THE FINAL day of Northern Frights sees us delve deep underwater in Co Armagh, where a dragon sleeps…
Take a walk around Navan Fort and you might spot a small lake. This is Loughnashade, or the ‘lough of the jewels’.
A king who once lived near the lake in Co Armagh heard that some theives were plotting to steal his jewels.
He summoned the wisest of his subjects to help him hide his treasure, yet they could offer no solution that satisfied the king and he became angry.
Just then, the beautiful sound of pipe music came through the air.
Soothed, the king sent his subjects to bring the piper to him.
Those at court couldn’t help but notice how strange the piper appeared when he came and bowed before the king.
He was very small, the size of a fairy some thought, and he carried the most magnificent set of pipes they had ever seen.
The piper said that he had came to Armagh because he had heard of the king’s troubles.
He told the king about a far away land called China, ‘the land of dragons’.
The king had never heard of China or dragons, so the piper explained that dragons were monstorous, terrifying creatures and that no better protector of treasure could be found.
Pleased, the king prepared a boat to take the piper to China so that he might persuade the emperor to send a dragon to Armagh.
The piper returned to Ireland with a fierce and beautiful dragon, but when it was released it jumped straight into the lough and disappeared from view.
The king was understandably very angry and demanded that the musician explain himself.
The piper only smiled and began to play his pipes, causing the dragon to emerge from the lake.
He told the king that the dragon could only be summoned by the sound of his music and that the jewels would be safe at the bottom of the lake, tied to the dragon's neck.
The king smiled, happy in the knowledge that his jewels would forever be safe.
That is until the day the piper slipped on a stone and sank to his death at the bottom of the lake.
Pipers from across the land tried in vain to coax the dragon from the lake but it was never seen again.
And so the dragon and the piper still lie at the bottom of Loughnashade.
As do the jewels unless some gifted Co Armagh musician can find the right tune...
