Cloughmore – An Chloch Mhór, ‘the big stone’ – is a granite boulder of roughly 50 tonnes that has no geological business being where it is. The bedrock it sits on is local Silurian rock; the boulder is granite from an island in Scotland’s Strathclyde, carried here by an ice sheet and dropped on the slopes of Slieve Martin about 10,000 years ago as the last Ice Age let go. It now perches almost 1,000 feet above the village of Rostrevor in County Down, looking down over Carlingford Lough and across to the Cooley Peninsula.
The older explanation is better company. Local legend has it that Fionn mac Cumhaill flung the stone from the Cooley Mountains, on the far side of the lough, during a row with a rival giant – which is roughly the direction the ice actually brought it from, give or take a few million tonnes of glacier.
Getting up to the stone
The walk to Cloughmore starts from the upper car park in Kilbroney Park and is short – about 0.4 miles each way – but be straight with yourself: it’s a steep pull up a hill, not a gentle stroll, and the path is gravel and dirt that turns slippery after rain. Wear proper shoes. Most people take half an hour or so to the top, where the boulder sits with the whole lough laid out below.
Here’s the tip worth the visit: don’t stop at the stone. Carry on past it on the side path towards the water and after ten or fifteen minutes through the trees you reach Kodak Corner, a viewpoint that frames Carlingford Lough and Warrenpoint better than the stone itself does. It’s at its best at sunrise, if you can manage it.
The forest is a National Nature Reserve and an Area of Special Scientific Interest, a remnant of the old Rostrevor oakwood; you’ll likely see jays and squirrels, and rarer plants like wood avens and hard shield fern grow in the shade. Three waymarked trails of 1.25 to 4.5 miles loop off through it if you want more than the stone.
The parking, honestly
Parking at Kilbroney is the one thing to sort out before you go, because the signage causes confusion. There’s a free lower car park near the entrance, but from there it’s a long walk uphill to everything. To drive up the forest road towards the upper car park and the start of the Cloughmore trail, you generally pay £5 for the day at the main car park. Some sources insist all the parking is free, so check the boards on the day – the situation isn’t consistent.
Facilities and nearby
The Synge & Byrne café in Kilbroney Park does coffee, breakfast and lunch (roughly 9am to 5pm), and there are accessible toilets and picnic tables by the car parks. Dogs are welcome around the park on a lead, but not in the children’s play areas.
Kilbroney is more than the stone. The Narnia Trail, with sculptures drawn from C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles – Lewis knew this corner of the Mournes – winds through the woods and is a hit with children, and the Fairy Glen gives a gentler riverside woodland walk. The village of Rostrevor just below has the pubs and shops for afterwards, and Tollymore Forest Park and the wider Mourne Mountains are within reach for a bigger day out.
Go on a clear evening, when the low sun warms the granite and throws the ridgelines of the Mournes into relief – then walk back down before the upper gate is locked for the night.