Slieve Gullion

I’ve been to Slieve Gullion a few times on trips to Newry. but this is the first time I went up the top and looped around the other side. At 573m it is the highest peak in Armagh and it contains the highest passage tomb in Ireland and the British Isles. It’s classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is located not far from Newry. The mountain is easily climbed, with a road going halfway up it and a trail the rest of the way to the top. Most people go up and come down but the loop is a much better walk.

I started in Slieve Gullion Coutyard Centre. It has a large car park overlooking the green agricultural landscape that lies within the circle of hills ringing the mountain. From here I went through Fionn’s Giant Adventure Park. This is a 4km woodland walk designed for kids. At this time of the year, bluebells carpet the floor. It is full of fairies, giant sculptures and interactive pieces that are part of a quest to help Fionn MacCumhaill, one of the legends associated with the mountain.

At one stage I passed by the metal hounds of Culann, another classic Irish legend that many of us were taught in primary school. Culann was a spearmaker to the kings of Ireland. He lived on Slieve Gullion. There is a theory that the mountain was named after him but we will let the linguists fight that one out. Culann owned the giant hound that attacked Setanta when he tried to join the Red Branch Knights. The trainee-legend killed the dog by hitting his sliotar into the dogs mouth with his hurley when the hound attacked. After that, he became known as Cuchulainn, or the Hound of Culann, as he had to take the place of the dog. The landscape around here is the setting for large sections of the Táin – the Epic Irish story about cattle stealing that sees Cuchulainn holding off an entire army single-handed.

With the strong smell of Scots Pine in my nostrils and a few blasts of birdsong in my ears, I joined the forest drive. This is a one-way tarmac road along the southern slopes of the mountain. Two cars passed me and I met three other walkers. The treeline here is a mix of regimented conifers and wilder natives with heather, ferns and yellow furze interspersed. I pass a stone wall that runs off up towards the top. A sign informs me that this was built in famine times. Down below me are more farmland fields that stretch off into the distance. This sea of green grass and straight ditches flows forward until it meets the far slopes of hills named Croslieve, Slievebrack and Mullaghbane Mountain. These are the outer rings of Gullion, formed when the volcano here collapsed some time after the dinosaurs disappeared and some time before the first fish arrived. This section is a gently ascending slope and I reach the top car park after 2km.

From here I turn right. A steep stone path tests my kneejoints and I stop every now and then to listen to a lone cuckoo calling out from somewhere in the woods far off below. When I reach the sheep gate, the climb levels out. I ramble along a soft springy trail bypassing sheep and lambs and followed by bird sentries until I come to a large stone shelter built into the side of the mountain. The views from are magnificent, with more of the ring visible and the further peak of Slievenacapple off in the distance. The shelter keeps the breeze away. I stop to drink tea, eat my cheese-and-ham roll and soak up the silence. The clouds roll off into the horizon like a flock of sheep. The smell of sheep poop is everywhere.

After lunch I followed the path upwards. It got pretty steep here but it was only about 500m up to the summit. At the top is a mound of stones. Neolithic. That’s new stone age. Farmers. None of this hunter-gatherer hippy stuff. These people put down roots. Burying people got more monumental and places like this were in use for over a 1000 years. Locals call it the Cailleach Bearas House – more about her later. Although it was disturbed over the years (even by American soldiers who dug foxholes into it in World War 2), when it was excavated in the 60s they did find fragments of human bone and three large stone basins, similar to those in Newgrange.

I crawl inside the cairn. It is dark and gloomy after spending so much time under the open skies. The winter sun shines in here during the winter Solstice, that is if the skies are not covered in cloud. The roof above is corbelled so it is dry. There is plenty of space – about 3m – to rest in. I can make out the blip of Lough Crew in the distance, another passage mound built to accept the winter sun.

Back outside, the views from the top are panoramic. I can see the Irish Sea, the Mournes with Slieve Donard – the highest point in Northern Ireland. Lough Neagh shimmers up north. Carlingford Lough is silver. The Cooley Peninsula is dark with masts on the top. I can make out the Sperrins and Slemish. The Armagh Drumlins roll down into Cavan, Monaghan and the midlands.

I follow the path over the plateau of Gullion to arrive at a mountaintop lake. This is known as either the Calleach Beara’s Lough, or the Lake of Sorrows, depending on whether you were Gaelic or romantic. The Cailleach Beara is probably the most powerful female power in Ireland, up there with the Morrigan and Katie Taylor. Sometimes she is young and attractive, other times she is old and cruel. Although she hails from Munster, she is no stranger to the landscape up here. She tricked Fionn Mac Chumhaill and he dived into these waters young and fit before coming out old and frail. He managed to get his powers back but his hair never recovered and since then the locals say that if you swim in these water your hair will turn grey. The lake is dark, cold and peaty. My hair is already grey so I have no curiosity regarding the legend.

I leave the lough and follow the path to the North Cairn. This is a Bronze Age burial, so it is smaller, younger and nowhere near as accessible as the south cairn. It appears to be a popular place for bypassers to balance stones on top of each other in columns. I have seen this practice in many places on my walks. I presume it is either connected to our inability to sit still or a need to leave a mark behind us after we disappear into dust. Or maybe it is just kids.

I veer right after this cairn and start the downhill part of the loop. The North path is not very well marked but I head for the blue slice of Cam lough below and let my feet follow the most worn part of the grass in the hope that they will lead me right. Now and then I pass old rusty arrow signs that tells me I’m still on some sort of trail. There is a lot less stone on this side of the mountain. It is boggy in places after the recent rains but I just shimmy back up the slope to avoid the watery sections. Half way down I stop for another snack and watch some birds of prey hovering and drifting about the heather in front of me.

The trail brings me to the Ballard Road. I turn right here and walk along a narrow country lane as it winds its way downhill. Ahead of me are even better examples of the ladder type fields that I saw earlier from the other side. This old road joins a wider road and I pass by the old Kileavy graveyard and church. This is a beautifully atmospheric 5th century AD convent but my phone has died so no pictures. Further on is Killeavy Castle, now a hotel, which I can skirt through and follow a short path back to the Slieve Gullion car park.

Google Maps: 54.116111, -6.408732

Distance: 14.8 km

Time: Four hours and ten minutes

Type of walk: Tarmac roadway, stone steps, upland trail.

Views: mountains and farmland

Animals: Cows, sheep, birds of prey

Score : 8.5/10

If anyone has anymore information about the route please add them in the comments below.

One Reply to “Slieve Gullion”

  1. Terrific adventure. You should get sponsorship and commission for your contribution to education and encouragement to outdoor enjoyment.
    Lots of love
    V

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.