Cattle once signified great wealth and status

The Ox Mountains, it’s a title that sits easily with us and there is no doubt it is a name of substance but what are its origins? Where does the name come from and what does it mean?

With the proliferation of sheep on the mountain in recent centuries, one could imagine it should be called the Sheep Mountains. So, it is likely however that the name comes from a time when cattle rather than sheep held sway on these west of Ireland slopes.

As well as being called the Ox Mountains, the endearing hills of south Sligo and northeast Mayo are also known as the Slieve Gamph range. This alternative title is no help whatsoever in trying to discover how the mountains got their name but a contribution to the National Folklore Schools Collection from the 1930s, made by Patrick Walsh of Tourlestrane in south Sligo, goes some way in explaining the origin.

Long ago there lived on the Ox Mountains two young bulls. When those bulls were young, they lived at Coill Dá Laogh. Every morning they used to walk from Coill Da Laogh to Cnoc na Síde which was the whole length of the Ox Mountains. They used to graze on the mountains. When those two bulls grew up, they changed to a village called Gleann Dá Damh. They lived at Gleann Dá Damh for a few years and they grazed on the mountains there but history tells us that when they were only a few years in Gleann Dá Damh they died. It is from those two bulls that Coill Dá Laogh and Gleann Dá Damh got their names.

Slieve Gamph is often given as the Irish translation or the alternative Irish language name for the Ox Mountains. However, a literal translation, according to Patrick Weston Joyce (Irish Local Names Explained), suggests something else.

Sliabh Ghamh or Mountain of Storms, which in the spoken language was mistaken for Sliabh Dhamh, the mountain of the oxen, and translated accordingly.

I am neither a scholar nor a linguist but I favour Weston’s theory. It fits with the current name of the mountains and it fits with the old legend.

Ancient farming 

Cattle have been the mainstay of Irish farming since the Neolithic era began in Ireland almost 6,000 years ago. Cattle, and especially cows, have been important in the life experiences of most Irish people. Even our legends, such as The Cattle Raid of Cooley, highlight the importance of a valuable herd. Queen Meadhbh knew her cattle and the benefits they possessed and was well prepared to wage war on all comers in an effort to maintain and improve her bloodlines.

Leo Eaton, who produced a documentary for RTÉ back in 2001, In Search of Ancient Ireland, informs us: 

The key to the understanding of Ireland - Irish history, Irish archaeology, Irish culture, the great sagas - everything is based on cattle. Cows are everything and everywhere. 

Ireland's first cows were probably brought by boat from mainland Europe more than 6,000 years ago. The series works hard to give a sense of the order of society at the time. There were no towns or cities or nations as we understand them, just farms.

The first farmers cleared forests of dense oak and pine to plant crops and enable their animals to graze. Many early farming sites favoured sheltered places near quality water sources (seems to describe a certain mountain we all know and love). This created a year-round supply of food and enabled people to live in permanent settlements. Remains of the houses of some of the earliest farmers are occasionally discovered by archaeologists, and their burial monuments, seen in such places as the Boyne Valley in Co Meath, are the earliest standing archaeological monuments in the country. Early examples of the fields laid out by Neolithic farmers survive beneath the bogs in places such as the Céide Fields of north Mayo.

A very old breed

Sheep, while important for meat and wool, were less important than cattle. Cattle were currency and signified status. The late Michael Viney, writing in The Irish Times in 2022 expands on the scene in ancient times. 

The wilder stretches of the western seaboard are a natural home for ancient breeds of livestock adapted to surviving on the leanest of diets. The small black Kerry cow, for example, is thought to derive from the Celtic shorthorn brought north with Neolithic man. Long-lived, extremely hardy and light-footed on the hill, it was developed chiefly for milk production. 

Irish Moiled is a breed of cattle that also extends back over a very long period of time. They likely do not go all the way back to Neolithic times but they do hold a very special place in our farming heritage. A paper presented by the Irish Moiled Cattle Society under the title, The Origin and History of Irish Moiled Cattle, tells us a little more about the breed.

The name of the breed comes from the Gaelic word ‘maol’ meaning hornless. As with all breeds of cattle, there has been much speculation about the origin of the Irish Moiled and the influences of imported breeds on its development. 

Research has shown that the Irish Moiled cattle have a long ancestry in Ireland. Archaeological excavation and ancient Irish literature all point to polled cattle being in Ireland since prehistoric times. It has been suggested that polled cattle were introduced to Ireland by the Norse or the Danes, however, it is known from archaeological evidence that polled cattle existed in Ireland long before the Norse and Danish raids.

I was delighted to read in recent weeks that Irish Moiled cattle will be eligible for the rare breeds measure which is now part of ACRES, the new farm income incentive scheme established in January 2023. Hopefully, and quite soon, we will see a few of these ancient beasts in the sheltered fields of the Ox Mountains once again.

The perfect scene 

A few years ago, I was driving the road between Tubbercurry and Ballina and just as I came to the foothills of the Ox Mountains, I spotted an unusual herd of cattle. They looked magnificent with the backdrop of the mountains behind them. I returned a few days later to find the owner and to photograph his herd. Vincent Kirrane told me the breed was Speckled Park, a breed developed in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan in the 1950s, by cross-breeding stock of the British Aberdeen Angus and Shorthorn breeds.

At first glance, the Speckled Park are reminiscent of the Irish Moiled; in their colouring and general appearance. The thing about this herd, however, as they grazed lazily in Kirrane’s meadow, was that they looked timeless, ancient. For me, the whole scene was a reenactment of times past; a time when cattle signified great wealth and status and their introduction to the hill country of Sligo and Mayo gave rise to the naming of our local mountain. We should have a certain pride in the fact that our rocky outcrops and hidden meadows echo our ancient heritage in their name, the Ox Mountains.

Next week… the Poultry Station, improving the national flock.