Challenge yourself to climb every mountain summit on Achill Island. On this page you will find information about the Achill Mountains Challenge including its summit list, useful car parking locations, recommendations for guide books and maps, and links to local facilities.
This is a flexible hillwalking challenge to be undertaken independently. It is not a set-date, mass-start event. Each individual participant is free to choose their own start / finish dates and duration period.
This is a flexible hillwalking challenge to be undertaken independently. It is not a set-date, mass-start event. Each individual participant is free to choose their own start / finish dates and duration period.
The summits
The Achill Mountains Challenge requires participants to visit 3 summits in the West Achill Hills range. These are marked on the map along with nearby car parking options. Click on a marker for more details. This challenge is intended only for experienced and well-equipped hillwalkers and mountaineers who can navigate themselves confidently through rugged and exposed terrain in any weather. Route choice is entirely up to the participant, therefore we have not included any route suggestions on the map. Route planning is part of this challenge.
| Summit name | Elevation | Irish Grid Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Croaghaun | 688m | F:560:061 |
| Slievemore | 671m | F:650:087 |
| Croaghaun West Top | 664m | F:554:058 |
Challenge information
The Achill Mountains Challenge is one of our 24 range-specific, anytime Irish mountain challenges. Individuals who successfully complete this challenge in a single day during the Sport Hillwalking season can claim a Certificate of Completion and score 28 competition points in the Irish Challenge Hillwalker of the Year competition. Points for each individual mountain summit can also be added to their scores in the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships (a full challenge completion is not required for the Championships).
PLEASE NOTE: certificates and competition points can only be earned if mountain summit visits are logged while on location using the Peakhunter app. To take part in the Irish Challenge Hillwalker of the Year competition and the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships, individuals must first register their participation on Peakhunter (see instructions 4 & 10 below). Challenge completions and participation in our competitions must also be formally declared via the relevant online form(s) (see instructions 9 & 12 below).
Instructions
- Install the Peakhunter app on your smartphone and create a profile (you only need to do this once).
- Sign into your Peakhunter account on the smartphone app (if not already signed in).
- In the app's settings, download all the Ireland and United Kingdom locations. We recommend that you do this every few months to ensure that you have the most up-to-date set of locations.
- Register for this challenge on Peakhunter. You must do this if you want to add its points to your score in the Irish Challenge Hillwalker of the Year competition. Please note: if you registered for this challenge in a previous year, it may have carried over into the current year. If this is the case, no further registration-related action is required.
- Visit all of the mountain summits listed above. These can be visited in any order.
- Log each summit visit using the Peakhunter app while present at the location.
- To earn the digital badge, all mountain summits listed above must be visited and logged during a single Sport Hillwalking season.
- If you are taking part in the Irish Challenge Hillwalker of the Year competition and wish to claim points for completing this challenge in a single day, you must log visits to all mountain summits listed above in a single day during the Sport Hillwalking season. You must also provide the absolute minimum evidence to prove that you are a competent challenge hillwalker. The evidence we require is a photo you have taken at one of the challenge's mountain summits which shows your own hand holding a traditional magnetic compass and a hardcopy of a map we have recommended on this page. We only need to see the map's front cover so please fold the map for the photo. The image must be attached to one of your Peakhunter logs. You will be asked to supply the URL of this log entry when you submit the Hillwalking Challenge Completion Form. This image is the minimum evidence of hillwalking competence we require. Certificates and points will not be issued without it. A duration time may be shown beside your username under the "Badges" tab in the challenge's page on Peakhunter. Please note that the time shown may have started from an earlier visit you made to one of the listed summits. For example, if you visited all of the locations on 1st July having already previously visited one of them on 1st June, Peakhunter may list the duration as 30 days (or thereabouts). If this is the case, you can still claim the points via the Hillwalking Challenge Completion Form. Challenges completed in more than 24 hours (even 24 hours and 1 minute!) will not qualify as a single-day completion. Points can only be applied after Hillwalking Challenge Completion Forms are received.
- To claim a Certificate of Completion and / or add points to your Irish Challenge Hillwalker of the Year competition, you are strongly encouraged to complete and submit the online Hillwalking Challenge Completion Form within one week of completing the challenge. A prompt form submission will speed up the admin side of things at our end (i.e. verifying completions, updating the leaderboard, issuing certificate, etc). We reserve the right to disregard forms received more than a week after completion day.
