What began as a fleeting, personal encounter over the Claddagh, soon opened onto a much larger canvas. That Sunday morning sighting of a silent, hovering craft over Galway Bay did not dissolve into forgetfulness; it seemed instead to point backward and forward at once – into the oldest invasion stories of Ireland, and into future echoes of cosmic alignment.
The Southern Route Reimagined
The Salthill sighting felt uncannily like a verification of the old southern tradition: the Tuatha Dé Danann arriving through Galway Bay, advancing up the River Corrib, and assembling at Cong for the First Battle of Moytura. Each landmark on their route resonated with my own memory of that morning: the Claddagh as chosen beachhead, Maigh Cuilinn as the navigator’s plain, Lough Corrib consecrated to Manannán, Knockma as beacon-hill, and Cong as ritual battlefield. My sighting seemed to re-illuminate the myth: otherworldly vessels descending in controlled formation, their presence etched into cairns, circles, and place-names.
Solas Atlantis: Ancient Echoes, Modern Forms
Almost a decade later, the Claddagh beach became stage once more. The Solas Atlantis project (1993–94) inscribed medicine wheels and planetary symbols into the sand, geoglyphs oriented like ancient monuments. Where my sighting had opened a personal portal, these art-rituals made the connection communal.
The largest wheel, dedicated to Jupiter, became the emblem of the 1995 Galway Arts Festival, echoing both the Tuatha’s cosmic treasures and the skies I had watched in 1986.
The Comet and the Gods
At that very time, fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 collided with Jupiter. For six days the world’s astronomers watched fire bloom in the giant planet’s atmosphere.
The synchronicity was breathtaking: as Galway artists marked Jupiter on the Claddagh, the real Jupiter bore scars from a cosmic bombardment unseen in human history. Myth, memory, and astronomy aligned: my sighting of an unknown craft, the Tuatha’s descent in cloud-ships, the comet’s fall on Jupiter – all variations of the same story: beings and bodies arriving from beyond, leaving marks on land and sky.
A Living Continuum
The southern route of the Tuatha Dé Danann, my 1986 encounter, the Solas Atlantis geoglyphs, and the Shoemaker–Levy comet together form a living continuum. Galway Bay is not just a backdrop, but a threshold: a place where past and future, earth and cosmos, myth and event intersect.
The manuscripts describe the Tuatha Dé Danann arriving in “ships that flew through the air,” a phrase that resonates uncannily with modern visions of spacecraft. They brought with them shining artifacts of immense power – tools or technologies that early chroniclers could only describe as magical treasures. Their arrival story functions as a mythic technology-transfer: beings descending from above, demonstrating feats of construction and energy beyond the scope of any human community of the time.
The Southern Route through Galway
In this retelling, their landing at Galway Bay takes on the quality of a controlled descent. The Claddagh becomes a threshold zone, the chosen beachhead for their craft. From there, they did not disperse aimlessly; instead they advanced inland in formation, following the River Corrib into the vast inland sea of Lough Corrib (Oirbsean). Each landmark became etched with their presence: Galway linked to a maiden of their retinue, Maigh Cuilinn named for their navigator, the lake consecrated to the sea-lord Manannán, perhaps remembered as a commander.
Knockma as a Signal Hill
The imposing limestone mass of Knockma (Cnoc Meadha) rises along their route. Crowned with ancient cairns, it becomes in this reading a natural command post, a hilltop transformed into a beacon or observation point. Later folklore remembered it as the seat of Fionnbharr, king of the fairies, but in the ancient astronaut perspective it recalls the elevated stations from which the newcomers might have surveyed or directed their activities.
Cong and the Cairns of Moytura
The culmination of their advance is at Cong, the battlefield of Moytura. Here the legends place their great war with the Fir Bolg. Ballymacgibbon Cairn, massive and unopened, could be read as a repository or installation; Ecohy’s Cairn, bound to a fallen king, may in fact mark a burial with cosmic significance; Daithi’s Cairn, vast like the monuments of Sligo, forms part of a great terrestrial network. These are not random tombs but nodes in a prehistoric system, aligned with myth and memory.
A Landscape Reforged
What emerges is a cognitive map transformed into a sacred grid. Galway Bay, Corrib, Knockma, and Cong become stages in a procession of beings from beyond. Their story sanctifies the land, but it also encodes memory of technology and power beyond ordinary human means. Whether remembered as gods, fairies, or ancestors, the Tuatha Dé Danann fit within the wider pattern of ancient astronaut lore: those who descended from the skies, forged landscapes into symbols, and left behind monuments too great to forget.
In a more modern context, the Claddagh, Galway’s oldest district, was selected as the site for the “Solas Atlantis” environmental art project, which created geoglyphs and Medicine Wheels inspired by Irelands megalithic designs, highlighting its role as a nexus. From the Claddagh beach, one can see both the cairn-dotted landscape of the Burren and the ancient stone forts of the Aran Islands, making it a symbolic bridge connecting the urban present to the monumental past.
The Arrival of the Tuatha Dé Danann – Southern Tradition (Galway → Cong)
1. Poulnabrone Dolmen – Portal of the Ancestors | 53.0426, –9.1373
This is not strictly part of the route, but it anchors the Tuatha’s arrival in the landscape.
Event: On the limestone plateau of the Burren, the Tuatha Dé Danann are remembered through the great portal tomb of Poulnabrone.
Mythic detail: Such monuments were seen as doorways to the separate dimension of the Otherworld, fitting symbols for a people said to descend from the sky.
Interpretation: The dolmen anchors their arrival in deep time, blending mythic settlement with prehistoric ritual landscapes.
