Qualla: Slieve Gullion

Slieve Gullion: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Deathpool4 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Bathe in the small dark lough at the summit of Slieve Gullion and your hair will turn white. So the local folklore has insisted for centuries, and the story is as old as the mountain itself. The myth says that the sorceress Milucra placed a spell on the water and tricked the great Fianna warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill into wading in to retrieve a golden ring. He came out an old man. His warriors forced an antidote, and his youth returned - but his hair stayed white forever. The Irish word fionn means white. The mountain that gave Fionn his name is still here, 573 metres high, the highest point in County Armagh, with the small lough still glinting at the top.

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Image: Deathpool4 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Slieve Gullion: Culann's Mountain

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Irish name is Sliabh Cuilinn - Culann's mountain - and it tells the story of how the Ulster hero Cu Chulainn got his name. According to the Ulster Cycle, the smith Culann lived on the slopes of Slieve Gullion. He invited King Conchobhar mac Neasa to a feast. On the way the ki...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Slieve Gullion: The Crag and Tail of a Volcano

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Slieve Gullion is the eroded heart of a volcano that erupted roughly 60 to 66 million years ago, during the Paleocene, as the Atlantic Ocean was opening and Greenland was tearing away from Europe. The mountain itself is built of layered igneous rocks - basic and acidic magmas tha...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Slieve Gullion: Cailleach Beara's House

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two ancient cairns stand on the summit, one on each side of the small lough. The southern one is the prize: a passage tomb 30 metres across and 5 metres high, with a chamber 3.6 metres wide and a corbelled stone roof reaching 4.3 metres. It is the highest surviving passage tomb i...

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Slieve Gullion: A Murder at Mass Rock

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Around 1680, the wave of anti-Catholic hysteria touched off in England by Titus Oates and his fabricated Popish Plot reached the slopes of Slieve Gullion. A priest named Father Mac Aidghalle was celebrating mass at a rough stone altar on the mountain - one of the open-air mass ro...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

Slieve Gullion: The Mountain Today

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Roughly 20,000 people climb Slieve Gullion every year. A road winds halfway up the western side to a small car park, and a footpath leads from there to the summit cairn. The eastern slope holds Slieve Gullion Forest Park, with a visitors' centre, a cafe, a playground, and the Gia...

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Image: Eric Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0