DeDanaan

Camelot : Camelot was King Arthur’s castle. In the Arthurian legends, Camelot represented a place of honor and peace, the home of the Round Table and King Arthur’s knights. It was the place from which the knights departed on their adventures, and to which they would return after the fighting was done and the foe was defeated. It was the court and seat of government. In pictures Camelot is usually depicted as a 12th- or 15th-century medieval castle, but Arthur actually lived in the 6th century, when there were no castles and clothes and armor were much simpler than are usually shown.

Celtic Cross : The Celtic cross is essentially a traditional Christian cross with a circle overlying the point where the lines meet. This symbol evolved in the British Isles, and the earliest forms date from the seventh to ninth centuries in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. The oldest Celtic crosses were carved into large slabs of rock that lay flat on the ground. Later versions stand in an upright position, with rock carved away from the cross. Tenth-century Irish crosses were sometimes capped with a pitched roof. Celtic crosses were often decorated with interlaced knot work, spirals, key patterns, animal figures, foliage designs, and Biblical stories. Some crosses were memorials, inscribed with names of individuals; modern Celtic crosses are often used as tombstones in Irish churchyards.

Also see this excellent page by metalsmith Stephen Walker.

Cashel, Caiseal : (An Caisleán in Irish, meaning “the castle”) Stone-walled ring forts or cashels are essentially the same as Raths except that they are surrounded by drystone walls rather than earthen embankments. There are even a few sites on which both techniques are used. Cashels are more frequently found in the west of Ireland where stone is more easily acquired and excavation in the stony earth is correspondingly more difficult. A ráth (anglicised rath), was made of earth, caiseal (northwestern Ireland, anglicised cashel) and cathair (southwestern Ireland) were built of stone.

In a cattle-dominated society it is generally argued that the purpose of the ringfort was to provide protection to a small community and their livestock during a ‘hit and run’ raid for cattle. The idea being that the ringfort would provide adequate defense for a small period of time. Early Christian texts stress the importance and role of the banks in signifying nobility, kingship and authority. This relationship can be quite clearly seen in the following extract from the Críth Gablach:

What is the due of a king who is always in residence at the head of his tuath? Seven score feet of perfect feet are the measure of his stockade on every side. Seven feet are the thickness of its earthwork, and twelve feet its depth. It is then that he is a king, when ramparts of vassalage surround him. What is the rampart of vassalage? Twelve feet are the breadth of its opening and its depth and its measure towards the stockade. Thirty feet are its measure outwardly.

As can be seen from the above text, the relationship between the banks of a ringfort and vassalage is quite clear. With the argument being that the more elaborate the ringfort, usually in the forms of multiple outlying banks, the higher of the status of the occupant.

Cairn : (Middle English; cárne, from Scottish Gaelic; cárn, from Old Irish) a manmade pile of stones. They are nearly always in uplands, on moors or mountain tops. In prehistoric times it was usually erected over a burial. A barrow is sometimes called a cairn. They are built for several purposes:

*To mark a path across stony or barren terrain, and across glaciers.
*To mark the summit of a mountain.
*To mark a burial site, or in commemoration of the dead.
*Some are also merely sites where a farmer has removed large amounts of stone from a field.

Additionally cairns have been used to commemorate all kinds of events from sites of battles to places where a cart has tipped over.

They vary from loose, small piles of stones to elaborate feats of engineering. In some places, games are regularly held to find out who can build the most beautiful cairn. The word can take in various types of hill, and natural stone piles. Naturally, due to the idea’s simplicity, cairns can be found all over the world in alpine or mountainous regions.

The present-day traditions of building cairns emerged from the Bronze Age habit of putting cists into cairns, which would be situated in conspicuous positions, often on the skyline above the village of the deceased. These cairns are still to be found, but are often much bigger than modern day ones in Scotland.

