Knockboy is the highest point in County Cork and sits at an elevation of 706m. The hike up to Knockboy mountain starts from the Priest’s Leap mountain pass monument at 519m. Knockboy is on the border of Cork and Kerry but is only County Kerry’s 30th highest mountain. The priest leap mountain pass is the highest pass road in the province of Munster.

The roadway up to Knockboy and the Priest’s Leap pass is definitely one of the most interesting roads of all the County High Point roads. The road is very tight in places with little room for error and there are large drops into the valley below if mistakes are made. Even more interesting than the tight road is the contours that the road follows, some of the vertical gains and dips are extreme, to say the least. We were greeted with cows, sheep and a horse sitting and resting on the side of the road, Ourlittlehiker loved every second of this. She hasn’t mastered the ability to string together full sentences yet but we all knew she was trying to talk about the animals for about 1 hour after seeing them so close to the car.

Overview of Knockboy County high point hike

The hike up to Knockboy is a reasonably straightforward out and back hike. We followed a fence up the hill to a T junction of fences, then took a left until we met another T junction of fences, from here we follow this fence the whole way up the hill to Knockboy mountain.

It took us 2 hours to get up to the top of Knockboy mountain and return to our car at the Priest’s Leap mountain. We had numerous stops for snacks and breaks on the way up and down.

Knockboy key information

• Location- Starting point here
• Distance- 5km
• Duration- 2 hours out and back walk
• Difficulty- Gradual climb- 3 out of 10
• Parking- 2 to 3 cars only
• Amenities- none
• Signposts- None but can follow the fence to the top
• Things to see- The road to the priest leap is great fun
• Advice- Bring waterproof boots
• Recommendation- 6 out of 10

Knockboy Hike

After our adventurous drive up to the Priest’s Leap passing, we parked opposite the monument. There looks like there is enough parking here for 3 cars if all the cars are parked tightly. After we parked our car we did some exploring of the area. The car park area is very high 463m and has spectacular views down the centre of the valley.

We walked across the road toward the monument and crossed down into the road gully and back up into the meadow. We followed the wire fencing up toward the top of the hill. After driving 3 hours 35 minutes our legs were stiff and very sluggish. We initially felt tired after the long drive but we weren’t walking long before we stretched the legs out and got into the walking rhythm.

We continued to follow the fence up the hill, the fence starts to rise out of the meadow, up over mounds and clay banks. Sometimes it is easier for us to walk around the mounds of clay than walk over them. Halfway up the first section of fencing we walked through part of the hillside that was filled with white flowers which resembled cotton or daisies, we weren’t sure but they were extremely pretty.

We reached the first fencing junction (basically a T junction), we took a left here. There was only 1 sty to cross the fencing on this whole walk so be prepared to climb wire fencing. We are now greeted with small rock mounds covered in soil in front of us, we walk around these to meet the fence on the other side. It’s amazing that someone erected this fence into the rock face going over the hill, that is dedication.

Just as we walked around this rocky mound, we walked into our first boggy area. Unfortunately, Gina walked into the mud straight down to her ankles. She had soggy wet ankles for the remainder of the hike. Ourlittlehiker loved seeing her Mammy getting wet feet and kept shouting “oh-oh Mammy”.

Overall the ground conditions were ok for us, but we had to watch out for soft spots. We can only imagine that in a wetter time, this mountain would be extremely boggy and you might even need Wellies.

We walked up to the next T junction of fencing, from here we could see a small lake below us and Knockboy mountain above us. We could even see the fencing running the whole way up the hill, we knew we would be following it to the summit. It even looks like someone has put the fence down into the lake, these are very dedicated fencers on Knockboy mountain.

We descended down into the small dip that houses the tiny lake. We walked around over to the rear of the lake and crossed over to the other side. This is the only Stile that we saw on the walk up to Knockboy. As we walk past the lake, Ourlittlehiker keeps shouting “Bath”, she thinks the lake is a big bath and she wants to get in, Lol the innocence of it all.

