Book the ferry, pack your bags, load the car and hit the road to climb Ireland’s highest mountain. Fitness: It’s a fair day out – comparable with a Scottish mountain day if done in its entirety. Terrain: Mixed. Some steep and heavily eroded gullies. Some scree and boulders and some ridges. Can definitely feel exposed. Navigation: In poor visibility, it can be very difficult around the summit area. Mapswon’t be covered on your phone apps as default. V837834 Start at Cronin’s Yard. Follow the sign for Carrauntoohil and head down the lane, passing the donkey field. The track into the Hag’s Glen is well used and obvious. Follow it south-west to cross the large bridge. Continue, keeping the river to your left, until it splits at a crossing. Soon, the path also splits. Break off right and head towards Lough Gouragh. V816850 Break off right and start to climb. The track is vague at first and the terrain becomes trickier and scrambly in parts. The landscape is impressive. The route to the base of Brother O’Shea’s Gully is essentially divided into three ‘levels’ that are split by craggy outcrops. As you reach a stream, the Heavenly Gates path breaks off left. Keep right to stick by the stream. You are channelled close to the base of the steep cliffs and the terrain is quite loose and scree-ish as you approach Lough Cummeenoughter which is reputedly the highest lake in Ireland. V803848 The Lough sits at the foot of Brother O’Shea’s Gully, which rises steeply on its left (south-western) side. Cautiously make your way up the wide gully, up the obvious and increasingly steep track. It is loose and you’ll need some hands-on action. Try not to stand directly beneath anyone who is crossing loose rock. The gully to theleft, Central Gully, is best avoided. On topping out at the ridge, turn left (south-east) and make your way up to the summit. The going is steep but much easier than the gully. After a while, you’ll meet a path junction, keep left. V803842 From the summit, return to the path junction and keep left to head roughly south. The terrain becomes narrow as you curve gradually to the right for the out and back to Caher. The ridge is relatively easy-going but steep on the sides. (This section can be avoided if necessary: descend south from the summit of Carrauntoohil to join the Devil’s Ladder path straightaway.) V794839 Return back along the ridge and soon after the track starts to climb back up to the summit of Carrauntoohil, break off to the right and contour eastward to pick up the descent toward the Devil’s Staircase. The track that leads from the Caher ridge to the descent can be hard to locate and crosses through some vague and rocky terrain. Don’t cut across too soon. The descent will be obvious when you meet it. Follow it down to the start of the Devil’s Ladder: a wide, steep and loose gully. This is where most people descend, but it’s notoriously difficult and can be dangerous. The threat of loose rocks being dislodged is real. V807837 An alternative and potentially safer descent is to continue ahead and climb to Cnoc na Toinne and descend via the zigzags. As you pass over the summit, keep left as the path splits. The zigzags are still steep and can be awkward but will almost certainly have less people and less chance of a rock getting booted on you. The zigzags path joins the Devil’s Ladder path where the ground levels out. V812840 At the path junction, swing a right to pass between the two loughs and then join the track through the Hag’s Glen, where you can motor back to Cronin’s Yard. PLEASE NOTE: The GPX trace on this route is for use as a guide only, its accuracy may change depending on the scale of map you are using. Use in combination with judgement and a paper map. We have taken all reasonable steps to ensure these walks are safe and correctly described. However things do change and all outdoor activities involve a degree of risk. The publishers accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions or for any injuries or accidents that occur whilst following this walk. From Trail magazine, to subscribe visitwww.GreatMagazines.co.uk/Trailmagazine Copyright Bauer Media Limited 2022.
