The ghostly clatter of dead horses and other folktales

Photographer Hu O'Reilly continues his popular series 'Chasing the Magical 365' in his quest to record and photograph all 365 lakes in County Cavan...

When passing our local Cullow Lake, as children, we were told: “That lake has no bottom!”

In primary school we learned that our parish was named ‘Crosserlough’ (cross on the lake) as the shadow of the cross from the old church was said to have reflected on this lake.

These stories got me thinking about other lakes in Cavan and what folklore, stories and legends there might be about them.

I received an email from a friend recently with the tale of Green Lough near Cavan Town. According to the story, a druid was approaching Cavan Town on his horse-drawn coach when an old woman threw a basin of water at the horses. The druid got so angry that he turned the town into a lake. So, as the story goes, the old town of Cavan lies beneath Green Lough’s waters today.

My sister told me the legend about how Lough Gowna (pictured above) was formed. A girl was collecting water from a well and she forgot to replace the stone lid. The water flowed from the well and a calf came out with the water. Wherever the calf ran the water came after it until it flooded the area and formed the lake.

There is a similar story as to how another of Cavan’s biggest lakes- Lough Sheelin- was created. A cruel Munster chieftain defeated a local tribe and put to death all the surviving members of the community. Years later, a woman collecting water heard a cry from her son and forgot to cover the well. The water flowed out of it and drowned her and flooded the valley, killing the chieftain and all his tribe. Another story about Lough Sheelin that I was told recently was about three men who rowed across the lake to drink in Finea. During these times if you were travelling the public house didn’t have a closing time so they were drinking late into the night. On the voyage back the old man on the boat’s stern was smoking a pipe. The waves were big and after one big wave, the old man was gone. The next day the other two men returned to the same spot and dropped a flat stone into the lake. This brought up the old man’s body to the surface, and he was still holding the pipe in his mouth.

A flat stone features in the legend of Saint Mogue as well. It is said he sailed on a flat stone to the island on Templeport Lough. This stone was also used to bring coffins to the island. It is said that St. Mogue lived on the island and he was buried there. The clay from that island is supposed to have magical properties and I was told that many people have taken this clay with them to their homes as far away as America.

Mullagh Lough has many tales about white horses that appear and disappear into the lake from the lake’s edge, and numerous stories of fairy people who live at the bottom of the lake.

One such story is of a fisherman and his son who were out on the lake. They almost caught an eel but cut it with a knife before it escaped back into the water, with the knife still stuck in it.

Some days later a man riding a white horse came to the fisherman and convinced him to allow him to take his son away on business. The son was brought on the horse’s back to the bottom of the lake, where a beautiful lady in a castle had a knife stuck in her throat. She asked the boy to remove the knife and he did. She tried to convince him to stay there but he refused. She gave him a red ribbon before he left and told him to tie it on his neck if he ever wanted anything. The boy’s father didn’t let him do this, instead put the ribbon around a tree. The tree disappeared to the bottom of the lake.

Nearby at Quilca Lough there are stories of a man seeing three coffins floating on the lake. The next day a woman fell into the lake and died. The night after the man saw two coffins on the lake. This was a sign that two more people were going to die there.

Another tale at Quilca Lough is of a man seeing a boat full of crying women crossing the lake before it disappeared. The man died around a week later. People say that boat was coming for the man.

There are a few similar folk stories about drownings at Kill Lough. One story is of fairies inhabiting the shores of the lake and at night strange music would be heard. Other tales are of people who lived under the water on Kill Lough and who tried to bring land people to their homes under the water.

If you’re looking for a pot of gold, then Corraneary Lough in Knockbride is the place to go. Tales tell of a man finding the gold after being told to go to the lake in a dream. When he was coming out of the lake with his two white horses, he looked back, which he was forbidden to do, and he lost the gold.

On a cold winter on Lough Ramor, the lake froze over. A man decided to make the journey home on horse and carriage across the frozen lake. When he got near the lake’s edge, the ice broke and they all fell to the bottom of the lake. The tale goes that any time the lake is frozen, you can hear the ‘clip-clop’ of the horse’s hooves.

Many of these stories, and more, were found on the online folklore collection www.duchas.ie. I read through over 50 stories from the archives with folklore on Cavan’s lakes, and it is an excellent resource.

Some other stories were told or sent to me over the course of this project. Thanks to Sheila, Sinéad & Paul for passing on some of the stories in this article. If you have any stories about lakes in Cavan, I would love to hear from you.

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