The Cave of the Cats - Oweynagat - Cruachan

There’s a narrow, thorn-lined entrance carved deep into the earth of a field in the land of Cruachán, County Roscommon. And through that dark, dripping tunnel — if you’re brave or foolish enough to crawl in — you’ll find Oweynagat, the Cave of the Cats.

To most tourists, it’s a curious site in the Rathcroghan complex. But if you’re walking a spiritual path with the Mórrígan? This place is something else entirely.

This is the cave she emerges from in Irish myth.

This is a portal. A crossing point. A place where things come through — prophecies, monsters, shapeshifting goddesses. A place where the worlds connect, and the Otherworld walks right into ours.

Where is the Cave of the Cats?

Oweynagat (pronounced oh-ee-na-gat) is an anglicisation of Uaimh na gCait, the Cave of the Cats.

It sits within the landscape of Cruachán (Rathcroghan), the ancient royal site of Connacht, our Western province.

This is one of the most significant archaeological landscapes in Ireland, with over 240 recorded monuments spread across 6 square kilometres.

The cave lies a little west of the main mound of Rathcroghan, just a few kilometres outside the village of Tulsk.

You’ll find its entrance down a laneway and through a 'kissing gate' to a field, under a spreading hawthorn tree. Going in, you pass under a lintel stone inscribed in Ogham.

That inscription has been translated as referring to “Fraech son of Medb” (VRAICCI...MAQI MEDVVI), placing it right in the heart of the Ulster Cycle mythology.

It’s a small enough entrance — maybe 1.5 metres across — leading into a man-made souterrain that connects to a natural limestone cave about 37 metres long.

In other words: once you drop down through that passageway, you’re underground, under the earth, in complete darkness where nothing lives... but you're very much not alone.

The Mórrígan’s Fit Abode

This cave isn’t just any Otherworldly site. According to the 12th-century text Dindshenchas of Odras, this is the “fit abode” of the Mórrígan.

🔗 Resource: Odras, the Metrichal Dindshenchas

She emerges from this cave in the Táin Bó Regamna, riding a chariot drawn by a one-legged red horse.

She carries a cow, led by a giant with a forked staff, and she’s there on her own terms — not summoned, not asked for. She comes to set things in motion.

🔗 Resource: Táin Bó Regamna

That cow, by the way? It’s being brought to breed with the Brown Bull of Cooley. The result will spark the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the famed epic Cattle Raid of Cooley.

🔗 Resource: Táin Bó Cuailnge

So when I say the Mórrígan moves from this cave to change the course of Irish myth... I mean it literally.

Samhain Monsters and Otherworld Chaos

The Cave of the Cats is also known as the birthplace of Samhain, at least in folkloric terms. It’s said that each year at Samhain, this cave opened and let loose the creatures of the Otherworld.

🔗 Resource: Samhain Fire Festival

But what kind of creatures, you might ask?

• Ellen Trechen, a monstrous triple-headed being that rampaged across Ireland until killed by Amergin, father of Conall Cernach.

• Red copper birds with breath so toxic they withered every plant as they flew overhead.

• Pigs that decayed whatever they touched — hunted by Medb and Ailill, who couldn’t kill them, only chase their vanishing flesh.

• And in the tale of Bricriu’s Feast, magical cats emerged to test the Ulster warriors sent in by Medb, attacking all three heroes in a warrior's test of strength and guile (initiation, perhaps?).

These tales aren’t just about monsters. They’re warnings. Teachings. Trials.

They tell us what happens when the veil drops, and chaos walks free — and the Goddess who rules that threshold is watching every step.

The Archaeology of Oweynagat

On a physical level, Oweynagat is a combination of natural and built features:

• The entrance is a souterrain, a kind of early medieval underground passage, with drystone walls and roofing slabs of cut stone.

• It connects to a limestone cave that extends beneath the field beyond the laneway — a natural cavity expanded by centuries of water and movement.

• Two lintel stones frame the entrance, one bearing intelligible Ogham script, the oldest known written alphabet, designed to express the sounds of the Irish language (which also has a spiritual and magical element, throughout the mythology).

🔗 Resource: Your Free Guide to Ogham (PDF download).

While no direct artefacts link this cave to ritual use (perhaps because it remains unexcavated!), the mythology and local traditions consistently associate it with Otherworld movement, the Mórrígan, and liminality — crossing places.

That consistency, across so many centuries, is telling. 

Spiritual Connection in Modern Practice

So what does it mean for you, the contemporary seeker and student of the Mórrígan?

This cave isn’t just a spot to tick off on a heritage trail. It’s an active energetic space. A node of power. A place where you can meet the Mórrígan — or, more often, where she meets you.

You don’t have to physically crawl through the cave (though many do). You can connect with it through journeying, guided meditation, or even simply learning and speaking the stories.

Its energy is carried through her name, her work, her sovereignty.

I’ve stood in that cave with the water dripping cold on my neck, and I’ve felt the wind howl across the Rathcroghan fields in the dead of winter. Too many times to count.

I’ve seen the look in people’s eyes when they step back out after meeting her in the dark.

This isn't a place to be taken lightly. The Cave of the Cats expects your attention, and your honesty.

A Living Landscape of Myth and Mystery

The Cave of the Cats is more than a mythic site. It’s a portal — physically, spiritually, and ritually.

It’s where the Mórrígan comes from in the stories, from the Otherworld into this one.

🔗 Resource: What is the Irish Otherworld?

It’s where monsters emerge. It’s where Odras is turned into a river. It’s where the sovereignty of Ireland is challenged, claimed, and kept.

It’s still there, in a farmer’s field in Roscommon. You can go visit. You can sit with it. You can read the stories and hear her whisper.

🔗 Resource: The Rathcroghan Visitor Centre (Guided Tours)

But be prepared. This isn’t just another tourist attraction, a box to tick on your trip to Ireland.

This is the fit abode of a Goddess who speaks in battle cries and prophecy, who shapes fate and names what must come next.

And sometimes, she still walks through that cave.

🐦‍⬛ Is the Mórrígan Calling You?

Discover the signs and deepen your understanding with our free guide.

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