Cathair Conraoi
An Géarán · Doire Mhór.

The fort on the spur

The name means the fort of Cú Raoi, and there is a fort. Caherconree is National Monument 184, an inland promontory fort on a spur at 625 m, with cliffs down its north-west and south-west sides. A drystone wall shuts the one open approach: 110 m of it, up to 3 m high and four and a half thick, its inner face rising in three steps, with two gaps left for getting in. It encloses about two acres, and four or five small D-shaped structures still sit against the inside of the wall. On a clear day the view runs to Loop Head, the Blaskets and the Reeks.

Cú Raoi and Bláthnad

Cú Raoi mac Dáire, a king and warrior of Irish legend, is its legendary builder. He humiliated Cú Chulainn and carried off Bláthnad, and it was Bláthnad who finished him: she poured milk into the stream below until it ran white, and that was the signal to attack.

Fionn Mac Cumhaill’s Chair

Cú Raoi does not have the ridge to himself. Fionn Mac Cumhaill, the legendary leader of the Fianna, is on it too. Above Tralee Bay a shelf of sandstone juts out from the crest, and the maps name it for him: Fionn MacCumhail’s Chair on the modern sheet, Fin Mac Cools Chair on the historic six-inch. Locally it is his chair, or his seat. The recorded line passes within about twenty metres of it.

The pairing carries on into the next glen. In Derrymore below, the historic map names Fin Mac Cool’s Table. The modern sheet calls that feature King’s Table, while keeping Fionn’s name for the Chair.

On to An Géarán and Doire Mhór

The route then continues through the sandstone towers of An Géarán, reaching about 827 m, before the long descent north to Doire Mhór. The finish is almost five kilometres from the start in a straight line and 171 m lower, so it’s a crossing, not a loop.