Places of the Gods
It was well known that many spirits lived in high and often inaccessible places, placing them within the context of air or the sky and weather gods. It also made them remote and aloof from their worshippers on the ground and any devotional ritual at their 'home' had to be carried out after a long journey or pilgrimage (something that the early Christian church was later to copy). Throughout the Celtic world, inscriptions and dedications to aerial spirits and sky gods are to be found scattered throughout mountainous regions.

Croaghpatrick in Co Mayo - the most holy mountain in Ireland - was formerly Cruachan Aighle (or Aickle), the seat of an important spirit to which men frequently prayed and made pilgrimage. This later became a Christian site with a pilgrimage up its slopes in honour of the saint, following in the tradition of the pagans before them. According to Julian of Furness, it was from this mountain that Patrick expelled the serpents and crawling creatures from Ireland, surely symbolic of the rooting out of paganism and pagan shrines on the mountain.