Archaeological echo: Dating to around 4200-3800 BC, Poulnabrone housed collective burials, linking the Tuatha tradition with Ireland’s oldest monuments.
2. Galway Bay / Claddagh – Landing Site | 53.269037, –9.056382
Event: The fleet of the Tuatha Dé Danann descended into Galway Bay and landed near the Claddagh.
Mythic detail: Here they perform the ritual burning of their great ships – symbolically severing ties to the Otherworld.
Interpretation: This act need not mean the destruction of every vessel; rather, it marks their irrevocable settlement. Smaller craft (or magically preserved ships) could still carry them inland.
Archaeological echo: Across the bay, the Poulnabrone Dolmen (53.0426, –9.1373) and other Burren tombs anchor this landfall in a Stone Age landscape.
3. Maigh Cuilinn / Moycullen – The Navigator’s Plain | 53.3389, –9.1792
Event: After landing in Galway Bay, the Tuatha Dé Danann moved inland and paused on a fertile stretch called Maigh Cuilinn – “the Plain of Cuileann.”
Mythic detail: The name recalls Cuileann, the star-reader and pathfinder, who guided them inland with his staff.
Interpretation: He was honored not as a warrior but as navigator, using celestial and earthly signs to set their course.
Archaeological echo: Moycullen lies on the route toward Cong, amidst cairns and tombs that echo the Tuatha’s remembered journey.
4. The Passage Inland – River Corrib and Lough Oirbsean | ~53.45, –9.33
Event: After their landing ritual, the Tuatha Dé Danann move inland via the River Corrib into the vast expanse of Lough Corrib (anciently called Oirbsean, linked to Manannán mac Lir).
Mythic detail: This inland voyage is described as a fleet moving through an inland sea, carrying the host of gods toward battle.
Interpretation: This voyage was a strategic military advance, using the River and Lough as a staging ground for war. It marked their transformation from otherworldly invaders into a sovereign power claiming the very arteries of the land.
Archaeological echo: Shores of Corrib are dotted with cairns, crannogs, and megaliths – prehistoric staging points.
5. Cong – Plains of Moytura (First Battlefield) | 53.555384, –9.289087
Event: The Tuatha Dé Danann reach Cong, the narrow neck between Lough Corrib and Lough Mask. Here they meet the Fir Bolg.
Mythic detail: The First Battle of Moytura unfolds across the plains; Nuada loses his arm, King Eochaid of the Fir Bolg is slain.
Interpretation: Prehistoric monuments shape Cong into a ritual battlefield – its cairns serving as tombs of kings, its circles as gathering grounds – anchoring mythic combat in a pre-existing sacred landscape.
Archaeological echoes: Glebe Stone Circles (~53.538, –9.296): a rare cluster of Bronze Age rings west of Cong, echoing assembly and ritual space in the mythic battlefield zone.
Ballymacgibbon Cairn (~53.530, –9.280): vast unopened passage grave, linked to the slain of Moytura.
Ecohy’s Cairn (Carn Eochaid) (~53.568, –9.270): said to be the burial mound of King Eochaid.
Knockma (Cnoc Meadha) – The Fairy Hill of Connacht | 53.48186, –8.96054
Event: En route northward, the Tuatha are tied to Knockma, the limestone hill later famed as the seat of Fionnbharr, king of the Connacht fairies.
Mythic detail: Cairns atop Knockma (including Cesair’s Cairn) link this site to the earliest layers of invasion lore.
Interpretation: Knockma stands as both signal-hill and mythic throne – its cairns preserving Stone Age memory, its later fairy kingship translating ancient burial ground into a seat of otherworldly power.
Archaeological echo: Neolithic cairns at the summit, later reused in fairy lore.
UFO over Galway Bay – Modern Visitation | ~53.260, –9.080
Event: On Sunday morning, 23 February 1986, a silent, disk-like craft was observed hovering over Galway Bay near the Claddagh.
Mythic detail: The apparition mirrors the Lebor Gabála’s account of the Tuatha Dé Danann descending in “ships that flew through the air” and veiling the land in cloud for three days. The UFO becomes a twentieth-century echo of that same motif: shining visitors arriving from beyond.
Interpretation: Rather than a stray anomaly, the sighting can be read as a re-activation of the Southern Route tradition – a reminder that Galway Bay remains a threshold zone of arrivals. What the manuscripts couched in myth and what Solas Atlantis re-inscribed in art, the UFO re-enacted as lived experience.
Myth and Mystery: The Arrival of the Tuatha Dé Danann
The story of the Tuatha Dé Danann arriving in ships that landed on a mountain is most prominently featured in the Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland). This collection of poems and prose recounts the mythical origins of the Irish people.
According to these accounts, the Tuatha Dé Danann – a race of god-like beings with mastery over magic and craftsmanship – arrived in Ireland under a shroud of mystery. The texts describe them coming in “dark clouds” or “flying ships,” which enveloped the land in shadow for three days. The striking image of a people making their initial appearance on a mountaintop enhances the mythical nature of their arrival.
Reclamation, Not Refuge
Their journey is best understood as a reclamation of ancestral lands rather than a flight to asylum. Some scholarly interpretations draw parallels between the story of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the biblical narrative of the Israelites returning from exile.
The Book of Invasions
§55-64: The Tuatha de Dannan
https://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/lebor4.html
The Four Jewels of the Tuatha Dé Danann
https://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/jewels.html
… and the lasting folklore of the Tuatha Dé Danann is that they will return. In fact, some folk prophecy states that they will return for one last great battle, some end-of-the-world scenario, some apocalypse, and that they will be victorious.
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