A hardy band gather on the spring equinox as the rising sun lights up an ancient tomb at Loughcrew, Co Meath, writes Eileen Battersby.
THE LARGE white moon seemed to be leading the way through the undulating landscape.
This is Loughcrew, Sliabh na Callighe, the hill of the witch.
But yesterday morning as cold apocalyptic gales blew, well perhaps not exactly apocalyptic but certainly sufficiently strong to blow even some of the more robust among us off our feet, no one was looking for witches.
Instead we had come just as night was turning to day, to this most magical, northernmost point of Co Meath, near the village of Oldcastle, to welcome the sunrise of the spring equinox.
Despite the weather and the lack of lambs gambolling in the sloping fields - the sheep having decided to huddle in groups - Loughcrew is always beautiful, mysterious and serene, offering magnificent views in every direction as well as an all-important, unchanged insight into how the place would have looked to ancient man. Humans have wandered throughout this hilly landscape for more than 5,000 years and on summer's evenings as the swallows hold court an eerie resonance often takes over.
The ghosts do walk.
During this weekend, however, our ancestors are content with demonstrating their building ingenuity and their artistry as stone carvers. Loughcrew is an extensive Neolithic hilltop cemetery, spanning three relatively flat summits. It consists of the remains of about 30 passage graves constructed from 3,000BC to 2,000BC and used well into the Iron Age.
It is one of four such complexes in Ireland, all dating from the late Stone Age. Legend maintains that the stones were scattered by an ambitious witch who had her apron full of pebbles.
As she ran across the hills intent on claiming Ireland as her personal kingdom, the pebbles fell and on touching the earth became giant stones.
She may even have turned into a stone. It's a good story, but it was the Stone Age farmers, those great tomb builders, not her foiled ambition, that made Loughcrew.
Even so, the unusual kerbstone at Cairn T, the largest mound-like tomb, is known as the Hag's Chair.
Although not as famous as Newgrange, part of the Brú Na Bóinne complex about 56km (35 miles) to the south-east that includes Knowth and Dowth, Loughcrew has its admirers.
Many of them gathered at the site yesterday, looking towards the rising sun, willing it to cast its golden beam into the chamber of Cairn T.
Also known as Carnbane East, it is flanked by six smaller satellite tombs. The concept is similar to that of Newgrange, although on a far smaller scale. The passage is somewhat wider, but shorter than the dramatic, gradually climbing passage at Newgrange. Loughcrew is less stately, more intimate. The chamber also contains sillstones over which the visitor must step.
Inside there is a wealth of decorative stones featuring the imaginative energy of early man. The floral and sunburst motifs are very different from the spirals at Newgrange.
But before anyone enters the chamber, and this one can hold only six people at a time, (not the 24 person capacity of Newgrange) we all stand outside, facing the horizon.
At about 6.15 am a couple climb to the top of the mound. Not exactly a demanding feat but in a gusting wind, the woman at first had difficulty in keeping her balance. Then she spread out her arms and smiled at the heavens.
Her companion, a tall man with a solemn medieval face, slowly beat a bodhrán. It created an element of ceremony - after all, this was a ceremonial site as well as a cemetery.
When the sun does shine at Loughcrew it will illuminate the chamber for almost an hour. Yesterday the sun played elaborate games, playing hide-and-seek, showing its fire and then stepping back behind the racing clouds to allow the hailstones some fun.
In a similar way, Loughcrew, inspired by the ancient worship of the sun as the giver of life, also afforded some comfort to the Christians aware of the parallel with Easter.
A group sat down beside some stones to share their breakfast of hot cross buns, while a woman carried Tom, a 10-year-old Chihuahua now starting a new life with her, into the chamber. The sun decided to shine fully for about three consecutive minutes, illuminating the backstone of the main chamber with its equinox sun symbol.
Long revered by the ancients, Loughcrew was forgotten and only rediscovered in 1798 by a local landowner called Naper whose family still live nearby.
By 7.30, the Loughcrew watchers were preparing to leave. The bodhrán player scattered seeds. We debated the logistics of driving across the country to experience the sun setting in Sligo. There, high in the Bricklieve Mountains, is Carrowkeel, another great Neolithic burial ground. The fourth such site is also in Sligo, at Carrowmore, which was sketched by the artist Gabriel Beranger in 1779 and surveyed by George Petrie for the Ordnance Survey.
"I'm freezing but I don't care," announced a woman who appeared to be wearing three coats. "I'm coming tomorrow."
Already this Easter Saturday morning, Loughcrew watchers will have gathered in celebration; rain, wind, cloud, sunshine or frost, the annual miracle has happened, the birds are preparing their return, and so is the summer.