Clermont Carn (),
also known as Black Mountain, is a mountain that rises to in the
Cooley Mountains of
County Louth
County Louth ( ; ga, An Lú) is a coastal county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of Meath to the south, Monaghan to the west, Armagh to the north and Down to the ...
, Ireland. It is at the border with Northern Ireland, and is also the location of the
Clermont Carn transmission site. The mountain's name refers to an ancient burial
cairn
A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ).
Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...
on its summit, and to
Lord Clermont
Earl of Middleton was a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created 1 October 1656 for army officer John Middleton, together with the subsidiary title Lord Clermont and Fettercairn, also in the Peerage of Scotland. In 1674, he was succeed ...
of
Ravensdale.
Cairn
The 'carn' in the mountain's name refers to an ancient burial monument on its summit, also known as 'Black Mountain Chambered Cairn' or 'Ravensdale Park Cairn'. This cairn is in diameter and over high, with the remains of another trapezoidal cairn long in the southwest part. Three
lintel
A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...
s are in position and the rear part is
corbelled
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the st ...
. Surrounding this was a court (5.5 × 7 m) and a gallery containing at least two burial chambers.
It was built in the early
Neolithic, c. 4000–3500 BC, and forms part of the
Clyde-
Carlingford group of
court cairns. In recent decades the site has been disturbed by quarrying and blasting. It is a protected
National Monument
A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure.
The term may also refer to a spec ...
.
Gallery
File:Approach Clermont.jpg, Approach road to Clermont summit
File:Clermont 2RN distant.jpg, Summit seen from Church Hill Road Jonesborough County Armagh
References
{{Mountains and hills of Leinster, state=collapsed
Mountains and hills of County Louth