People, including myself every now and then, forget that there were penal times in England. And of course it swung about all over the place Catholic/Protestant/Catholic/Protestant in a very short space of time. A lot of priests knew which side their bread was buttered on and simply swapped faiths, holding High Mass one week and not the next and then four months later having to decide if they dumped the wife they had taken as a Protestant vicar when Catholicism returned.

Many didn't switch though and you get the wonderful Priest Holes (Harvington Hall is still one of my favourite places because of these!). People went to some extremes. Masses were held at the Garranes stone row in Cork. Just up the hill is a stone with a name carved upon it. This is the name of one of the priests. He's not actually buried there, but the stone was laid so that when the Black & Tans came looking for him the locals could say that he'd died and was buried up there.

Many cairns are known to have been built up by people making the pilgrimage to the spot. This may make the cairn fairly modern, but that does not make reverence in the location a modern one.