Slieve Gullion (Sliabh gCuillinn)

The highest point in County Armagh, ringed by an ancient volcanic landscape.

At 573 m, Slieve Gullion is crowned by a Neolithic passage tomb (the highest surviving passage grave in Ireland) and a small summit lake. In myth it is the mountain where the hero Cú Chulainn and the hag Cailleach Bhéarra are said to be linked.

At a glance

• 573 m, highest in Co. Armagh
• Neolithic passage tomb on the summit
• Ringed by the Ring of Gullion, a rare geological feature

In County Armagh

Slieve Gullion is in County Armagh, Ard Mhacha in Irish, which means “Macha's height (the goddess Macha)”.

More in Armagh

• Navan Fort (Emain Macha) (Eamhain Mhacha): The legendary ancient capital of Ulster, home of the Red Branch Knights and Cú Chulainn's tales.
• Armagh City (Ard Mhacha): Ireland's ancient ecclesiastical capital, seat of St Patrick.

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 Slieve Gullion is Sliabh gCuillinn. 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.