County Cavan · Ulster

Virginia

Achadh an Iúir

the Irish name means 'field of the yew'; the English name is for Elizabeth I

The story

A plantation town of the 17th century, named for the Virgin Queen in the same burst of naming that put her name on a colony in America. The Irish name underneath it is older and says what was actually there: a field of yew, above Lough Ramor.

Worth seeing nearby
  • Loughcrew cairns · Thirty tombs on the 'Hill of the Witch'; Cairn T's back-stone lights up at the equinox sunrise, and the 'Hag's Chair' outside grants a wish if you sit in it.
  • Loughcrew — the Hag's Chair · The Cailleach leapt from hill to hill dropping stones from her apron to make the cairns, missed her footing on the last leap and died — her chair is still there.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.

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