Meelick Round Tower

Another local tale tells of how the Cailleach Béarra was interrupted building Meelick Round Tower outside Swinford in County Mayo. Originally the tower was part of a monastery, but like St Michael's Tower on Glastonbury Tor, the tower is the only part of the structure that remains.

The story goes that the Cailleach Béarra was building the tower to the sky, like a Tower of Babel. However she was interrupted by a passing boy who made a rude comment which caused her to jump down angrily. The boy commented that he could see her arse, and she jumped down, abandoning the tower and leaving the marks from her knees in the rocks below where she landed.

[From Visions of the Cailleach, by Sorita d'Este and David Rankine.]