ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the transformative aspects of Lough Derg based on an auto-ethnographic field study comprising of participation in the pilgrimage and interviews with pilgrims both at the site and afterwards. Lough Derg has a pronounced liminal capacity. St Patrick's Purgatory, or Lough Derg as it is more popularly known, is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site in northwest Ireland. Ritualistic practices facilitate reflective and transformative experiences through which pilgrims can (re)consider their spiritual identity and place in the world. Participants offer accounts of how emotional and spiritual rejuvenation is nurtured on the island and how they return to the world in a refreshed state. In religious pilgrimages, it involves the movement from the secular world to sacred spaces where the divine is more easily encountered through more immersive spiritual experiences. Fasting and bare feet combine with the features of the island named after prominent ascetic saints creating an affective liminal landscape.
