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Ballingarry

Rath

Folklore

Gubbin's Moat.

This is situated in the townland of Ballingarry, Barony Coshlea. A "light" was always associated with it. It is near a graveyard and the light was supposed to be seen going from there to the moat and back again. In my young days when passing by that moat (there is a double ditch beside it, a short cut to village of Ballylanders) we would walk very quietly and silently and never go nearer than the double ditch and we would not dream of crossing at night. Now all that fear is gone.

A story was told by my father (RIP) how one night about midnight he was returning from a hayrick and a light left this moat and went along the road before him and when he came to the crossroads near Ballingarry he heard trampling as if horses were travelling fast but saw nothing and the light was still there. The noise turned at the cross and went along the road whence he had come, towards the churchyard, and the light left him and also went back, and he could see the light facing for the moat again. He used to say that it was a funeral of someone who had been buried in a place he or she did not like and was coming back to their own burial ground.
I think this must be the right place from its proximity to the churchyard and the footpath. It's recounted in the Schools Collection of the 1930s, now being transcribed at Duchas.ie.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
29th May 2016ce

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