Hiking Carrauntoohil
Day 3 in Ireland | Hiking Carrauntoohil, the Highest Peak in Ireland | August 2025
When we began planning this trip, Curtis really only had one goal: he really wanted to hike to the highest mountain in Ireland, Carrauntoohil. It wouldn’t be easy to get to, and he told me it would be a challenging hike, but I did as much research as I could about it and felt up to the challenge. If we could make it happen, it would be our first ever country high point, which was so exciting to think about!
The biggest obstacle we faced in this plan was how to get to the start of the hike. It was about 2 hours away from us in Cork and about 15km East of the town of Killarney. The easiest solution seemed to be that we should just rent a car – we could do so practically for free using Curtis’ rental car points and would only have to pay for insurance, gas, and parking fees. However, the stress of driving ourselves weighed so heavy on my mind, I didn’t like that option at all. As a visitor in this country, I wanted to leave as little an impact as possible, to take up as little space as I could, and this just felt like *too much* (not to mention the whole driving on the left side of the road thing). So instead, we looked to our other options. We decided to take a train from Cork to Killarney, and then either call for a cab or maybe try to be social and find someone to hitch a ride with? Even though that’s totally outside our comfort zone, in my mind it didn’t seem too far fetched, considering it was actually a holiday weekend and I assumed that there would be lots of people vacationing in the mountains.
We rose early, and walked to the train station to catch the first train to Killarney – about an hour and a half long train ride. The hardest part of waking and leaving that early was missing out on our free delicious breakfast that morning, and we were rather bummed about that. Remember how I said it was a holiday weekend? Because of that, I was convinced that it would be busy and we would somehow meet someone else who was also embarking on a similar adventure and all find our way there together. Well as it turned out, the train was almost completely empty, and we saw no one in our car that looked remotely like they were planning on hiking today.
I started to wonder if we made a mistake and should have had a more solid plan in place to get us to the trailhead, but then Curtis’ idea of downloading the Irish version of Uber came through for us and the request he had made the night before was answered, and a driver arrived at the Killarney train station shortly after we did that morning. It was a half hour ride to the trailhead and cost us about 40 Euros, and he gave us his information in case we wanted a ride back from him as well (though we were still sort of holding out for meeting someone on the hike who could possibly give us a ride back to Killarney afterwards). All the expense and coordinating aside, we were thankful to not have the stress of driving/navigating ourselves here, especially since the drive ended with a long one-lane road with very little visibility!
We finally arrived at the trailhead and began our trek at around 8:15. Right from the start, we could see our destination straight in front of us: Carrauntoohil, completely unobstructed from clouds, sticking out so prominently among the rest of the ridge line. Unfortunately after that good first look, the clouds began to move in, and it appeared that they were here to stay. But we knew to prepare for possibly multiple weather changes as the day went on, and came ready to experience some rain, wind, and clouds, and so we continued on confidently, enjoying the cool weather and the moody views.
The trail started off easy enough, with a wide rocky path that was well signed, and had continuous views thanks to there being absolutely no obstructing trees. We crossed over a stream several times, and slowly began gaining elevation. We made good time at the beginning, with so much energy and excitement for what this hike could have in store. Everything was shaping up to be exactly what we expected and hoped for our big hike in Ireland, from the cloudy views, to the cool and comfortable weather for hiking, to the free roaming sheep scattered around this entire trail! The one thing it didn’t have that I was expecting was lots of hikers. We saw a couple of people ahead of us, but for the most part, we were completely alone on our entire trek up.
My favorite part of the hike came when we found ourselves level with two large lakes, one on each side of the trail, with a long cascading waterfall feeding one of them. It was the most beautiful valley I had ever seen, and though we were about to begin the hardest part of the hike, I was feeling so peaceful and energized, like I was ready for the challenge ahead.
That challenge is commonly referred to as the Devil’s Ladder, which we both had read about and knew to be a very steep and rocky incline that goes up a 60 degree incline; up 1,000 feet in a quarter mile. I had read lots of reviews, and in my mind, I was comparing it to peaks I had done in New York/New England, such as the trail we took up Mount Washington, Snowy Mountain, and Mount Jackson. Curtis maybe had a better understanding of it, and gave me the out, saying we could go up and down the alternate route, called the ‘Zigzag Trail’, which was less steep but longer as it ascended the ridge over a series of switchbacks (or zigzags). But I strongly felt that going up the Devil’s Ladder was a rite of passage for climbing to the top of this peak, and so we confidently made our way to the beginning of the long incline.
Right from the base of the incline, you can see the top, and see how far up you have to climb to get there. I still don’t think I fully grasped how steep and long this section was at that point. And as you go up higher and higher, it does seem to get steeper and steeper. And so at the beginning, when I was filled with adrenaline and motivation to make it up, it really did feel doable. The beginning was also the wettest part, as it was basically a waterfall chute. Having to hike through running water is overstimulating for me, and so I often struggle with that whenever I find myself in these types of situations. But today, that sound and feeling helped distract me from everything else I was feeling, and helped me to focus on pushing through and getting past this section as fast as I could.
After about a third of the way up, we parted ways with the waterfall and now were climbing up a dry rocky chute. This was harder for me because since I was no longer hearing the water flow around me, my mind didn’t perceive it as being dangerous, but not all the rocks were as secure as they looked so I often felt off balance. It was also becoming steeper, and my confidence was waning. But I didn’t dare think about turning around or even looking back, because I knew that as hard as this was, it was still so much easier than having to navigate my way down this steep, rocky slope.
