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Between the Rivers Comoge and Morningstar are a vast array of ancient homesites, graves, ritual grounds and monuments. Most intriguing of all, the small but significant hills poking up from the fertile plain of this "Golden Vale" define a ritual calendar that goes back at least 2500 years.

Knockainey (Cnoc Aine) for instance, while only 164 m. (537') tall, is home of the blessing-mother and former seat of judgement for the region. At Midsummer Eve, until 1855, the cattle were driven up the hill and between two bonfires at the summit. Thus blessed by Aine, they could be expected to yield good milk, and the people to have good harvests. Of course, the goddess herself must be honored to bring this good harvest.

Northwest of Knockainey is Knockadoon, a Bronze-age village surrounded by a crescent shaped lake... Lough Gur. Overlooked from the north by Grange Hill and Knockfennel, Lough Gur hosts not only the remains of continuous human habitation since the Bronze age, but also several stone circles including Grange Lios, the largest in all Ireland.

Lough Gur was also the setting for North Munster's alternate-year Lughnassa festivals, at which many households and royalty of southwest Ireland gathered in early August. Nobles and chieftains sat on a stone grandstand atop Grange Hill, watching chariots race a mile and a third plank-covered course around the west end of the lake. These festivals lasted from approximately 350 BC until about 550 AD.

And due west, not far from Ballingarry, stands Knockfeerina (Cnoc Firinne) at 288 m (944'). Home of thunderstorms and source of all fierce weather, Cnoc Firinne was watched closely... especially at Beltane... to see if the male storm energy would be released harmfully against crops, or could be encouraged to give blessed rain without hail and damaging winds. Local people left flower garlands to appease and please Frighrinne at Beltane Eve.

Long ago, sometime around 325 BC, a warrior asked that a cairn of rocks be laid over his body at the peak of Cnoc Firinne. A visitor to the peak, knowing this, could carry a stone up from below and later circle the cairn sunwise three times, singing (in Irish) "Peace on your soul; stone on your grave mound" before laying a new stone on the cairn. This cairn has grown quite huge in the following 2300 years, despite its current placement among radio towers, cellular phone masts and under a 12 metre concrete cross - poured in 1952 at the request of a local priest displeased by "pagan" customs.