Sawel Mountain ()MountainViews /ref> is the highest peak in the
Sperrin Mountains
The Sperrins or Sperrin Mountains () are a mountain range in Northern Ireland. The range stretches from Strabane and Mullaghcarn in the west, to Slieve Gallion and the Glenshane Pass in the east, in the counties of Tyrone and Londonderry. ...
, and the 8th highest in
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
. It is also the highest mountain in Northern Ireland outside of the Mourne Mountain range located in
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 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...
.
Geography
To the north of Sawel is
County Londonderry
County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...
and to the south,
County Tyrone
County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh.
Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...
. The summit is high and is composed of crystalline limestone. Around the peak, there is "
montane
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...
heathland
A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...
", with plant life including heather, bilberries and cowberries, although this is being damaged by hillwalking and grazing. Sawel is the source of the River Faughan, a long
tributary
A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...
of the
River Foyle
The River Foyle () is a river in west Ulster in the northwest of the island of Ireland, which flows from the confluence of the rivers Finn and Mourne at the towns of Lifford in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland, and Strabane in County Ty ...
.
Naming
The Irish name of the mountain is a reference to a
glen
A glen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. The word is Goidelic in origin: ''gleann'' in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, ''glion'' in Manx. ...
or hollow on the side of Sawel. It was also historically called Slieve Sawel, from the Irish word ''sliabh'' ("mountain").
Plane crash
On 5 January 1944 a
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
Stinson Reliant
The Stinson Reliant is a popular single-engine four- to five-seat high-wing monoplane manufactured by the Stinson Aircraft Company, Stinson Aircraft Division of the Aviation Manufacturing Corporation of Wayne, Michigan.
Design and development
...
(FK914) of
878 Naval Air Squadron
878 Naval Air Squadron (878 NAS), sometimes called 878 Squadron, was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It was briefly active during the Second World War and operated with Grumman Wildcat fighters ...
was on a flight from RNAS Eglinton (HMS Gannet) to RNAS Machrihanish (HMS Landrail) when it crashed into Sawel Mountain in bad weather, killing all three crew. Due to snow drifts on the mountain the bodies of the crew weren't recovered until 29th January.
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 ...
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Lists of mountains and hills in the British Isles
The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, topographic prominence, prominence, and other criteria such as topographic isolation, isolation. These lists are used f ...
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List of Marilyns in the British Isles
This is a list of Marilyn hills and mountains in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland and surrounding islands and Stack (geology), sea stacks. Lists of mountains and hills in the British Isles#Marilyns, Marilyns are defined as peaks w ...
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List of Hewitt mountains in England, Wales and Ireland
This is a list of Hewitt mountains in England, Wales and Ireland by height. Hewitts are defined as "Hills in England, Wales and Ireland over two thousand" feet in height, the general requirement to be called a "mountain" in the British Isl ...