We now start our ascent to the top of Knockboy. We follow the well-worn path in the grass up along the fence until it crosses the fence for a final time. The main reason we cross here is that the ground conditions look better on the other side of the fence.

We can see the Cairn of Knockboy from about 50 meters away. We reached the top of Knockboy very quickly and easily. The views on the decent are amazing, we could see all Kerry’s highest mountain on the right-hand side in the far distance.

When we reached the bottom of the hike we had a lovely picnic and admired the views down along the valley. After our picnic we let Ourlittlehiker try our her new Deuter Backpack. We did a tiny little hike over to a cross and Ourlittlehiker carried her own bag and a walking stick, we can see she already loves walking and hiking.

The verdict on the Hike to Cork’s highest mountain

We hiked Knockboy in a very warm mild time of the year. The ground was dry in most places but still, there were boggy and swampy areas, so be careful and watch out for these.

On the hike up to the summit of Knockboy, the views on either side of the walking trail are slightly disappointing as there didn’t seem to be a great landscape to appreciate on the ascent. Like most of our hikes when we are climbing we generally don’t stop and look behind us but the views to the rear of us when we were climbing up were amazing, we obviously got to admire these views on the descent.

The top of Knockboy is surrounded by other larger peaks in County Kerry. The views from the top are still pretty impressive. Knockboy is a relatively easy County high point but if the weather was wet and the ground was damp and boggy, I’d imagine Knockboy would be a much harder hike.

Overall we enjoyed our hike up to Corks highest point, it was a short hike and definitely not worth all the driving but it is another high point off the list.

Which County High Point next after Knockboy?

We have only 1 county high point to climb in Munster remaining after climbing Knockboy and that is Carrantuohill in County Kerry. As we drove over 3 hours to climb Knockboy we should have stayed the night and climbed Carrantuohill the next day but unfortunately, with work commitments we both have to be home early the next morning.

We might leave the highest mountain until last now.

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Moylussa is the highest point in Co Clare and the summit sits at a height of 531.6m. The trail that we used to hike Moylussa started beside the village of Killaloe. Killaloe is a small village that sits on the shore of Lough Derg and the River Shannon.

When we inputted the coordinates into the car sat nav, we were 2 hours 35 minutes drive to the start of our Saturday morning hike. We all woke at 5 am and left our house in Co Carlow with the expectation to arrive at Lough Derg around 8:30 am. As it was a Saturday morning on a bank holiday, we met no traffic and flew down to the start of the Moylussa hike for 8:30. When we reached the starting point of the Moylussa hike, we sat and had a lovely little breakfast picnic looking over Lough Derg.

A part of the Moylussa hike follows some of the East Clare way. We always love getting a taste of all Ireland’s long distant waymarked trails.

Moylussa Key Facts

• Walking time to Moylussa top- 3 hours 30 minutes with breaks
• Distance to the summit- 10 km
• Amenities- Yes there is a scatter of seats along the route
• Difficulty- Not very difficult- 4 out of 10.
• Signposting- There are signposts but for a number of different hikes and slightly confusing.
• Hike Quality- Nice hike but it was foggy when we did it. 5 out of 10.

Starting Hiking Moylussa

The start of the Moylussa high point hike starts in the Ballycuggarn forest. We parked our car down in the car park beside Lough Derg, as we wanted to walk Ourlittlehiker around the lake to let her see the Ducks before we started our climb to the top of Moylussa.

We started the hike by crossing the busy road, to enter Ballycuggaran forest (take care on the road it is extremely busy). We walked up into the woodland on the forestry access road which has a rough hardcore surface. After about 3-4 minutes we reached the start of a lopped walk and another car park area but the road up to this point is a little bit rough and we saw a few cars struggling to drive up to it. At the yellow barrier, we followed the loop walk up to the top corner of the wood.

