Welcome to Caldragh

The early history of the site at Caldragh remains much of a mystery. The present graveyard is named Caldragh, or in Irish, “Cealtrach”, meaning old graveyard. Nothing of the original church remains in the Caldragh graveyard in Dreenan. A fine font is in a private garden close by. The original cemetery was larger, than the now enclosed, graveyard. It contains a large number of what must be assumed to be either unbaptised infants’ graves or paupers’ graves. 

Stones Statues in Caldragh: The Dreenan Figure, (Boa Island Figure, Janus Figure) This exceptionally well-known stone figure has been sitting in the rural graveyard at Caldragh, since at least 1841, when it was drawn by the antiquarian George Du Noyer. For many years, the accepted opinion was that it belonged to the pagan Iron Age. As Helen Lanigan Wood highlights “The statue has often been described, wrongly, as a Janus figure – Janus being a Roman god who could look in many directions. But this is not a figure with two faces but two complete, more or less identical, figures placed back-to-back. Until recently the statue was missing its lower portion, and some of the ‘pagan’ suggestions stemmed from the uncertainties caused by its incompleteness. Some years ago, a large boulder was uncovered – it was a carved hand! The missing lower portion of the statue had been found…The balance of opinion has been swinging for some time towards an Early Medieval/Early Christian date and now it can be said that this is virtually certain. It probably represents an unpleasant and frightening figure of mythology and folklore, identifying with the war-goddess Badhbh – the hooded crow. This view, based on the appearance of the figures, is given extra credibility by the fact that the name Boa Island comes from the Irish Inis Badhbha, “Badhah’s Island.”  

The second, smaller figure now in the graveyard, on the Boa Island, was formerly on Lustymore Island. It stands to the south-east of the larger figure. The stone is carved from the same type of stone as the Boa Island figure with similar features. It is carved only on the eastern side. Perhaps it represents an abandoned attempt to replicate the larger figure? In 1744, Issac Butt wrote of Boa Island: “An island near ye north shore of ye lough which is called ye Bow Island, on which several villages are, whose inhabitants, as it is said, seldom come on shore but live in silent retreat, marry amongst each other and are blest with all ye common necessaries of life.”   

Nature Note: The Hawthorn Tree  

Hawthorn trees are held as sacred trees in Ireland. Isolated trees, it was believed that they were Fairy Trees and a gateway to the Fairy World. The tree is seen as a protector of the weak, providing shelter and compassion. A Hawthorn tree should never be disturbed. The flower is considered unlucky. To cut from the tree and take it into the home was seen as an invitation to illness and death. Earlier folklore associated the Hawthorn with stories of love. A Hawthorn tree can live for 100 years.