Celtic PantheonSacred Site
Hill of Tara
The Hill of Tara in County Meath, ancient ceremonial seat of the high kings of Ireland in medieval tradition, with the Lia Fáil, the stone said to cry out under the rightful king.
About Hill of Tara
Temair of the kings
The Hill of Tara (Temair) is the ceremonial seat of the high kings in the dindshenchas, Lebor Gabala Erenn, and the king-tales. Lia Fail, the banqueting hall in story, Medb and later Christian kingship all pile onto one ridge in Meath. Archaeology shows ringditches and feasting, not a stone palace of the Dagda. The myths are medieval Irish political theology. Cult of specific gods at Tara is thinner than the kingship literature.
On the map
Hill of Tara among other places of the Celtic Pantheon.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Lebor Gabala Erenn / Dindshenchas of Temair
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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