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.
Ancient Echoes, Modern Forms: The Arrival of the Tuatha Dé Danann
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 all 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 Arrival of the Tuatha Dé Danann – Southern Tradition (Galway → Cong)
A Mythic Itinerary
1. Poulnabrone Dolmen – Portal of the Ancestors | 53.0426, –9.1373
While not strictly part of the route, the great portal tomb of Poulnabrone on the Burren anchors the Tuatha’s arrival in deep time. Such monuments were seen as doorways to the Otherworld – a hidden continuum adjacent to known spacetime – fitting symbols for a people said to descend from the sky.
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
The fleet of the Tuatha Dé Danann made a controlled descent into Galway Bay, with the Claddagh serving as their chosen beachhead.
Then they performed the ritual burning of their ships, symbolically severing ties to the Otherworld and marking their irrevocable settlement.
From this vantage one can see both the cairn-dotted landscape of the Burren and the ancient stone forts of the Aran Islands, a symbolic bridge connecting the urban present with the monumental past.
The Tuatha Dé Danann then advanced inland in formation, following the River Corrib.
3. Maigh Cuilinn / Moycullen – The Navigator’s Plain | 53.3389, –9.1792
The plain honors Cuileann, star‑reader and pathfinder, who guided the newcomers inland. Cairns and tombs along the route memorialize this act of celestial navigation, each monument a waypoint that anchored their passage in both earth and sky.
By following the rivers and lakes, the Tuatha Dé Danann secured mobility, supply lines, and defensible positions.
4. The Passage Inland – River Corrib and Lough Oirbsean | ~53.45, –9.33
The fleet advanced inland into the lake Oirbsean (Lough Corrib), consecrated to Manannán mac Lir.
Their voyage was a strategic military advance, marking their transformation from otherworldly invaders into a sovereign power claiming the very arteries of the land.
The shores of Lough Corrib are dotted with cairns, crannogs, and megaliths – prehistoric staging points.
Knockma (Cnoc Meadha) as Signal Hill | 53.48186, –8.96054
The imposing limestone mass of Knockma rises along their route, crowned with ancient cairns that mark it as a natural command post – a hilltop beacon and observation point.
In later folklore it became the seat of Fionnbharr, king of the fairies, yet in the ancient astronaut perspective it evokes an elevated station from which the newcomers might have surveyed or directed their activities.
5. Cong – Plains of Moytura (First Battlefield) | 53.555384, –9.289087
The culmination of the Tuatha Dé Danann’s advance is at Cong, the narrow neck between Lough Corrib and Lough Mask, remembered as the battlefield of Moytura. Here they met the Fir Bolg, and legend situates their great war upon these plains.
According to tradition, the First Battle of Moytura unfolded here: Nuada lost his arm, and King Eochaid of the Fir Bolg was slain, sealing the Tuatha Dé Danann’s victory and their claim upon the land.
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.
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.
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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.
Epilogue — The Prophecy of Return
The lasting folklore of the Tuatha Dé Danann is that they will return. Folk prophecy even speaks of a final battle – an apocalyptic confrontation in which they will emerge victorious. Whether seen as gods, fairies, or cosmic visitors, the Tuatha remain figures of both memory and anticipation: messengers from beyond, whose story continues to shape the land and imagination.
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
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