School: Cullahill (C.), Rathdowwney (roll number 13137)

Location:
Cullahill, Co. Laois
Teacher:
Mrs Baird
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0830, Page 188

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0830, Page 188

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Cullahill (C.), Rathdowwney
  2. XML Page 188
  3. XML “A Hidden Treasure”

Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

On this page

  1. In the townland of Cool-Cashin in the County Kilkenny about four miles south of Cullahill Girls National school, a treasure, including gold, chalices and other sacred vessels were supposed to be hidden many hundreds of years ago.
    It is said a woman dreamt that a son would be born to her, with black hair and a red spot in it, and that he would be capable of unearthing this treasure. In due course, a son was born to her, with coal black hair and a red spot exactly as she had dreamt.
    When the boy grew to manhood, he was told the story, and he decided to search for the treasure. One night taking five companions with him, he proceeded to Cool-Cashin, and began to dig at the spot where the gold was supposed to be hidden. After digging for some time, they heard a noise, and looking around they saw a white horse galloping round and round in a circle, some distance away, while he seemed to be spitting fire out of his nostrils.
    Each circle bringing him nearer and nearer to them. The diggers, being overcome with fear, tried to leave the field, but something withheld them; then one of them suggested to shovel the earth back into the hole.
    Whilst they did so, the horse appeared to be taking
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. genre
      1. belief (~391)
        1. folk belief (~2,535)
          1. treasure legends (~7,411)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Nora Rhatigan
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Cullahill, Co. Laois
    Informant
    Mr John Dunne
    Gender
    Male
    Occupation
    Farmer
    Address
    Coolnacrutta, Co. Kilkenny