Words by Maureen McCoy
Photography by Paul McCambridge
To dip in the legendary waters of a volcano crater, famed for a curse on the giant, Finn McCool, was too good an opportunity to pass by, so on a warm, sunny day we drove to Slieve Gullion Forest Park, Armagh. A track led us up the mountain and during the 45 minute walk to the summit we passed a stone shelter and read of ancient tombs and the legend of the lake itself.
Arriving at the trig point, to our left lay the small Lough, the sun was shining and with the Lough reflecting the blue sky, it looked like a scene from a Dali painting.
A grey haired man suddenly appeared from the other side of the hill, taking his daily walk, saw that we intended to swim and warned us of the curse…
…when the great, Finn McCool came to the Lough, he saw a beautiful woman there who enticed him into the waters, he bathed but, having entered the water as the strong giant of legend, he emerged reduced to a weak old man with all his hair turned to white! The beautiful woman was a Witch who had cursed the Lough stealing the great Giants’ strength and power.
It took him years of searching but finally Finn found a good Witch who was able to restore his youth, strength and vitality, but his hair remained forever white.
Despite this warning we ventured in, and found, quite unnervingly, our skin took on a blood-red hue in the peaty water, this must keep the story of the Curse alive!
We lay on the water and sculled our way towards the centre, but the Lough is very shallow and floored with peaty silt, easily disturbed and quickly turning the water black, so not good for swimming, although a quick dip on a hot day is refreshing, you will spend more time wiping the silt from your body after!
Perhaps just to sit on a rock and cool ones feet, is enough.
Still, to dip in the blood-red waters of a volcano crater in Ireland was an experience!
Philips Street Atlas, Co Armagh, pg 140, E5
Slieve Gullion Forest park, Armagh, drive along the forest road and park at the side of the track. The walk took around 45 mins from the start of the track to the trig point.
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zDJSgtJazNy8.k7CY5rJeUTiE
Thanks for having the courage to try to dip in. I was at the lake fall of 2021 and only dipped a toe as it was chilly and being a crater lake, i have always had the assumption it was deep.