World at War / Conflicts / Celtic Myth
Wars of the Tuatha
Táin Bó Cúailnge — Cattle Raid of Cooley
100 BC
Ulster
Status: ended
Casualties: The brown bull and the white-horned bull; armies on both sides
Queen Medb of Connacht, jealous her husband owned a finer bull, raised the four provinces to take the Brown Bull of Cooley. The men of Ulster lay under a curse of weakness; only the seventeen-year-old Cú Chulainn could defend. He stood alone at the ford in his ríastrad battle-frenzy and held the army through the winter. The bulls fought and died; both armies were broken. Lebor na hUidre.
Open on the interactive globe →
Belligerents
- Connacht under Medb & Ailill
- Ulster — defended single-handed by Cú Chulainn
Casualties
The brown bull and the white-horned bull; armies on both sides
From World at War, an interactive atlas by Jairus Pereira.
Figures are approximate, drawn from Wikipedia, UCDP, ACLED and academic sources — a design
artefact, not an authoritative register. Contact.