Sunwise

[2] According to folklorist Kevin Danaher, on St. John's Eve in Ulster and Connaught, it was customary to light a bonfire at sunset and to walk sunwise around the fire while praying the rosary.

From this ancient superstition are derived several Gaelic customs which were still observed around the turn of the twentieth century, such as drinking over the left thumb, as Toland expresses it, or according to the course of the sun.

I desired her to let alone that compliment, for that I did not care for it; but she insisted to make these three ordinary turns, and then prayed that God and MacCharmaig, the patron saint of the island, might bless and prosper me in all my affairs.

When a Gael goes to drink out of a consecrated fountain, he approaches it by going round the place from east to west, and at funerals, the procession observes the same direction in drawing near the grave.

Hence also is derived the old custom of describing sunwise a circle, with a burning brand, about houses, cattle, corn and corn-fields, to prevent their being burnt or in any way injured by evil spirits, or by witchcraft.

[This quote needs a citation] The use of the sunwise circle was also traditional in the Highlands during Christian pilgrimages in honour of St Máel Ruba, particularly to the shrine where he is said to have established a hermitage upon Isle Maree.