What does slieve mean in Irish?

Slieve (or sliabh in Irish Gaelic) means mountain or moorland. It's been used for over a thousand years to describe mountains and hills across Ireland, appearing before the specific name of the peak.

How do you pronounce sliabh?

It's pronounced roughly like "shleev" or "sleeve," depending on dialect. If you just say "sleeve" like the part of a shirt, you'll be understood even if it's not perfectly accurate.

Why are Irish mountains spelled different ways on maps?

English-speaking mapmakers in the 17th and 18th centuries heard the Irish word "sliabh" and wrote it down phonetically using English spelling rules, leading to variations like "slieve," "sliabh," and "sleeve." Different maps used different spellings, which then got embedded in official records and never got standardized.

Why is it called that?

Slieve, Sliabh, and Sleeve: When One Mountain Word Has Three Spellings

Slieve means 'mountain' in Irish, but centuries of Anglicisation turned sliabh into slieve, sleeve, and occasionally slee, depending on which mapmaker showed up first. The pronunciation stayed the same—the spelling just gave up.

10 October 20267 min read