The Curlew Mountains () are a range of low-lying hills situated between Boyle and Castlebaldwin in northeastern

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

Toponymy

The assignation of the name ''Curlew'' to the mountains may not relate the Curlew bird, but rather to the which means "steep-sided pointed mountains".

Geography

Geologically, the Curlew Mountains are made of

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and conglomerate that is harder than the surrounding

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

, hence their appearance as an upland feature.

History

The Battle of Curlew Pass, in which Irish forces led by Red Hugh O'Donnell defeated an English army of about 2000 was fought here on 15 August 1599.

References

* * * * Mountains and hills of County Sligo Mountains and hills of County Roscommon {{Mountains and hills of Connacht