Summer Solstice

Today is the Summer Solstice. A day that’s been observed in Ireland for thousands of years…

Early settlers revered the date as a significant time in the natural and spiritual world when a line could be drawn between light and dark on earth, marking the longest day and shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

The day became known as the festival of Litha (which means light), and celebrated as an official Celtic Pagan festival to worship the sun God, Lugh; and acknowledge the life-giving, regenerative and healing powers of the sun by lighting bonfires on hilltops.

Harking back to those early times, the solitary Treenearla standing stone (aka Mauma Stone), stands just off an ancient track across the Monavullagh Mountains in County Waterford. Like its age, anywhere from 2500BC onwards, it raison d’etre is also unknown, but it may have been a marker for travellers eons ago.