Crannog : (Irish Gaelic - crannóg, wooden structure, pole, from Middle Irish; crannóc, from Old Irish; from crann = tree) Prehistoric habitation built over the shallow waters of a lake shore or a marsh, usually erected on pile-supported platforms, but sometimes on artificial mounds. Crannogs were used for a settlement and usually linked to shore with a timber gangway or stone causeway. Such a site afforded easy access to a varied food supply by the availability of fish, marsh fowl, and good crop lands. Remains of Bronze Age lake dwellings were discovered in Britain, Ireland, and central Europe.

Cromlech : (Welsh or Breton) crom, feminine of crwm, arched + llech, stone; =crooked stone, term that has changed in meaning from its original equivalent to dolmen. It later came to be used for a single standing stone and now usually refers to a circle of such stones; however, the term is used in this sense for such remains on the Continent, e.g., Britanny and Portugal, rather than for those on the British Isles.

Cailleach Beara, (Beare, Bera) : (kill-ogh vayra) “Crone of Beare” The ancient mountain mother of the south-west of Ireland. South-west Munster was believed to be the abode of the dead and here the Cailleach had lived for countless ages so that her successive husbands died of old age while she enjoyed endless youth. She is almost identical with the Cailleach Bheur of the Highlands except that she is not so closely connected with winter nor with the wild beasts. She is a great mountain builder, and, like many other gigantic Hags, she carried loads of stone in her apron and dropped them when the string broke. She is considered a goddess of sovereignty giving the kings the right to rule their lands. She usually appears as an old woman who asks a hero to sleep with her, if the hero agrees to sleep with the old hag she then transforms into a beautiful woman.

Cailleach is referred to as the “Mother of All” in parts of Scotland. Also known as Scotia, she is depicted as an old hag with the teeth of a wild bear and boar’s tusks. She is believed to be a great sorceress. She is also known to have created the earth. “With her hammer she alternately splinters mountains, prevents the growth of grass, or raises storms. Numerous wild animals follow her…” — Encyclopedia of the Occult, 1920

Cruachan (Rath Cruachan) : The cave at Cruachan is an ‘Entrance to The Otherworld’ and is traditionally regarded as a place from which spirit forces and entities emerge. Caves such as this feature strongly in ancient beliefs. The Cruachan region of County Roscommon, modern day Rathcroghan, is rich in locations associated with ancient magic, ritual and religion. The Rathcroghan mound itself is reputedly the remnants of the palace of Queen Medb of Connacht. It was used by rulers of that era as a place to consult magicians and sorcerers, particularly at the time of Samhain. Cruachan was the seat of the chieftains of the Uí­ Briáin Aí­ and remained for centuries the tribal meeting place and symbolic center until late in medieval history. It has never been thoroughly explored by archaeologists. According to Joyce (Irish Place Names Vol. II), its original name was Druim-na-ndruadh, the ridge of the druids.

Conn Cétchathach (Conn of the Hundred Battles) : legendary ancestor of the Connachta kings of Ireland. Son of Feidhlimidh Reachtmhar and Una, daughter of the king of Lochloinn. Married to Eithne. Conn and Eoghan Mor, also called Mogha Nuadhad, fought a great battle at Maynooth in 123 AD and split Ireland in half. “Resulting from this battle, Mogha forced Conn to divide Ireland with him into two equal parts by the boundary of Esker Riada, a long ridge of hills from Dublin to Galway, the south part he termed his and called it after his own name, Leath Mogha, or ‘Mogha’s Half of Ireland’. The northern part was called Leath Cuinn, or Conn’s Half.” “Conn also gave his daughter, Sadbh, in marriage to Oiloll Olum, Son of Eoghan Mor.” Descent from the Great Kings of Ireland. “Conn’s life and reign were ended by his assassination at Tara. Fifty robbers hired by the king of Ulster, came to Tara, dressed as women, and treacherously despatched the Monarch.” A History of the Irish Race. Another version of his death is: Slain by Tibraite (Tiobraide) Tireach, son of Mal, son of Rochraidhe [Tipraiti Tírech la mc Máil m. Rochride], King of Ulster, at Tuath Amrois. Father of Art