During Irish Adventure: Dublin, Belfast & the Northwest Counties, fall under the spell of Ireland’s many myths and legends—such as the mystery of what fell from the sky in Dublin one night in 1867.
Question: For millennia, what country has played host to a series of mysterious events including unknown falling objects, blood-red hail, and baffling burials?
Answer: Ireland
Chicken Little could have been forgiven for thinking the sky was falling in Ireland on the night of May 9, 1867. Something was falling—that’s for sure—but what exactly was it? Dublin natives woke to the sound of projectiles violently pelting their rooftops and windows. When the storm subsided and locals went outside, what they found was baffling: streets littered with orbs bigger than berries, hard as nuts, and unlike anything they’d seen.
It wasn’t actually the first time mysterious objects had fallen from the heavens in Ireland. Hundreds of fish fell one time and an entire field’s worth of hay another. The explanation accepted by most experts for such phenomena is that whirlwinds of near-cyclone strength act like vacuum cleaners, lifting loose material into the air. Carried aloft, objects of different weight and character tend to separate, which explains why—when the windstorms finally begin to relent—only one kind of object falls at once.
While the "how" seems clear, the "what" has never been proven when it comes to the 1867 event. The most accepted answer is that they were hazelnuts that had been buried in peat bogs for several centuries and caught up in a waterspout that had emptied a bog. While it could have been true, which bog was never identified, and no one reported having seen a hazelnut Jetstream passing over head. To this day, no rain of nuts (or berries or oranges) has ever again fallen on Dublin.
6 More Mysteries of Ireland
- In 1885, a lawyer riding horse and buggy in County Down was caught out in a hailstorm—and nearly wrecked his rig when he saw that the hail was red. The red color went all through the hail stones and when they melted, they stained his fingers and clothes. Local experts never figured out what the red was caused by. Status: Unsolved.
- In 2014, archaeologists exploring Knockarea Cave stumbled on 13 bones and bone fragments in the deepest, most inaccessible corner of the cave. When scientists analyzed the bones, it wasn’t one person but two: a grown man and a child, whom they assumed were father and son. But further examination revealed that the man’s body was 5,500 years old, while the child’s was only 5,200 years old. The experts decided that the cave must have been an excarnation—a holding place for bodies to decompose before being moved to their final resting place—but there is no clear exit and no evidence of the other bodies held there in between. Status: Partly solved.
- The oldest human burial in Ireland was uncovered by the River Shannon in County Limerick. A marked burial post was discovered to contain cremated human remains that date back almost 9,000 years. Laid to rest with the ashes was a beautifully shape adze (a stone ax head) that has one ended blunted and bears almost no traces of wear. Experts say it is so pristine because it was made as a symbolic offering to honor the dead (the blunted end referring to the shortened life). What they can’t explain is who made it: the next such adze didn’t appear for 3,000 years. Status: Unsolved.
- In 1896, farmers in Northern Ireland were plowing fields when they stumbled onto gold in the soil. Literally digging up treasure, the men found a heavy bowl, a sailing ship, and several kinds of jewelry. They took the pieces home, cleaned them up, and started selling them off, unaware that the objects were likely to be from the Iron Age. The items have appeared on Irish stamps and seals since as examples of early Irish craftsmanship. However, two of the objects were loop-in-loop chain necklaces, which means they were not Irish at all, but either Sicilian, Roman, or Etruscan—and no one can say why. Status: Partly solved.
- An eerie knocking sound disturbed the dockworkers of Dublin in the wee hours of one October morning in 1941 but no ships had come since the night before. When a porter finally traced the noise to a shipping container and opened it, he found a French artist inside, upside down, and surrounded by plaster. The artist had tried to save money by shipping himself to Dublin in a crate, protected by a plaster cast of his own body, so that he wouldn’t be jostled too much. But when the ship docked, the crates were tossed out upside down and he remained that way overnight until he was heard. Status: Solved.
- In Waterford, on the road to Mahon Falls, the hill out of town has a mind of its own. If you drive almost to the bottom and put the car in neutral, you won’t roll forward down the rest of the hill—you’ll start inching backward uphill! The so called "magic hill" is an optical illusion: because the horizon isn’t visible in any direction and the landscape itself undulates, it appears that the road is running downhill when it actually is a slight incline. Status: Solved.
Revel in the magical history of Ireland when you enjoy our Irish Adventure: Belfast, Dublin & the Northwest Counties.
