Lowery ~ Leabhra

The geology of south Mayo is complex with a mixture of Carboniferous limestone, igneous rocks of granite & gabbro and Ordovician sedimentary rocks. The latter slates & sandstones are found in the Sheaffrey range of hills and here at the back of Lough Logachullaway, these sedimentary rocks originally laid down in flat beds have been tilted and stacked up near vertically.

The local description of these cliffs is that they are like the pages of a closed book or a row of books on a shelf. And thus these cliffs are called Lowery or Leabhra locally. Sheep will be gathered from the slopes below Leabra and the Top of Leabhra. Leabhar/ Leabhra refers in Irish to book or books.

Logachullaway is a strange name, it’s the log or hollow of ‘chullaway’ which is said like ‘holloway’ or ‘hullaway’. The words ‘colbha’ meaning edge or border and ‘buí’ meaning yellow may come into it, but putting sense on it isn’t so easy.

Thanks to John O’Callaghan for the photo

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