r/theotherirelandpod

High in the Wicklow Mountains lies Glendalough, the ancient monastic settlement traditionally associated with St Kevin, who is believed to have established his monastery here in the sixth century.

But among the ruins and the dark waters of the valley lives another, more haunting legend, that of Kathleen, the Red Lady.

According to a later tradition, Kathleen became infatuated with Kevin, the hermit who had withdrawn from the world. She followed him to his cave, now known as St Kevin's Bed.

There are two versions of what happened next.

In the darker telling, Kevin rejected Kathleen's advances and pushed her from the rocks into the lake below, where she drowned.

Another version says that Kevin drove her away by stinging her with nettles. Kathleen eventually repented, became a convert and embraced a life of devotion.

There is no historical evidence that Kathleen actually existed, and the story appears to be part of the later folklore surrounding St Kevin and Glendalough.

But the legend doesn't end with her death.

For generations, people have claimed to see the ghost of a woman dressed in red wandering among the ruins.

In 1975, The Wicklow People reported three separate accounts of the “Ghost of Glendalough”, including a photograph allegedly showing a mysterious woman in red and a visitor who claimed to have seen a figure dressed in red disappear among the ruins.

Whether Kathleen was a real woman, a figure born from centuries of storytelling, or simply a legend given life by the atmosphere of Glendalough, her story remains part of the folklore of this ancient place.

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