Cruachan (Cruachu, Cruachain, Ráth Cruachain) is the ancient capital of the kingdom of Connacht, and the seat of Medb and her husband Ailill of Lenister in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. It is the setting for the opening section of the Tain Bo Cuailgne. Connaught redirects here. ... (, Medb, Medhbh, Meabh, Maeve, Maev) is queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. ... Ailill (Aillell, Oilioll) mac Máta was king of Connacht and husband of Medb in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. ... The Ulster Cycle, formerly the Red Branch Cycle, is a large body of prose and verse centering around the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster. ... The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology. ... Táin Bó Cúailnge (the driving-off of cows of Cooley, more usually rendered The Cattle Raid of Cooley) is the central tale in the Ulster Cycle, one of the four great cycles that make up the surviving corpus of Irish mythology. ...

Its site is now known as Rathcroghan, a low mound surrounded by a complex of archeological sites near Tulsk in County Roscommon. A standing stone there is said to mark the grave of Dathí, one of the last pagan High Kings of Ireland. Tulsk (Irish Tuilsce) is a village in County Roscommon, Ireland. ... County Roscommon (Ros Comáin in Irish) is a county located in central Ireland. ... Standing stones, orthostats, liths or more commonly, megaliths because of their large and cumbersome size, are solitary stones set vertically in the ground. ... Dathí, also known as Nath Í, son of Fiachrae, son of Eochaid Mugmedon, was a legendary king of Connacht and High King of Ireland of the 4th century or 5th century. ... Within a Christian context, paganism (from Latin paganus) and heathenry are catch-all terms which have come to connote a broad set of spiritual/religious beliefs and practices of a natural religion, as opposed to the Abrahamic religions based on scriptures. ... The office of High King of Ireland (Irish: Ard Rí Érenn) was in origin a pseudohistorical construct of the eighth century that placed a king of all Ireland atop the fragmented pyramid of kingship that actually existed at that time. ...

Sources

• "Foras Feasa Eirann", Geoffrey Keating, 1636.
• "Leabhar Mor nGenealach", Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh, 1649-1666.
• "Ogyia", Ruaidhri O Flaithbheartaigh, 1684.
• "The History of Mayo", T.H.Knox, 1908.