![]() ![]() ![]() According to this tale, the widow afterwards followed the tyrant to his fort where she begged him return the animals to her, albeit without success. According to this version of the tale, the fervent praying had the desired effect, for the very next morning the fort was found cut off from the headland and in the very place it lies today-hence the name of Dún Briste - ‘the Broken Doon or Fort.’ The story further informs us that ‘this was a complete excommunication, which placed the residence of the tyrant in such a position that he had no egress from it till he perished.’Īnother version informs us that once while Geodruisc was away on a plundering foray inland, he stole two cows belonging to a poor widow, the only things of value the unfortunate woman possessed. Whenever Patrick ascended his altar (see piece on Downpatrick Head) to pray, the miscreant would appear and greatly annoy the Saint, so much so, that Patrick was, as the story goes ‘wearied out of patience with him,’ and as a result, one evening he prayed earnestly that God would place some barrier of separation between the nuisance and himself. ![]() One version tells that during the time of St.Patrick (fifth century) the aforementioned tyrant was living in his fort on the stack which was then attached to the mainland. What follows is a flavour of some of these tales. In fact, in bygone days the pillar was formerly known as Dún Geodruisc or Dún Deodruisc. There are several tales still told in the local folklore as to how and why the stack came to be separated from the mainland, and many of these tell of an ancient “ogre-pirate” who went by the name of Geodruisc or Deodruisc. The antiquarian, Thomas Joseph Westropp wrote that “Vergil’s lines on Sicily vividly describe Dunbriste - Haec loca, vi, quondam, et vasta convulse ruina, dissiluisse, ferunt, cum, protinus, utraque tellus una foret.” The surface of the stack which is roughly forty metres round contains the ruins of what was probably a residence of some extent and the former land-bridge may once have been part of the fort’s fortification. Standing impressively upwards of fifty metres in height and situated eighty metres off Downpatrick Head is an imposing perpendicular rock, the magnificent sea-pillar known as Dún Briste –‘the Broken Fort.’ ![]()
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