The ancient tradition of Bealtaine is still celebrated

THE OLD pagan festival of Bealtaine, marking the coming of summer and the season of fertility, is still celebrated at an ancient stone fort at the foot of the Paps mountains, writes Donal Hickey

As they’ve done for millennia, people gathered on May Day at the fort, believed to be up to 6,000 years old, on the Kerry side of Paps, near Rathmore. Known locally and internationally as ‘The City’, the site breathes antiquity and has a mystical aura dating to the time of the druids.

However, it has long since been Christianised. Ghosts of druids may still haunt ‘The City’, but a statue of a blue-mantled virgin and child stands there now.