Corn Hill, also called Cairn Hill or Carn Clonhugh ( or '), is a hill in

County Longford County Longford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford. Longford County Council is the Local government in the Republic ...

, Ireland. It lies north of

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It had a population of 10,952 at the 2022 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meeting of ...

, between Drumlish and

Ballinalee Ballinalee (), sometimes known as Saint Johnstown, is a village in north County Longford, Ireland. It is situated on the River Camlin, and falls within the civil parish of Clonbroney. As of the 2016 census, the village had a population of 347 pe ...

, in the parish of Killoe. At 278 metres above sea level, it is the highest hill in the county and has a television mast ( Cairn Hill transmission site) on the top which rises 123 metres above the peak of the hill.

Etymology

The name ''Carn Clonhugh'' is an

anglicization Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English languag ...

of the Irish ''Carn Clainne Aodha'', meaning "

cairn A cairn is a human-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 (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

Clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

n Aodha" (anglicised "Clanhugh"). Clanhugh was a historic territory in the northwest of County Longford. The earliest cartographic reference to the hill is found in the 1837–1842 Ordnance Survey Ireland 6 Inch map, which can be seen on the

Ordnance Survey Ireland Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI; ) was the national mapping agency of the Republic of Ireland. It was established on 4 March 2002 as a body corporate. It was the successor to the former Ordnance Survey of Ireland. It and the Ordnance Survey of ...

website. In cartography, the hill was referred to as Carn Clonhugh, but by the time of the 2nd edition 1887–1913

25 Inch map, that was replaced with Corn (a corruption of Cairn) Hill. Today, it is known locally as Corn Hill.

Sliabh Carbry

Historic literature names this hill Sliabh Carbry after the pre-Norman kingdom of Cairpre Gabra. That a more ancient name of Sliabh Uillinn applied is supported by the

Irish Annals A number of Irish annals, of which the earliest was the Chronicle of Ireland, were compiled up to and shortly after the end of the 17th century. Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days. Over ti ...

. An old manuscript calls Sliabh Carbry the ''mountains of Uillim red-edged, the son of Fionn''.

Geology

Cairn Hill is located in area of north Longford dominated by Middle to Upper

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

slate, sandstone, conglomerate, and greywacke according to the

Geological Survey of Ireland Geological Survey Ireland or Geological Survey of Ireland (), founded in 1845, is the National Earth Science agency of Ireland. Overview Geological Survey Ireland is a division of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment a ...

public data viewer.

Panorama

The hill has extensive views of the landscape below. The forested land obstructs most of the view from Cairn A, but Cairn B has an extensive panorama from WSW to SSE. Sliabh Ban can clearly be seen from Cairn B along with the peat power-station of

Lanesborough–Ballyleague Lanesborough–Ballyleague (), more commonly known simply as Lanesborough, is a town in the midlands of Ireland. Lanesborough is on the County Longford (east) side and Ballyleague on the County Roscommon (west) side of the River Shannon, at the ...

and Ardagh Hill.

Archaeology

Passage graves usually cluster in two or more cairns, consisting of mainly a passage leading to a central chamber, corbelled roofed chamber sometimes in the form of a cruciform shape. The perimeter of the cairn would be edged by kerbstones, like those of

Newgrange Newgrange () is a prehistoric monument in County Meath in Ireland, placed on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, west of the town of Drogheda. It is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built during the Neolithic Period, around 3100 BC, makin ...

, County Meath and

Carrowmore Carrowmore (, 'the great quarter') is a large group of megalithic monuments on the Coolera Peninsula to the west of Sligo, Ireland. They were built in the 4th millennium BC, during the Neolithic (New Stone Age). There are 30 surviving tombs wi ...

, County Sligo. Passage tombs are usually found in prominent locations, such as hill-tops. Generally speaking, the less complex the passage tomb is the older it is considered to be. The possible passage tombs atop Cairn hill are considered to be among the oldest in Ireland along with Carrowmore, County Sligo. The hill is particularly important for the two possible passage grave structures atop it. The largest example is Cairn A (or Carn Caille), marking the highest physical point of the hill with a diameter of 18 m and height of 3 m. Reference to that cairn does not appear until 1960, when

installed a trigonometrical station, partially damaging the cairn. An excavation took place before installation, with cremated bone recovered from a central rectangular chamber. Thanks to the advent of

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide ge ...

technology, the trigonometrical station is now redundant. The second cairn, Cairn B, is about 50 m to the north of Cairn A, with a 9 m diameter and difficult to identify due to the extensive coverage of peat and heather.

Folklore

Cairn A (or Carn Caille) has two legends associated with it. The first refers to the location of the burial place of Queen Maeve's nephew and murderer,

Furbaide Ferbend Furbaide Ferbend is a character from the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. Legend has it that Furbaide Ferbend was buried in a passage grave atop Carn Clonhugh, more commonly known as Corn Hill or Cairn Hill, north Longford, after the two passa ...

on the summit of Sliabh Uillen (Cairn Hill). One of the cairn on Sliabh Carbry (in Cairpre Gabra) was indeed anciently called "". The second legend refers to Cairn A (or Carn Caille)and its creation by the

Cailleach In Gaelic ( Irish, Scottish and Manx) myth, the Cailleach (, ) is a divine hag, associated with the creation of the landscape and with the weather, especially storms and winter. The word literally means 'old woman, hag', and is found with t ...

a Bheara or ancient Hag/Witch who dropped stones out of her apron as she flew over the hill. This legend is also associated with many

Passage grave A passage grave or passage tomb consists of one or more burial chambers covered in earth or stone and having a narrow access passage made of large stones. These structures usually date from the Neolithic Age and are found largely in Western Europ ...

sites throughout the island of Ireland, such as

, County Sligo and Carrowkeel, County Sligo.

Pictures

Image:Cairn Hill2.JPG Image:Cairn Hill3.JPG Image:Cairn Hill4.JPG Image:Cairn Hill5.JPG Image:Cairn Hill.JPG Image:Carn Caille.JPG Image:Cairn B.png

References

Primary

Secondary

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External links

Map of Ireland Viewer

Walking Ireland's County Tops
{{Mountains and hills of Leinster Mountains and hills of County Longford Highest points of Irish counties Marilyns of Ireland