In the 1300s, it is where Edward the Bruce came to make his claim for the Irish Kingship. Edward the Bruce was a Scotsman, and younger brother to Robert the Bruce, who is depicted in the movie Braveheart bidding for the Scottish throne. Robert eventually does become king of Scotland through a series of battles with the English in the early 1300s, and by 1315, the two brothers had conspired a plan to unite Ireland and Scotland in a great Gaelic empire against the forces of England. Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, was to invade the Island of Man, and Edward was to Ireland to claim the Irish throne and then move on to reclaim Wales.. The O'Neills and a gathering of the other Irish earls declared loyalty to Edward at his arrival, making him, technically, the last High King of Ireland. Roger Mortimer and other Englishmen living in Ireland became alarmed at the arrival of Edward in Ulster, and sent for help from Edward the Second of England. In 1318, in the valley of Faughart, a huge English/Irish army of 20,000 surrounded Edward and about 5,000 Scots and Ulster-men and slaughtered Edward the Bruce's forces, and it is from this battle that the town and valley got their name of Faughart. Edward himself was slain during the battle, and with him died the prospects of a united Gaelic kingdom. His body was cut into pieces by the English, and his head sent back to Dublin as proof of victory. After the English had left the battlefield, however, survivors and locals gathered up his different limbs and torso and interred them on the hill of Saint Brigid, marking the grave as that of "Edward the Bruce, High King of Ireland." His headless body still rests on that hill today.
The Valley of Faughart
Final Resting Place of Edward the Bruce's Body
Entrance to the Holy Well of Saint Brigid
Saint Brigid's Well
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