The woodland trail initially cuts up through a mature wooded area which provided us with shelter, as it was raining and foggy when we started our ascent to the top of Moylussa. We didn’t get many views of Lough Derg until we walked out of the forest trail and onto an access road for timber lorries. The view of Lough Derg even on a misty day is impressive.

We crossed two timber lorry access roads but we continue following the looped walk trail while walking uphill. The trail has a small bit of damage from water erosion due to our harsh winter this year. It made a pleasant change to be walking in a green woodland area rather than an open windy mountain.

The trail eventually leads up to a lorry road, which we followed around Feenlea Mountain. We could now see the base of Moylussa mountain but unfortunately, most of the mountain was covered in fog.

The forest is in the process of being cut down and we had views all around Lough Derg from this point. I assume this road is very busy during the weekdays with timber lorries moving all the cut down trees.

Follow the Moylussa Sign

Just as we walked around the back of Feenlea Mountain we saw two signs of Moylussa pointing down the hill at the Y junction. We followed the road which dipped down into a hollow and rises up again until we found another sign pointing up a narrow trail through another forest. This trail is cut into the clay bank on both sides.

The fog was still pretty thick at this stage and the higher we rose the thicker it got. The trail started to become extremely steep from this point, we were walking along and out of nowhere (due to the fog), we saw an extremely steep hill in front of us leading up toward a gate. The trail leads towards the gate, then it seems to circle around the gate to the right. The ground is now really slippy due to the crushed shale stone and it doesn’t provide great footing, especially on the descent back down.

The hardest section of the Hike

We follow the zig-zag trail up the steepest section of the hike to Moylussa. This section is the toughest section of this whole hike, so a pretty easy hike overall. It is a pity that it was so foggy on the day that we climbed Moylussa, as we imagine the views on the ascent would be very impressive.

Moylussa Boardwalk Sections

At the top of the zigzag road, we were greeted by timber steps up onto a new railway sleeper boardwalk. The boardwalk was placed on the top of Moylussa mountain to help keep the hiker’s feet reasonably dry. We walked along the top of the boardwalk until we reached a stone at the top of the mountain with 1748ft marked on a plaque.

Finding Clare County High point

The version of our guidebook is an old one and it doesn’t mention this stone as the high point so we decided it would be better if we follow the guidebook to find their high point. We walked to the rear of the large stone toward the wire fence and then followed the fence up the hill.

The fence follows a very boggy peat road that is very soft so take care here as we were crossing it once and I went down to the knee in one section (very funny, but slightly frightening). We followed the fence up toward the highest point of Moylussa, until a corner in the fence. We then took out our Viewranger app and found the exact high point of 532 which had no distinctive marks at all.

We then followed the fence back down to where it met the start of the boardwalk. As we descended the fog started to clear and we finally got a nice view of Lough Derg in the distance.

Map of Moylussa Hike

Our verdict on Moylussa Co Clare high Point

We climbed to the top of Moylussa and back down to the bottom in 3 hours and 30 minutes, this included a few small stops and breaks for water drinking along with Sheep, Cow and Cuckoo spotting. If you allow 3-4 hours you should easily do this hike.

This was an enjoyable hike and we imagine it would have been much better if it wasn’t raining and foggy. This is the third time we have hiked a county high point in foggy conditions and we always find it mentally harder.

We plan to come back again someday and climb Moylussa mountain as we want to see some of the amazing views we missed this time.

This is a very nice and easy hike. No major navigation skills are required here unless you try to find the exact high point like us but you will need an OS map and compass or the Viewranger app to do this.

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The route we intended to walk up to the top of Knockmealdown is a basic straight up and down and should be done within 3 hours with good weather conditions permitting. There is also a loop walk that starts at the higher carpark and walks up to sugar loaf hill and then over to Knockmealdown.

Getting to Knockmealdown

Waterford’s highest point is situated on the Vee road. We chose to walk Knockmealdown from the lower carpark but there is also a higher carpark beside the Shepard huts that seems to always have a good crowd of cars in it.

