Finnabair Chuailnge
Also spelled: Finnabair in Cuailnge, Finnabair, the High Rath
The rath in Cuailnge where the army gathers its plunder and from which it splits up to look for the Brown Bull.
Traits
| Type | Rath |
|---|---|
| District | Cuailnge |
| Province | Ulster |
| Modern name | The High Rath, north of The Bush in the Carlingford peninsula |
| Not to be confused with | Finnabair, daughter of Ailill and Medb |
Where it is
the High Rath, north of The Bush in the Carlingford peninsula
54.006, -6.195
Overview
Finnabair Chuailnge is the rath in Cuailnge that the army makes for. Kinsella's list of place-names gives it as the High Rath, north of The Bush in the Carlingford peninsula. In the text it is called Finnabair in Cuailnge, or just Finnabair, which is also the name of Medb and Ailill's daughter, and the two have nothing to do with each other.
The route list that opens the march ends with the places the army was to pass on its way "to Finnabair in Cuailnge." Ath Gabla comes a little before it in the list, and the list itself finishes at the rivers Colptha and Cronn. The text adds that this is the place from which the armies of Ireland later split up across the province to look for the bull.
Two versions of what happened next put Finnabair at the center. In the first, the armies divide there and lay waste to Cuailnge with fire. They round up every woman, boy, girl and head of cattle in the district and bring them to Finnabair. Medb is not pleased: she doesn't see the bull among them. Her herdsman Lóthar, called up, is afraid to say but says it. On the night the men of Ulster were laid low by their pangs, the bull left with his sixty heifers, and he is now in Dubchoire, the Black Cauldron, in Glenn Gat of the Osiers. The men are told to take a shackle of osiers between each pair and catch him, and the valley takes its name from that.
They drive the bull toward Finnabair. There he sees Lóthar the cowherd and goes for him, taking out his entrails on the horns. He then attacks the camp with his heifers, and fifty heroes die in his path. After that he vanishes out of the camp, and "to their shame, no one could say where he had gone."
In the second version, the spoils are all brought back to Finnabair, and Medb says the forces cannot all advance on one road. Ailill is to take half of them by the Midluachair road, and she will go with Fergus by way of Bernas Bó Ulad. Fergus tells her she is leaving him the difficult half, since they will have to cut a gap to get the cattle over the mountain, and that is what they do. According to the author of this version, that is how Bernas Bó Ulad got its name.
Events here
- Kinsella's route list ends with the places the army must pass on its way to this rath in Cuailnge, and says the armies of Ireland later split up from there across the province to look for the bull. In Chapter II: The Táin Bó Cuailnge Begins.
- In one version the armies divide at the rath and burn Cuailnge, then bring all the women, boys, girls and cattle they have rounded up back to it. In Chapter VI: From Finnabair Chuailnge to Conaille.
- Medb tells them they have not done well enough, since the bull is not with them, and the herdsman Lóthar is called and says the bull has gone to Dubchoire in Glenn Gat of the Osiers. In Chapter VI: From Finnabair Chuailnge to Conaille. Involves: Medb, Lóthar, Donn Cuailnge.
- The men catch the bull with osier shackles and drive him toward Finnabair, where he sees the herdsman Lóthar and kills him, then attacks the camp with his heifers and kills fifty heroes before vanishing. In Chapter VI: From Finnabair Chuailnge to Conaille. Involves: Lóthar, Donn Cuailnge.
- In the other version, when the spoils are all back at Finnabair, Medb divides the army: Ailill takes half by the Midluachair road, and she goes with Fergus by way of Bernas Bó Ulad. In Chapter VI: From Finnabair Chuailnge to Conaille. Involves: Medb, Ailill, Fergus mac Roich.
These are the places they were to pass on their way to Finnabair in Cuailnge. It was from Finnabair that the armies of Ireland later split up across the province to look for the bull.
Connections
Characters connected to this place
Chapters that mention this place
Related places
- Bernas Bó Ulad (The gap Medb and Fergus cut)
- Cuailnge (The district it lies in)
- Dubchoire (The Black Cauldron where the bull is found)
- Glenn Gatlach (Glenn Gat of the Osiers, named when he was caught)
- Midluachair road (The road Ailill takes in the second version)
- River Cronn (The river that ends the route list just before it)