The highest point in the Drum Hills isn't exactly hard going. After hopping the gate at
CrdavDerg (X16762 87593) a 15 minute trot on a tarred lumpy bumpy track will bring you to the summit area marked
with a trig pillar. That is if you can find it in the maze of telecom masts! To the north this area is cut off from the Comeraghs conglomorates by the vast Lismore Limestone syncline, the bedrocks in this area are in fact purple mudstone with quartz and some sandstone which is more closly related to the sandstones of the Knockmealdowns laid down at the same time in the upper Devonian period.
Drum hill/hills (Drum Fhinin as geailge), are in the Barony of Decies within Drum and seperate it from the Barony of Decies without Drum .
They are referred to in the Annals of the Four Masters at the date AM 3502 as one of the three most excellent hills in Ireland.
Heremon, the first Milesian King, fought with his brother Heber for possession of the hills.
The Canon Power in his 1952 book "The placenames of the Decies" also states that a part of the Drum hills is "commonly known as Sliabh Grainn".
Carronadavderg is also mentioned in this book. " Carn an Daimh Deirg - Cairn of the Red Ox, this carn is erroneously marked as Sliabh Grainn on old maps. A remarkable eminence visible for many miles in three directions. A wild legend accounts for the name. Fionn and a contemporary giant had a difference as to the ownership of a certain red bull.In the heat of the dispute the rival proprietors seized each a horn of the beast and pulled the creature in twain."
The Canon also adds, "Sliabh Grainn is a district on the south side of Drom Fhinin extending from Walsh's cross to Keanneally's cross.This would also indicate its proper nomenclature is Sliabh go Rinn."
Rinn, I think, is Irish for Headland or Point.
Droim means Back or Ridge.
Is it therefore too much of a stretch to say Droim Fhinin means Fionns Ridge?
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