Hiking Knockmealdown Mountain

The hike to the top of Knockmealdown starts at the carpark on the side of the road. As we decided to ascent Knockmealdown first, we parked our car at the lower carpark, right underneath the mountain. The road is busy for a small country road but if you pay attention there should be no problem. After leaving the carpark we walk over a small bridge with a river running underneath.

Just at the Y of the two roads, a muddy track is worn into the bank beside the road sign. Climb up the bank toward the Knockmealdown mountain and start walking up toward the peak. When we walked into this area we struggled to pick out any real walking trails but our guidebook said to aim for Knockmealdown peak.

The ground at the start of the hike is boggy and full with small streams cutting through wild heather, so it is not the easiest to navigate through. Five minutes into the hike we had to navigate our way through waist height green bushes, but Ourlittlehiker loved all the hustle and bustle of the leaves hitting her rucksack.

After we hiked through the bushes the ground started to rise up toward the mountain pretty quickly. The heather was pretty thick in this section and we felt we had to raise our feet pretty high to clear the wild heather in sections. Sometimes we found it easier to find a small stream and follow it up the mountain instead of walking through the heather (thank god for waterproof boots).

After about 30 minutes of hiking, we turned around and realised we were halfway up the mountain without much effort or strain. The angle of the mountain did start to increase a bit more from here though, but thankfully the heather seemed to be very patchy from here on up the mountain and we could pick clear routes easier.

After hiking for about 1 hour we reached what we assumed was the top but unfortunately, it was a false peak. We (Semi) knew it was too soon for the top but we let our imagination run riot but when we looked to our left we could see that we were not as high as the other mountains so we couldn’t be a the top so soon.

The rest of the hike to the top of Knockmealdow was very easy, as the heather virtually disappeared near the top of the mountain. When we reached the summit of the mountain we were greeted with an amazing view of Waterford and Tipperary, we could even see the Galtee mountains that we climbed the previous weekend.

This is our first county high point that the weather allowed us to take Ourlittlehiker out of the bag to stretch her legs. The top of Knockmeadown is reasonably flat but the opposite edge of the mountain has a cliff, we obviously kept very far away from this. The views from the top were outstanding and we had a small picnic and enjoyed the views.

Knockmealdown to Sugar loaf Hill

We didn’t intend to walk the loop around sugarloaf hill but when we reached the top and we knew if we descended the way we came we would be back in the car within an hour and we still felt very fresh, so we were eager to get a longer walk in. The walking route over to Sugarloaf hill seems to follow an old wall and the route looked amazing, we had to walk it. As we don’t know when we would be back here again.

The little wall in the above picture leads the whole way to Sugarloaf Hill. The walk from Knockmealdown to Sugarloaf Hill took us 45 minutes and it was a very gentle descent to the base of Sugarloaf Hill, which sits at a height of 662.7m high.  We passed lots of sheep that were not fazed by us walking but Ourlittlehiker did her best to let everyone know there were sheep nearby (everytime she sees a sheep she shouts as loud as she can ‘SHEEEEEEPP‘), we love it and have a great little laugh every time she does it.

Coming down from Knockmealdowns high point, we could see Sugarloaf hill and it looked like we had another steep climb ahead of us again but when we reached the base of Sugarloaf hill, the climb to the top was not too bad and we did it in 10 minutes. The climb to the top is very rocky in places but we took a few detours around these sections and there even seemed to be paths worn into the hill to avoid them.

When we reached the top it was very crowded and Ourlittlehiker was fast asleep at this stage so we decided to continue walking back down toward the carpark without stopping at the top. The route back down to the carpark is a 90-degree turn to the left side from the direction we just came from. The route down from the sugar loaf hill is very easy to find but very steep in places, the walking sticks are essential here.