The last third of the Devil’s Ladder was definitely the worst for me. While I had been starting to struggle and anxiety was starting to creep in, I had continued to keep moving, to press forward, because stopping and hesitating would make me realize exactly how high up and how precarious this slope was. Worse yet, we were now entering into the cloud that had swallowed the summit: cold, wet, and isolating. Curtis was doing a great job helping us to find the best path (because none of the Devil’s Ladder is a straightforward trail, it’s just a wide, steep rocky chute with ‘choose your own adventure’ vibes) but there came a point where the path we were on became too steep for me — there was a giant boulder that I couldn’t lift my legs high enough to climb up, and that’s when panic really started to set in. Curtis climbed up and tried to help me up, but I had a mental block that just wouldn’t let me do it. And so he had to come back down, and we had to retrace some of our steps down to find another path. I felt so sick in that moment, having to briefly glimpse the slope behind me, but once again we pushed through, because there was really no other choice in this moment. I wished in that moment that we weren’t all alone, that there was someone around a bend that could reassure me that we would be fine, that we were almost there. But there was no one — we were truly alone.
When we finally reached the end of this stretch, I felt so relieved, like I could finally start breathing deeply again. But that’s when a little doubt crept into our minds about what the return trail would be like. Would it be easy to find, and was it truly not as steep? Or were we going to be stuck up here forever? We pushed these thoughts aside, because as long as we were here, on the other side of the Devil’s Ladder, we might as well push through to the top of this mountain!
The last half mile of the hike was a real calf-burner as it continued to be steep up the rocky path all the way to the end. And yet, there were still sheep everywhere, even at the peak! We were also fully in the clouds now, so we truly had no idea how much further was ahead of us until the very end, when the cross at the summit suddenly appeared in the fog. We did it!! Our first ever country high point! I don’t remember the last time I was so happy to reach the summit of a mountain.
When we arrived, we met one other couple that was at the top. They took some pictures for us, and we exchanged some stories. They were from Southeast Ireland, and they said that this was their 32nd time hiking this mountain! They said we were really missing out on a great view— and while it was tempting to wait around longer just to see if the clouds would pass, we knew we had a long walk back ahead of us (not to mention needing to find a ride back to the train station) so after some snacks (including shamrock and onion potato chips), we began our journey down.
It was when we started our return trip that we suddenly started running into people – so many people. What had been an eerily quiet hike up turned into a crowded path down, which was what I had been expecting from this hike all along. I guess we somehow ended up hiking in the in between hour — after all the campers and sunrise hikers, but before all the vacationers/other day hikers.
As we made our way down towards the ridge/top of the Devil’s Ladder, the clouds began to break up and give us little peeks of the surrounding area. And once we made it to the Devil’s Ladder, they started to disappear altogether, giving us amazing views of both the slope we had climbed up, and the valleys to either side. I guess if we had been a bit more patient, we really could have had those amazing summit views, but there was no way I wanted to climb back up — not with how steep it was, and how many people there were now. And as it turned out, our return trip wouldn’t go as quickly as we imagined, so we really did need that extra time for our descent.
The couple that we had met at the top assured us that the Zigzag trail would be a much better route for us going down, but first we had to climb up a short peak to reach the ridge where the trail continued. It was extremely muddy at the beginning, and steep and narrow as it hugged the shorter peak with a steep downhill slope on the other side, but still definitely easier than going down the Devil’s Ladder. We enjoyed our last views up on the ridge before we began our long descent down the zigzags. This included views of the entirety of the Devil’s Ladder from up high, which made me even more proud of myself for making it up that.
While the zigzags were definitely less steep than the ladder, they were still steep with loose rocks and we weren’t going as fast as I thought we would (or I should say I wasn’t — Curtis could’ve completed this much faster without me). It would have been easier if I had remembered to bring hiking poles…which we had flown with and made it all the way to Cork with them only to FORGET THEM AT THE HOTEL. Dang. But step by step, we made it back down to the beautiful valley with the waterfall and the lakes, and the trail became easier the closer we got to the end. The sun even made a full appearance, and we shed our layers — they say that a hike in Ireland isn’t complete without changing at least once, and that was definitely true for us!
We made it back to the trailhead completely exhausted, but with one more challenge: could we find a ride back to the train station? Curtis wandered around and asked the other people hanging around if anyone was headed to Killarney, but had no luck. After a half hour or so of waiting, we finally gave in and called the cab again. But as it turned out, two other hikers also happened to call for a ride, and we ended up splitting the ride back with them. We enjoyed conversing with them the whole way back — they were visiting from Wales, and for one of them, this was the last high point he needed out of the British isles. When he told us that this hike was the easiest out of all 5 (Scotland, Wales, England, North Ireland, & Ireland), I think my brain broke a little…as challenging as it was and as exhausted as my legs were feeling, this was the easiest?!? I guess I’ll have that fun fact sitting in the back of my mind until whenever we plan our next international trip and country high point adventure…
We arrived back in Killarney, and as much as we wanted to spend more time here or in the national park, our legs were done for the day and I knew I had to save my energy just for the walk from the train station in Cork back to the hotel. The train was much busier on our way back, and there was some sort of complication with another train from Dublin being out of commission that meant we had to disembark in Mallow and get on another train to Cork. But we made it back, picked up a pizza on our way back to the hotel, and relaxed for the rest of the evening. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to keep walking for the rest of this vacation, but I was so thankful that we were able to have this experience, and that we finished and survived!!
Check out our AllTrails recording for our hike here
