School: Gortown, Cill Seanaigh (roll number 14238)
- Location:
- Baile Mhic Cráibhín, Co. an Chláir
- Teacher: M. Mac an Airchinnigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0617, Page 364
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Gortown, Cill Seanaigh
- XML Page 364
- XML “Cilstapheen”
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
- Many are the legendary stories handed down to us by our forefathers, but the one I consider most interesting is one pertaining to Cilstapheen.Cilstpaheen was once a large city on the west Clare coast, near the sea-side resort of Lahinch. This place was said to have been swallowed up by a tidal wave early in the ninth century and many stories have been told of fishermen, who sailing over the spot could hear its church bells ringing beneath the water, and smell its flowery meadows. Neither sound nor scent boded ill to anyone, but the person who had the misfortune to see its submerged tower and spires was doomed to certain death within a week.The golden key of the city was reputed to have been buried in the grave of the warrior "Conan" on Mt. Callan but it is said that when this was opened no key was found. Had it been discovered the legend goes on to assert(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Bherónaca Ní Lúadhna
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Cluain Coll, Co. an Chláir
