The Three Keepers Of Shantemon

Acrylic and pastel on board
15.2 x 20.3cm, 6 x 8″
SOLD

The Shantemon Stone Row or Finn McCool’s Fingers (also said to be called The Kissing Stones), is a row of pillar stones resembling a giant hand situated on the northern side of Shantemon Hill in County Cavan.

Shan-te-mon means the old house of the women. We know from stories of indigenous peoples that these types of sites can be considered either male or female, and are for initiation and fertility. So we can surmise from the name that it was a woman’s site used for what indigenous people called ‘women’s business’. We have been told that there are three female beings taking care of the site and they would have been the original keepers of Shantemon. It was believed that Shantemon would come into its full use when it was time and the emperor would return.

Shantemon is historically recorded to be a site of worship for over 4,000 years but these dates are askew all over the world with indigenous peoples saying it goes back much further to possibly 6000-7000 BC which would make it older than the pyramids in Egypt.

The inaugural rites associated with the appointment of new chieftains in the O’Reilly clan of Breifne were said to have taken place at Shantemon. For the Celts the stones were the scene of the August Lughnasa (Lammas) celebrations on Bilberry Sunday and Samhain.