Folklore

Image of detail of Ardmore Cathedral

Detail of Ardmore Cathedral

Image of detail of Ardmore Cathedral

Image of detail of Ardmore Cathedral

Detail of Ardmore Cathedral

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Image of St. Declan's Oratory

St. Declan's Oratory, Ardmore

Image of St. Declan's Oratory

Image of St. Declan's Oratory

St. Declan's Oratory, Ardmore

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The ancient folkloric tradition offers a colourful and epic interpretation of the origins of the route. The legend relates how St. Patrick's cow, quietly grazing the banks of the River Tar has its calf stolen by a cattle thief from Kilwatermoy or somewhere south of the Bride river in Co. Waterford, twenty miles away. The cow sets out, thundering furiously though the mountains, horns raking the landscape in pursuit of thief and calf. The supernatural beast eventually recovers the calf, leaving in its wake the striated and furrowed route that was thereafter to be known as 'Riann Bo Phadraig' or 'the track of St. Patrick's cow'.

The evidence, however, does not support the claim that St. Patrick was directly associated with the route. Lismore was founded in 634 ad, some two centuries after St. Patrick, and the road's primary purpose was to link Cashel and Lismore. More likely, as discussed by Rev. Power, the tradition of paying a cow tribute by locals to the successors of St. Patrick - the holy men who travelled the route – explains the origins of the name.

Although recent intensive farming, road widening, land drainage and afforestation, make stretches of the Rian unidentifiable, it is still possible to retrace the steps of the early saints of Ireland and the furrows of St. Patrick's cow with the aid of Rev. Power's map, a sense of history and the capacity to wonder.