Slieve Binnian () is one of the

Mourne Mountains The Mourne Mountains ( ; ga, Beanna Boirche), also called the Mournes or Mountains of Mourne, are a granite mountain range in County Down in the south-east of Northern Ireland. They include the highest mountains in Northern Ireland, the high ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, 9 km north of

Kilkeel Kilkeel () is a small town, civil parish and townland (of 554 acres and 6521inh) in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is the southernmost town in Northern Ireland. It lies within the historic barony of Mourne. Kilkeel town is the main fishing ...

. It is the third-highest mountain in Northern Ireland at . The summit is broad and flat with rocky

tor Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to: Places * Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain * Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city * Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano * Tor Bay, Devon, England * Tor River, Western New Guinea, Indonesia Sc ...

s at the north and south ends, with the ''Back Castles'', impressive towers of granite, in between. To the south-west is Wee Binnian () (460m). It lies east of

Silent Valley Reservoir The Silent Valley Reservoir is a reservoir located in the Mourne Mountains near Kilkeel, County Down in Northern Ireland. It supplies most of the water for County Down, surrounding counties and most of Belfast. It is owned and maintained by Northe ...

and west of the

Annalong Annalong () is a seaside village in County Down, Northern Ireland at the foot of the Mourne Mountains. It is situated in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Kilkeel and the historic Barony (geographic), barony of Mourne (barony), Mou ...

Valley. The

Mourne Wall The Mourne Wall ( ga, Balla an Mhúrn) was constructed to enclose a catchment area of the Silent Valley Reservoir in the Mourne Mountains, Northern Ireland. The high stone wall, which was built to keep livestock from contaminating water supplie ...

also crosses over Slieve Binnian. The mountain is in the

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

of Brackenagh East Upper (379 acres), the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

and the historic

barony Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

of Mourne.

Places of interest

*Overlooking Annalong Wood on the eastern slopes of Slieve Binnian is the disused quarry of Douglas Crag. *What appears to be the remains of an abandoned quarrying village lies on the south eastern slopes of Slieve Binnan. Ruins of rock huts are spread across a landscape littered with part quarried rock.

Binnian Tunnel

The

Binnian Tunnel The Binnian Tunnel (2.5 miles long) was constructed between 1947 and 1950/51 and is located under the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland. The main purpose of the tunnel is to divert water from the Annalong Valley to the Silent ...

(2.5 miles long) was built between 1947 and 1950/51 underneath Slieve Binnian, to transport water from the Annalong Valley to the Silent Valley. A workforce of 150 was involved in two tunnelling teams which started from opposite ends and met in the middle nearly 800m under the roof of the mountain. Having been carefully measuring their positions the whole time, they found they were only two inches off course when the two tunnels met.

References

External links

Photos of Slieve Binnian

Walking Ireland’s Iconic Mountains – Number 3: Slieve Binnian from Walking & Hiking in Ireland
Mountains and hills of County Down Marilyns of Northern Ireland Hewitts of Northern Ireland Mountains under 1000 metres {{Down-geo-stub