The Split Rock

The Split Rock

The Split Rock

The Split Rock

The Split rock AKA “Fionn’s Stone” is a large boulder in a field just off the R297 near Easkey. The rock is a huge chunk of gneiss, 6 meters long by 2.5 meters high, that was carried north from the Ox Mountains by the retreating glaciers, the great winter cailleach of Sligeach, at the end of the last ice age. Traditionally large and unusual stones are linked to a hero, or saint, and this said to have been cast here by Fionn Mac Cumhal from the summits of the Ox Mountains during a giants stone-throwing competition. Furious that his cast did not reach the sea, he leaped down and struck the stone with his sword and split it in two, and so it’s other name, the Split Rock of Easkey (which means Fishy).

Local tradition says that should you walk through the crack three times it will snap shut on you.