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An Fear Breaga or the False Man

An Buchaill Breige on Luddenmore hill in Co. Limerick

An Fear Breaga or the "Lieing Man" seems to be a fairly common name applied to monuments particularly standing stones that look a bit like a person or "false man".

There is an interesting bit of folklore relating to the name which attributes a different type of story to the name, this time from the Glen of Aherlow.

"Fear Bréige - the old-time sun dial for the people who lived in the mid-valley (Glen of Aherlow). It stands out like a real Fear Bréige on the mountain sky line above Lough Muskery. When the sun is seen from the valley to be directly overhead it, it is 12 o clock noon. (Many a child weary from haymaking and longing for the dinner hour was told to look up and notice that the sun hadn't yet come overhead "fear bréige")."

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922274/4866364/5052610

So this appears to have been a natural "Fear Bréige" or some kind of marker that may have looked like a standing stone on top of the Galtees and one of the mountain tops there is noted as Fear Breaga.

On the old OS maps it is marked as "stones" and looks a bit like a cairn to me.


There is also a great picture of a false man from the National Monuments Service here

https://www.facebook.com/563478597003852/photos/a.578592548825790/1711159485569085/?type=3&theater


Does anyone from the area have a picture of this "Fear Bréige" in the Galtees or know more about it?

Comments

  1. Jimmy Barry6 July 2019 at 22:58

    Fearbreaga is a large cairn that has been made into a shelter over the years. The center stones are now a sheltering wall of stones.

    ReplyDelete

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