OILITHREACHT: TURAS CHOLMCILLE = ST. COLMCILLE’S PILGRIMMAGE ROUTE

I went out with a group from my class to do part of the Turas CholmCille. We were taken out by Paddy Beag. We started by investigating the souterrain. Paddy said that it dated from the 700’s when there was monasatic settlement. They used the souterraine to keep things like butter cool, but it was also used as a place of hiding when Vikings were spotted in the bay. I went down into the hole to take a look. One thing that surprised me is that there is a big wooden door with a lock on the souterrain now, which wasn;t there before. Inside, there is very little to see. I had to crouch down to crawl through to the end, about 10 feet from the entrance. One part goes under the graves in the churchyard, and the other end goes under the burial mound that is the first stop on the Turas. It’s likely that the souterrain was originally part of a passage grave.
We followed Paddy up past the second and third stops on the Turas. At the third stop he explained that this was one of the places where prayers were said and a rock passed around the body three times. He said that there was another stone that was placed on the eyes as a cure for any eye problem but this stone was now lost.
We followed Paddy up the hill to stations 5, 6 and 7. At St. ColmCille’s church he showed us the stone walled enclosure that was probably a living space. Nearby was the church and St. ColmCille’s bed. I lay down on the stone slab. I can’t imagine the saint having too many pleasant nights’ sleep there. I turned around three times on the slab as directed but I’m not sure what illness that was a cure for.
We continued up to the sacred well. At the well we all had a drink, some more reluctantly than others since the cups looked like they had been left by the saint himself and the water was the same murky, peaty brown as all the water in the Glen.
At this point we stretched out on the grass with the view of the valley below us. Paddy told us the whole story of the life of St. ColmCille. He was a high-born prince of the O’Domhnaill family, the kings of Tir Chonaill, or Donegal. He copied the manuscript of the Psalms from the book of St. Finnian who demanded both the original and the copy back. When the high king of Ireland gave his famous ruling against St. ColmCille (to every cow it’s calf, to every book it’s copy) he fled to Donegal where the O’Domhnaill’s massed an army on his behalf. In a great battle in Sligo more than 3000 people were killed.
St. ColmCille accepted exile as penance for his part in this slaughter. He sailed to Scotland and set up the monastery at Iona.
Paddy told one other story about ColmCille that was interesting. It seems he was called back to Ireland to adjudicate a problem of the bards. He spent a year in Ireland but to comply with his oath he was blindfolded the whole time so he could not see Ireland and he put clods of dirt form Scotland in his sandals so he would not tread on the soil of Ireland either.