Sacred sites in Ireland

In Glencolumbkille in far southwest County Donegal, you can take a short walk through a dozen or so "stations," each marked as "Turas Cholmcille Stad" with its corresponding number. The name of the eponymous village (after St. Columba) means "the Valley of Cholmcille's Church".

More well known is the annual pilgrimage up Croagh Patrick in County Mayo on the last Sunday in July. Thousands of people make the trek, some barefoot. Plan on about two hours up and an hour or so back down.

Are you looking for Christian or earlier sites? Ireland is full of both.

check out Holy Wells
do some reading on Thin Places
there are Standing Stones at various sites....

Thanks for the replies so far. I am looking for all types of sites that people consider sacred in Ireland - ancient, Christian, other. Conversion to Christianity seemed to have been easier in Ireland than in some other places because of similarities with previous beliefs. I bet there are religious sites and some sacred sites based on landscapes. Any ideas will be welcome.

I am also fascinated by ancient Irish stories. I believe I heard a creation story that was based in in the rugged northern areas of Ireland.

Any sites near Dublin? St Patrick sites? Celtic?

There are many varied 'sacred' sites all over Ireland, some well know and touristy, some not. You might want to google 'sacred sites in Ireland' and 'prehistoric sites in Ireland' and see what comes up. I think the most well-known ones that are somewhat close to Dublin are: Newgrange, Clonmacnoise, Hill of Tara, Glendalough - all of which could be done on tours or day trips from Dublin. Rock of Cashel and Holy Cross Abbey are both in county Tipperary. A lot of the sacred sites are a bit further away from Dublin, many in the west or north of the country: Knock (Roman Catholic pilgrimage shrine), Kylemore Abbey, Croagh Patrick (another pilgrimage site), Holy Island, Mooghaun bronze age hill fort, etc. Navan Fort is near Armagh in Northern Ireland; we went there and it was very interesting with a pretty good small museum explaining the history and with some of the archaeological finds that have been made there.

Thanks Nancy and others. Keep the suggestions coming. I will be leaving Inverness by bus for Oban then on to Iona for a day. Next stop Ireland for five days. Departing from Dublin back to the US. I'm thinking my Ireland journey is too short.

Earlier in the adventure I will be four days in Edinbugh, one day on the train to Inverness, tour of the highland village, four days at an Inverness based conference on interpreting landscapes, including a field trip around Loch Ness, four days to and around Orkney Islands then on to Oban, Iona, Ireland.