29/04/2026
The First Battle of Moytura
It is fascinating to contemplate how modern advances in science and archaeology appear to confirm some of the ancient myths we have in the Sligo region, namely the First and Second Battles of Moytura. Both stories tell of the colonisation of Ireland by prehistoric people who migrated here by boat in prehistory.
Traditionally the location of the site of the First Battle of Moytura was on the south side of Ballisodare Bay, pictured in the photograph, which was taken at Doomore, a large unexcavated passage-grave high in the Ox Mountains.
The burial monuments at Carrowmore were believed in local tradition to be the graves of the Firbolg warriors who were slain in that Battle. Their King, Eochy was buried in the large cairn, now destroyed, which stood on the beach at Tanrego. Eochy's cairn was removed around 1860 when a large d**e was erected across the strand at Tanrego, the straight line which splits the Bay in half in the photograph.
The Second Battle of Moytura traditionally took place on the eastern shore of Lough Arrow, where Lugh of the Long Arm defeated his grandfather Balor of the Evil Eye and his Formorian army. The mythical imagery of the Second Battle of Moytura is still with us today, found at the core of both Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings, where Balor was used as a model for both Darth Vader and Sauron.
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