Oldtown Cottage

31/10/2026

🐎 The Púca: Ireland's Mischievous Halloween Spirit

Imagine meeting a strange horse on a lonely Irish road on Halloween night.

According to old Irish folklore, it might not have been a horse at all!

It could have been the Púca.

A mysterious shape-shifting creature, the Púca appeared in stories as a horse, a goat or other animal, sometimes frightening unsuspecting travellers or carrying them on wild rides through the countryside.

But one of its best-known Halloween traditions involved something far more ordinary.

Blackberries!

In many parts of Ireland, people believed the Púca travelled through the countryside on Halloween night, spoiling whatever blackberries remained on the bushes.

Some stories claimed it spat on the fruit, making it unfit to eat.

Children were warned never to pick blackberries after Halloween, a superstition preserved in Ireland's folklore collections.

Behind the frightening tale was a practical seasonal warning. By late autumn, the remaining berries were often shrivelled or beginning to rot.

A little Irish folklore helped teach children when the blackberry season was over.

Did your parents or grandparents ever warn you not to eat blackberries after Halloween? 🇮🇪



📸 Irish Roots

30/10/2026

Well done!!

WE WON! 🎉

A little bit of exciting news from The Rusty Mackerel!

We're absolutely delighted to have won Best Seafood Establishment at The Food Awards Ireland 2026, hosted by Oceanic Awards!

We're so proud of our team. There's a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes, and it's lovely to see it recognised.

And of course, a big thank you to everyone who comes through our doors, whether you're a local, a regular or just passing through Teelin. We couldn't do it without you! ❤️

30/10/2026

29/10/2026

On the last night of October, in houses all over Ireland, a place was set at the table for people who had died, the fire was left burning and the door was left unlocked. 🕯️ Samhain.

Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, and it was one of the four great quarter days of the Irish year. The belief underneath all of it was that on this night the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned, and that the dead could return to the houses they had lived in.

So the house was made ready for them. Extra places were laid at the table. Food was left out, often a portion of whatever the family had eaten, and nobody touched it. The fire was built up and left burning rather than raked down for the night, so that any visitor would find warmth. The door was left on the latch or unlocked entirely. Chairs were pulled back from the table. And in some districts the family said the rosary for the dead of the household before going to bed, and left the room.

This was not treated as frightening. These were your own people. The fear attached to Samhain was about the other things abroad that night, which is where the costumes come from, because going out disguised meant that anything you met would not know you.

Crucially, a good deal of this survived under Christianity rather than being replaced by it, because the Church placed All Saints on the first of November and All Souls on the second, and the praying for the dead slotted neatly into customs that were already there. In parts of Ireland people still visit graves on the first of November.

The door was left open for them. 💚 The oldest layer of Irish Halloween, the Samhain custom of setting a place at the table for the dead, leaving the fire lit and the door unlatched so that your own people could come home.

29/10/2026

28/10/2026

Great campsite!