman's Grave for the tall Spanish beauty is explained.
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