Focluth was the name of an ancient

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Saint Patrick Saint Patrick (; or ; ) was a fifth-century Romano-British culture, Romano-British Christian missionary and Archbishop of Armagh, bishop in Gaelic Ireland, Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Irelan ...

refers to Focluth in the autobiographical portion of his ''Confession'':

...I heard the voices of those Irish who live near the woods of Focluth near the Western Sea. They called out to me with a single voice: "We beg you, holy boy, come here and walk among us!"

Because Patrick was a native of

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of ''Britannia'' after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. Julius Caes ...

who was taken to Ireland as a

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, most modern scholarship assumes that Focluth was the site of his captivity.

Focluth's location

Focluth's location is not known with certainty. Patrick's 7th-century biographer,

Tírechán Tírechán was a 7th-century Ireland, Irish bishop from north Connacht, specifically the Killala Bay area, in what is now County Mayo. Background Based on a knowledge of Irish customs of the times, historian Terry O’Hagan has concluded that T ...

, writing two centuries after Patrick, indicates that Foclut was in

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

near the border with

County Sligo County Sligo ( , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region and is part of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. Sligo is the administrative capital and largest town in ...

, near the modern village of

Killala Killala () is a village in County Mayo in Ireland, north of Ballina. The railway line from Dublin to Ballina once extended to Killala. To the west of Killala is the townland of Townsplots West (known locally as Enagh Beg), which contains a num ...

. There is no direct evidence for this location, but the circumstantial case is fairly strong. Patrick indicates that during his escape from captivity, he had to travel 200

Roman miles The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of length; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English f ...

(about 185 statute miles) to find a ship to take him to Britain, ''i.e.'', a ship on the east coast of Ireland. Additionally, the Killala area's modern

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

, among the coldest and wettest in Ireland, meshes well with Patrick's description of performing slave labor "through snow and frost and rain."

Focluth's location

References

Further reading