Cuilcagh Mountain (Binn Chuilceach)

A flat-topped mountain straddling the Cavan-Fermanagh border, source of the Shannon.

Cuilcagh's blanket bog feeds the Shannon Pot, the traditional source of Ireland's longest river. Its slopes are crossed by the famous 'Stairway to Heaven' boardwalk that protects the fragile peatland.

At a glance

• 665 m, on the Cavan-Fermanagh border
• Blanket bog feeds the River Shannon
• The 'Stairway to Heaven' boardwalk climbs it

In County Cavan

Cuilcagh Mountain is in County Cavan, An Cabhán in Irish, which means “the hollow”.

More in Cavan

• The Shannon Pot (Lag na Sionna): The traditional source of the River Shannon, Ireland's longest river, in County Cavan.
• Lough Oughter (Loch Uachtair): A maze of interlinked lakes and drowned drumlins in Cavan's lakeland.

Other places of this kind

• Carrauntoohil (Corrán Tuathail): The highest mountain in Ireland, standing at 1,038.6 meters.
• Croagh Patrick (Cruach Phádraig): Ireland's holy mountain, climbed by pilgrims for over a thousand years in honour of St Patrick.
• Slieve League (Sliabh Liag): Among the highest sea cliffs in Europe, rising almost 600 metres from the Atlantic in County Donegal.
• Benbulben (Binn Ghulbain): The dramatic flat-topped 'table mountain' of County Sligo, at the heart of Yeats Country and Irish legend.
• The Mourne Mountains (Beanna Boirche): A range of granite peaks in County Down, and the inspiration for songs and for the land of Narnia.
• The Sperrin Mountains (Sléibhte Speirín): A sweeping range of rounded hills across counties Tyrone and Derry, and one of the largest upland areas in Ireland.

The Irish name

The Irish form of Cuilcagh Mountain is Binn Chuilceach. You can hear it spoken, and take apart names like it, in the Placename Explorer. The authoritative record for any Irish place-name is logainm.ie.