Ireland Treasure Blog: "The Cliffs of Moher's Legends"

The brooding Cliffs of Moher, on the coast of County Clare, might seem to be the domain of the gull and the puffin rather than humankind. Yet they too have their ghosts and phantoms. In September 1588, two galleons of the fleeting Spanish Armada foundered in a gale off of the Clare coast. The San Estaban, sailing from La Corunna in Spain, had about three hundred persons on board and the San Marcos, a Portuguese vessel, over four hundred. Almost all of these drowned, and the few survivors who made it to shore were either murdered by the local Irish or captured and later executed by English soldiers. Not one sailor, soldier or priest from the two ships was spared.

It has been rumored for centuries that on stormy nights you can hear the distance screams and prayers of the dying Spaniards in the howling wind; and far out to sea from the cliffs, in the heaving Atlantic waves, glimpse the tattered sails and broken spars of the doomed vessels.

Of the southern stretch of the Cliffs of Moher there is a small promontory called Leach Na Saggart – the “flat stone of the priests”. Local legend relates that the place is named in memory of two Catholic priests, who were thrown into the sea from it by drunken English redcoats. Walkers passing here have seen two distant figures in dark robes, standing on the edge of the cliff with their heads bowed in prayer.