Oweynagat-The Cave of the Cats

 

Oweynagat

County Roscommon

There are those of us who are not cave specialists, Speleologists in technical terms.

Access to and being inside smaller and more accessible caves for us is a unique experience we don't often get to have.

As you enter and begin to descend, a Coal black darkness envelops you that is darker than the darkest of nights.

 

It's combined with an eerie silence which is disturbed only occasionally by waves of sound echoing and reverberating around the chamber whenever you speak or make a noise.

A stillness permeates the darkness, any breeze long since abandoned as you make your way into the alien subterranean world from terra firma above.

The air is usually moist and more often than not crisp and cool rather than dank and malodorous.

Creatures of dry land and daylight this otherworldly realm seems both ethereal and ephemeral, fleeting and fragile, its tranquility shattered by the slightest of movements.

One such subterranean world is Oweynagat in Roscommon, the Cave of the Cats and occasionally called the Gate to Hell.

Oweynagat is not a contiguous cave system which continues and branches out. It is a single modest cave which ends after about 50 metres or so. It is easily accessible to most.

The entrance to the naturally formed cave was used as a Souterrain, a type of manmade underground passageway usually associated with both the Iron and early medieval ages.

The Souterrain may have been used to hide food and provisions, weapons, or in times of war or fighting even people.

Most unusually the Souterrain entrance to the cave has an Ogham stone for a lintel. There is also a second Ogham stone I missed on my visit.

Sometimes called the Tree Alphabet- A diagram from Ferrycarrig Heritage Park.

Ogham stones are stones which have a linear type of 20 letter early Irish alphabet (occasionally Latin) carved onto them.

Upright Ogham stone - National Museum of Ireland

 

The letters usually spell out a name. They appear like slash marks carved in small groups on the sides and are usually but not always standing upright vertically.

They are a unique artifact chiefly associated with early Christian Ireland and appeared around c. 350 C.E. A small number are also found in Britain.

How the entrance to Oweynagat ended up containing an Ogham stone I've no idea but it is highly unusual indeed.

The hardest part of entering Oweynagat cave is finding the cave itself. Located not far from Rathcroghan archaeological complex (Connaught's ancient Capital) the cave is hidden under a roadside Hedgerow or Berm and small Hawthorn trees. It is easily missed.

While knowing little of Speleology, hydrology nor geology the easily identified "scalloped" sides of the cave suggest it has been formed by a process of Millenniums of water action carving out the long gallery.

There are many myths and legends associated with Oweynagat, particularly concerning Samhain, Halloween. I've added a link below to a good article by Gary Dempsey on Oweynagat cave.

The entire area around Rathcroghan and Oweynagat is covered with literally hundreds and hundreds of Ringforts and Bronze age Barrows, a veritable archaeologists Disneyland.

Keep the wheels turning.

Coordinates here:

53°47'50.2"N 8°18'37.9"W

Sources and further reading:

Souterrains - Pegasus Caving Club

RTÉ - Irelands Gate to Hell

Caves of Ireland.com