Country High Point #7 – Ireland – Carrauntoohil (1038m)

Updated September 8, 2025
Posted in Country High Points
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Lads lads lads. I was able to get away with a few of the lads on a trip abroad for the first time in a long time.

Not only that, I was also heading to the top of Country High Point number 7. This was Carrauntoohil the Highest Point Of Ireland.

Another flying visit here, we had the whole day on Saturday for the hike, followed by plenty of the black stuff (Guinness & Beamish) and some live tunes and a dance. Then all day Sunday to recover and explore the local area. Highly recommend Cobh, it was only about a 20 minute drive from Cork and a belter little town at that.

Superb trip, laughing our heads off all weekend and plenty of piss taking was had.

We stayed in a decent two bedroom apartment in Cork centre for the night. Me and Harry sensibly left our room door open for fresh air to flow through. Gilbo and Alex did not. RIP to the next guests in that room, the smell of fella was no joke.

Defo recommend County Cork and County Kerry as a place to get on your bucket list.

The hike itself wasn’t too bad at all, pretty decent weather and a nice sweat on.

Route details and map are below.

Hiking Data

Start:

Cronins Yard

Difficulty:

3/5

Distance:

14.25 km

GPX File:

Download GPX File

Summit:

Carrauntoohil (1083m)

Date:

27-07-2024

Ascent:

945m

Time:

5 Hours 55

Weather:

Overcast but warm

What 3 Words:

///banker.satisfactory.scenes

Route Map

Details

Carrauntoohil Hike

Route Overview

So we hired a car from Cork airport and drove to the Carrauntoohil Trail Head Car Park. It took about an hour and a half.

We stocked up on some scran and supplies in Lidl, or was it Aldi? It was one of them but maybe it was Sainsburys too? Who knows.

Bring cash if you can for the car park, I think it was about 2 euro for the whole day, amazing value. There are also toilets and a cafe here too.

We took the route that ascends up Devils Ladder and decends down via the ‘zigzags’ as they’re known locally.

Devils Ladder was class, a mix of a mini waterfall soaking the feet, rocky terrain and scrambling.

Once up from Devils ladder, it’s another fairly steep ascent to the top which is marked with a big giant cross.

Class views across the Killarney national park.

We then descended back down towards Devils ladder, me and Harry even gave it a bit of welly and did a bit of trail running, that was fun.

This was the first outing in a while for a few of the lads, so we all decided that ‘fuck that’ was the best option for descending back the same route, especially with there being plenty of ground water from the previous days rain.

There’s was some further ascent on the way towards the zigzags which spits you back to the main path and off to the car park we went.

Up and down totalled just under 6 hours with plenty of breaks. Someone was a bit of a tired sleepy lad after 15 minutes (not naming names ;) but there was no rush and in the end everyone smashed it.