Rising to 2510 feet (765 meters) near the town of Westport in County Mayo,
the quartzite peak of Croagh Patrick was a pagan sacred place long before
the arrival of Christianity. For the Celtic peoples of Ireland it was the
dwelling place of the deity Crom Dubh and the principal site of the harvest
festival of Lughnasa, traditionally held around 1st August. Initially, only
women were allowed on the summit during this pilgrimage and childless women
would sleep on the summit during Lughnasa eve in the hope of encouraging fertility.

According to popular Christian legend, St. Patrick visited the sacred mountain
during the festival time in AD 441 and spent forty days and forty nights there.

Currently it is estimated that nearly one million pilgrims climb to the summit
each year, as many as forty thousand on the last Sunday in July. In the Irish
Christian tradition the ascent is undertaken as an act of penance for wrongdoing,
and many of the pilgrims climb barefooted or even on their knees.