Pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick

Statue of St. Patrick on the Pilgrim Way up Croagh Patrick  ©A. Rutherford

Croagh Patrick (Irish: Cruach Phádraig) is a 764 metres (2,510 ft) mountain in the west of Ireland and an important site of pilgrimage. 

Every year more than a million visit Croagh Patrick. On "Reek Sunday," the last Sunday in July every year, over 15,000 pilgrims climb the mountain.

Croagh Patrick has been a site of pilgrimage, especially at the summer solstice, since before the arrival of Celtic Christianity.   

Saint Patrick reputedly fasted on the summit of Croagh Patrick for forty days in the fifth century and built a church there because it was the site of pagan worship of the she-demon Corra.   He is credited with the act of destroying that pagan religion and banishing all the snakes from Ireland.

In actual fact, the early Celts worshipped a stone god in the form of a serpent, so when all the pagan altars to this god were destroyed all over Ireland, Patrick in effect "drove the snakes from Ireland."   In truth, there were never any actual snakes there, and "banishing the snakes from Ireland" is understood as a metaphor.

A seam of gold was discovered in the mountain in the 1980s: overall grades of 14 grams (0.5 oz) of gold per tonne in at least 12 quartz veins, which could produce 700,000 t (770,000 short tons) of ore.   Mayo County Council elected not to allow mining, deciding that the gold was "fine where it was."   So now you know where the leprechuan has hidden the gold.   *grin* 

In modern times, a small chapel was built on the summit, and dedicated on 20 July 1905.

Magnificent views of Clew Bay and the surrounding south Mayo countryside are to be had from all stages of the ascent of the mountain.

Yours truly only attempted the climb once in April 2007 and only went part way up the climb, but enough to have had a wonderful "pilgrimage" for sure. 

Click HERE to view photos of my “pilgrimage” and the beautiful Irish landscape.

Old Irish Prayer

Alone with none but thee, my God,
I journey on my way.
What need I fear,
when Thou art near
O King of night and day?
More safe am I within Thy hand
Than if a host did round me stand.
                                                        -St. Columba

An old Celtic hymn