Halfway down the descent, we got a glimpse of a lovely lake. Even though we were descending the views still remained beautiful, we stopped many times to just appreciate the amazing landscape.

We descended the whole mountain and Ourlittlehiker was asleep from the base of sugar loaf hill to the top of it and back down the other side until we reached the road/carpark. Mountain rescue were training in the carpark and they had rescue dogs with them and one barked, she instantly heard a dog and shouted to tell it to ‘get out’ :) .

Walking the Road from Sugarloaf hill

We originally only wanted to walk up and straight back to the car and to not do the loop walk because there was a large road section. As we walked the loop around the mountain we now had to walk the road section but the thankfully all the road from the top carpark was downhill.

We originally didn’t want to do the loop walk because we wanted to avoid walking the road section. The road back to the car took us 25 minutes to walk and all the cars slowed down and provided enough room that we always felt safe. We even saw more sheep, which kept Ourlittlehiker very happy. The road section gave us the opportunity to stretch the legs after a hard descent on the knees.

When we reached the car we had a lovely picnic at the side of our car.

The verdict on Knockmealdown.

Hiking Knockmealdown mountain for the County High point, the straight up and back route is very easy but we recommend if the weather is permitting, you should to try to do the loop walk as it is well worth the effort.

Knockmealdown is one of the easier walks but it is quite high so please give it the respect that it needs and if the weather starts turning bad consider turning around as there are large cliffs to the side of this mountain.

The only negative of the loop walk is the road section, although saying that there are only a few bends and there was lovely Huts to see and the statue of the Holy Virgin Mary.  Overall be mindful of traffic and stand in when you see and hear the cars etc.

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Galtymore and Galtybeg are the highest points in County Limerick and Tipperary. Galtymore sits at an altitude of 917.8m and Galtybeg sits at 799.2m high. We packed all our hiking bags Friday evening after we got home from work, as we knew we would have an early start on Saturday morning if we wanted to achieve our plans to Climb the 2 high points.

Our Journey to the Galtees

We left home at 6:00 am as it was a 2-hour 15-minute drive to the Galtee mountains from our house. We arrived at the Galtee mountain carpark at 8:30 am, slightly later than we had hoped but we had a few stops on the way down the road. While researching this route many people seemed to walk the Galtee’s from the other side of the mountain or they do a looped route but we wanted to summit the 2 high points and then also summit Knockmealdown in Waterford too.

When we got to the carpark there was only 1 other car there but there seemed to be enough parking spots for 15-20 cars. Our guidebook says to follow the tarmac lane up the hill but while researching online we found that many other people went through the wooded area to the right. We walked up the tarmac lane passing many rural houses along the way. There is no parking up this lane so DO NOT drive up here as you will have to return back down to the carpark.

Starting our Hike up Galtymore and Galtybeg and Mountains

It was such a lovely quiet lane to walk on, we even met a local farmer that gave us advise on the route to take up the mountain. We got fantastic views of the mountains on our right-hand side and we were surrounded by fields of sheep to the left side. It was one of the hottest days we had this year, so it was so nice to feel the heat on our faces. This section of small rural roadway reminded us of the Kerry Camino.

Pointing out the two beautiful mountains we were about to climb.

After 30 minutes the road turns 90 degrees and the road climbs towards a small rural bungalow on the RHS of the road,then stops with a gate to a farm on the left and a gate on the right leading into a small wooded area and then into a boggy field (full of very nosey sheep).

Cross over the metal gate and walk into the field, there is a fence on your LHS follow the line of the fence up to the corner. The ground here is extremely boggy so try to walk on the higher section in the middle to keep out of the stagnant water. The sheep here were extremely nosey and basically followed us halfway up the mountain and were virtually on our heals. Ourlittlehiker absolutely loved the sheep and she was busy pointing, waving and baaing at them. It was so cute to watch and it was a welcomed distraction from the climb ahead.

