Case file · Folklore / legend
The Caves of Kesh
Sixteen limestone caves on Keshcorran Hill, County Sligo, tied in Irish legend to the High King Cormac mac Airt, said to have been raised by a she-wolf there, and to entrances to the Otherworld.
300 CE · 54.06, -8.45 · status: legend
The account
The caves were gathering places at the festival of Lughnasa. Excavations found bones of brown bear, arctic lemming, Irish elk and wolf, and traces of human use over thousands of years.
The sceptical view
Legends layered on a real archaeological site; the wolves of the story were real Irish animals until the 18th century.