Slieve Foy or Slieve Foye ()
[Slieve Feá/Slieve Foye](_blank)
Placenames Database of Ireland
The Placenames Database of Ireland (), also known as , is a database and archive of place names in Ireland. It was created by Fiontar, Dublin City University in collaboration with the Placenames Branch of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, ...
. is a mountain on the
Cooley Peninsula in
County Louth
County Louth ( ; ) is a coastal Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of County Meath, Meath to the ...
, Ireland. It rises to , making it the highest of the
Cooley Mountains and the highest in Louth. It overlooks
Carlingford Lough and the village of
Carlingford, and is sometimes called Carlingford Mountain.
Geography
Slieve Foy is one of two ridges which make up the Cooley Mountains and is separated from the rest of the range by the Windy Gap. It is an elongated mountain running northwest–southeast and includes the lesser summits known as The Foxes Rock, The Ravens Rock, The Eagles Rock, and Barnavave.
Naming
The name means 'mountain of the woods'.
Locally the name is understood as , 'mountain of the giant', because its outline is said to resemble a sleeping giant.
Local lore has it that the giant
Finn McCool, representing summer, stood on the mountain while fighting his rival Ruscaire, representing winter. Finn is said to have beaten Ruscaire by throwing a boulder across the lough at him, which became the
Cloughmore (The Big Stone) on Slieve Martin.
The mountain also appears in the ''
Táin Bó Cúailnge
(Modern ; "the driving-off of the cows of Cooley"), commonly known as ''The Táin'' or less commonly as ''The Cattle Raid of Cooley'', is an epic from Irish mythology. It is often called "the Irish ''Iliad''", although like most other earl ...
'' (Cattle Raid of Cooley). The army of Queen
Medb (Maeve) is said to have dug a pass through the mountain, which became known as Barnavave (, "Maeve's gap").
Leprechauns
A local businessman began organising
leprechaun-related tourist activities in the area in 1989, including a "leprechaun hunt" to find hidden ceramic figures. In 2009, with support from local councillors, the mountain was formally declared a "Designated Area of Protection for Flora, Fauna, Wild Animals and
Little People" under the EU
Habitats Directive.
[; ; ]
See also
*
Lists of mountains in Ireland
In these lists of mountains in Ireland, those within Northern Ireland, or on the Republic of Ireland – United Kingdom border, are marked with an asterisk, while the rest are within the Republic of Ireland. Where mountains are ranked by height ...
*
List of Irish counties by highest point
This is a list of Irish counties by their highest point. These are most commonly known as county high points but are also sometimes referred to as county tops and county peaks. There are 32 counties in Ireland but in the case of 10 counties, ma ...
*
List of mountains of the British Isles by height
*
List of Marilyns in the British Isles
References
{{Mountains and hills of Leinster
Mountains and hills of County Louth
Highest points of Irish counties
Marilyns of Ireland
Leprechauns in popular culture