After the corner of the fence, walk in the same line as the fence which should aim for the passing between Galtymore and Galtybeg. The below image shows the route that we took after leaving the wooded area. We aimed for the low point between the two mountains until we reached the lake. we kept left of the lake.

We crossed many small streams while walking up to the lake. The route is reasonably straightforward up to the lake and not too hard. After we reached the lake we stopped and sat on an old broken stone wall and had a little picnic and changed Ourlittlehiker into her warm hiking overalls and put the wind cover on as we knew it will start to get colder as we reach the summit.

Breastfeeding in the mountains.

The angle of the hill increased significantly and it felt like we were walking on a 45-degree pitch in places. We aimed for the middle of the Galtybeg as our guidebook said there were cliffs to the left after the lake. When we reached the same height as the passing between Galtymore and Galtybeg we started walking over toward this area as it is easier to walk up Galtybeg from this side of the mountain.

While on the saddle Galtymore was on our right and Galtybeg was on our left.

Galtybeg sheltered us massively from the wind so when we reached the low section of the 2 mountains we immediately felt a windchill, this didn’t affect Ourlittlehiker as she was fast asleep in the kids comfort 3 hiking bag. We walked to the top of Galtybeg fairly easily from the col, we followed the trail through the peat. Care should be taken here as the peat is very boggy after the winter we had (we nearly lost our boots a few times).

Galybeg County High Point

There is no high point marker on the top of Galtybeg, so we just walked along the top of the ridge until we started descending again on the other side, we then turned around and started walking toward Galtymore. The views on Galtybeg were amazing but when you look over at Galtymore our focus quickly shifted to climb the higher mountain.

It was a very easy descent back down to the col between the 2 mountains. When we reached the bottom of the Galtybeg we followed the trail up the edge of Galtymore, it was very nice to have a good firm trail to follow for a few minutes.

The trail eventually disappears and we start walking up toward the high point but keeping away from the right-hand side as there is a large cliff edge there. It is a nice walk up Galtymore that is not too long after leaving the path. We were really lucky with the weather, as we reached the top of Galtymore we seemed to get a really strong blast of heat, so we could spend a little bit longer on the summit instead of rushing off to keep out of the wind. The summit of Galtymore provides an unbelievable panoramic view of Tipperary and Limerick. On the top, there is an old concrete wall, the Trig point and a white cross.

We descended from our summit by going down the way we came up, a tip with going downhill is to sometimes walk in zig-zags and to use hiking poles. We had a small picnic halfway down which was lovely as we got to sit back and take in the amazing scenery. The sun was shining with a slight warm breeze. Before we had Ourlittlehiker we would never really stop or take breaks but now by doing so, it makes the hikes more special. As one of my favourite quotes says;

”Memories made in the mountains stay in our hearts forever”

How good was Galtymore and Galtybeg hike?

Overall this was a spectacular hike. A great mixture of small old quite country roads used by friendly farmers that will more than likely stop for a quick chat. It’s filled with extremely green farmland over-friendly sheep that are very vocal and interested in strangers. The hike up the side of Galtybeg gives stunning views of the surrounding counties and the cliffs to the side of Galtymore. You will need loads of energy to keep climbing up the side of Galtybeg but the views from the top are 100% worth the climb.

The Galtee mountains gave us a stunning hike and we highly recommend it to everyone looking for an adventure.

Our Tips for hiking in the Galtee Mountains:

• Go early to get a parking space and to have extra daylight on the mountain
• Bring hiking poles
• Bring a compass and maps
• Gaiters come in handy as some areas are boggy
• Have Good supporting ankle hiking boots especially for going downhill
• Check the weather forecast before going, you would want a fine clear day
• On a windy day make sure to take extra care and stay away from any cliff edges
• Bring your Guide Book as it tells you exactly where to go
• Bring lots of water and snacks, spare clothes, 1st aid kit etc
• Tell someone where you are going and what time you expect to finish it,
• Have fun and stop every so often to enjoy the mountain air and beautiful views.

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