The Irish language term "Sliabh" denotes a mountain, however, the precise meaning of "Mis" has not been validated.

[5] Like many of the mountain ranges in County Kerry, such as the MacGillycuddy Reeks in the Iveragh Peninsula, the Slieve Mish Mountains are composed predominantly of Devonian period Old Red Sandstone, with a band of Ordovician period metasediments on the western slopes of the range.

[3][1] The rocks of the Slieve Mish Mountains and the Brandon Group in the Dingle Peninsula are Ordovician to Late Carboniferous in age, 485 to 330 millions years ago (Ma).

The range is often described as the "backbone" of the Dingle Peninsula because of distribution of most of its major peaks along narrow south-west to north-east "spine" that extends to 6 kilometres at its widest part.

[citation needed] Bautregaum has two major glacial U-shaped valleys, the long 4.5-kilometre easterly Curraheen Glen (with the Curraheen River), and the shorter but deeper northerly Derrymore Glen (Derrymore River), with its three corrie lakes.

[7][8] The following is a download from the MountainViews Online Database, who list 17 identifiable Slieve Mish peaks with an elevation, or height, above 100 metres