Sliabh Ciamaltha or Keeper Hill....

......is a mountain to be found in either the Silvermines Mountains or the Sliabh Felim range, depending on your point of view. It is divided from the Silvermines Mountains by the Mulcair River. In any case it towers 2227 feet and dominates the surrounding countryside. Any returning emigre from Nenagh knows they are home when they can see the peak and slopes as they travel either from Dublin or Shannon.

Legend has it that the mountain was given the name Coimealta (Guardian Mountain) after it became a place of refuge for Sadbh and her children after they were rejected by their father and her husband, Ailill Aulom, the King of Munster. In later years, following the massacres of the O'Sullivan/Harrington clans on Dursey island and Dunboy Castle on the Beara peninsula in 1602, the survivors, with their kinsmen and herdsmen the Cliffords, set out with Donal Cam O'Sullivan for safety in Leitrim. They were about 1000 men, women and children, chased by Crown forces and harried by local clans. Their journey took place in the middle of winter so they also had starvation and exposure to contend with. Many would perish along the way. For some it would be too much so they made a stand. Ciamaltha, the Guardian Mountain, became a sanctuary as some of the bedraggled survivors settled in the foothills in and around the slopes. Only 35 reached the safety of Leitrim. The family name of Clifford is still associated with the mountain giving rise to an area known as Cliffordstown in Glenculoo and the Harrington name was prolific around the Lisgorriff/Templederry/Bolingbroke area.

Keeper Hill from Killaloe - Illustrated News 12/08/1848. There has been a bit of artistic licence with the Eagle's Nest escarpment extended.

View of Sliabh Ciamaltha from Balinanoose

In my youth I climbed the Ciamaltha via the Eagles Nest escarpment starting off from Gleann. These days there is a trackway around the back from the Ballycarn side, to facilitate the telecom masts. Today the slopes of the mountain are mostly covered by non-native conifers, however the summit is blanket bog and protected by being designated a Special Area of Conservation. 

Gleann

The households of 1901

Na Fir Breaga

The Fir Breaga stone circle at Bauraglanna on Ciamaltha's slopes. The circle of eleven orthostats is incomplete and possibly also had an outer circle that have since been removed or fallen. According to an O.S. book of 1840 it formed part of a complex with two wedge graves which have since disappeared