Reek Sunday

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For more on St Patrick, see our page on St Patrick's Day.

Reek Sunday is celebrated in Ireland on the last Sunday in July.

Croagh Patrick is, at 764m (2,510 ft), a distinctive mountain in the West of Ireland, and an important site of pilgrimage for the Irish people. It derives its name from the Irish Cruach Ph´draig (Saint Patrick mountain), although it is known locally as the Reek. It is located 8 km (5 miles) from Westport in the County of Mayo in the Republic of Ireland, standing above the villages of Lecanvey and Murrisk.

On the last Sunday in July every year – Reek Sunday – up to 25,000 pilgrims from all over the world climb the mountain, which forms the South part of an amphitheatre-styled u-shaped valley created by a glacial flow into Clew Bay in the last Ice Age. Many of the pilgrims on the climb do so barefoot.

Croagh Patrick has been the site of pilgrimages, especially at the Summer Solstice, since before the arrival of Celtic Christianity to Ireland in the first century. Now it is named for Saint Patrick, whom legend states fasted on the summit of Croagh Patrick for forty days in the fifth century and built a Church on the mountain side. It is said that at the end of his fast, Saint Patrick threw a bell down the side of the mountain, banishing all snakes and serpents from Ireland.

The Black Bell of Saint Patrick was a highly venerated relic on Croagh Patrick for many years, and the oldest reference to it dates back to 1098 CE. Tradition has it that the bell was originally made of white metal, but became black from constant pelting at the demons who came after Patrick on the Reek.

The bell dates from 600-900 CE, and is now in the possession of the National Museum of Ireland.

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