Cloughmore

Cloughmore, known locally as "The Big Stone" (from Irish: an Chloch Mhór meaning "the big stone"),[1] is a huge granite boulder found about 1,000 feet (300 m) above the village of Rostrevor, County Down, Northern Ireland,[2] on a relatively flat area on the side of Slieve Martin.

Features

The granite boulder (approximately 30 tons in weight), is an erratic, which was probably transported from Scotland (from an island in Strathclyde bay[3]) and deposited by retreating ice during the last Ice Age.[2]

Legend

Local legend has it that the stone was thrown from the Cooley Mountains, on the other side of Carlingford Lough, by the giant Fionn mac Cumhaill.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Cloughmore". Ulster Placenames - County Down. http://www.ulsterplacenames.org/county_down_place-names.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-08. 
  2. ^ a b c "Cloughmore (Big Stone)". Cloughmore Male Voice Choir. Archived from the original on 2008-02-29. http://web.archive.org/web/20080229074248/http://www.cloughmoremvc.co.uk/cloughmore.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-08. 
  3. ^ "Drumlin Country (by John McCullagh)". The Newry Journal (22 April 2004). http://www.newryjournal.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=386&Itemid=31. Retrieved 2008-06-08.