- To add points to your All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships scores, all you need to do is register for the Championships on Peakhunter. Please note that your registration for the previous year may have carried over into the current year. If this is the case, no further registration-related action is required. The Championships page on Peakhunter features a live rolling month-long leaderboard. From this, all participant's individual scores will be extracted at the end of each calendar month during the Sport Hillwalking season and added to their cumulative totals on the overall Championship leaderboard.
- To generate a score in the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships, you must have registered for the Championships on Peakhunter. We recommend that you register as early as possible to ensure that you maximise your score. Please note that your registration for the previous year may have carried over into the current year. If this is the case, no further registration-related action is required.
- To formally declare yourself as a Championships competitor and identify which teams you are representing (i.e. club / county / province), you must also submit a one-off Championships Entry Form between 25th October and 7th November.
Disclaimer
This challenge is intended only for experienced and well-equipped hillwalkers and mountaineers who are physically fit and can navigate themselves confidently through rugged and exposed terrain in any weather. If you are planning to undertake this challenge, please be aware that hillwalking and mountaineering are risk activities. The Ireland Walking Guide, High Point Ireland and Donard Media (the websites' publisher) accept no responsibility for any injury, loss or inconvenience sustained by anyone undertaking this challenge. Personal safety is entirely the participant's own responsibility. We will not support any legal action taken against any third-party individual, group or organisation as a result of any injury, loss or inconvenience sustained by anyone undertaking this challenge. We encourage each participant to have adequate insurance to cover any injury, loss or inconvenience that may result from their hillwalking activities.
The inclusion of each summit in this challenge is based entirely on it having been officially classified as a mountain. This classification is reserved exclusively for summits higher than 2,000 feet with a topographical prominence of at least 30m (see 'What is an Irish mountain?'). Summits which do not meet these two requirements do not qualify as mountains, even if the word 'mountain' appears in their names. It should not be assumed that access is permitted to any of the mountain summits. The Ireland Walking Guide, High Point Ireland and Donard Media recommend that anyone planning to visit any of the summits as part of this challenge should check for potential access restrictions and to request permission from the relevant landowner(s) in advance.
Register
To earn a digital badge for completing the Achill Mountains Challenge, hillwalkers must register for it on the Peakhunter website. Peakhunter is our official logging partner. Registration is a simple 3-click process starting with the green "Register for this Mountain Challenge" button below. You will need to be signed into the Peakhunter platform to complete the final click of the registration process. Digital badges will only be awarded to registered participants who log visits to all the mountain summits listed above within a single Sport Hillwalking season. Certificates of Completion and Irish Challenge Hillwalker of the Year competition points will only be awarded to registered participants who log visits to all the mountain summits listed above within a single day during the Sport Hillwalking season.
Hillwalkers who log visits to any of the individual mountain summits listed above during the Sport Hillwalking season can add its points to their All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships score for the year. Hillwalkers wishing to compete in the Championships must register on Peakhunter. This 3-click process can be initiated via the green "Register for the Hillwalking Championships" button below. A summit can be counted once in each month-long round of the Championships - i.e. up to eight times within a single Sport Hillwalking season.
Recommended guide books
Walking guide books are a great way to find the very best walks in Ireland which have been hand-picked by local experts. Recommended guide books for the Achill Mountains Challenge are listed below. These describe various ascents, descents and inter-summit link routes.
Recommended maps
Ireland is covered by a good selection of quality maps produced by a variety of publishers. The most useful maps for walkers range in scale from 1:25,000 to 1:50,000. For the Achill Mountains Challenge, the recommended titles are listed below.
- EastWest Mapping 1:25,000 - Achill, Corraun & Clare Island
- Ordnance Survey Ireland 1:50,000 Discovery Series - Sheet 22
A hardcopy map and compass are the preferred navigational tools used by all competent self-navigators in the mountains and hills. Relying exclusively on a GPS device or phone for navigation is strongly discouraged. The person who follows a dot, crosshairs or a GPX route on a tiny screen is not navigating. They are effectively being led by their device. This involves no skill whatsoever and will only increase that person's reliance on technology. We recommend using hardcopy maps and traditional magnetic compass because:
- their use requires and reinforces an elementary outdoor skill.
- the user is the navigator (this is not the case when using a GPS device, especially one with the day's route loaded in).
- they do not require a power source, therefore have less impact on the environment.
- hillwalking and mountaineering should be about having a digital detox in nature, not squinting at yet another screen.
- satellites, phones, GPS devices and their associated networks and systems are vulnerable to potential outages caused by external factors (e.g. hacking, ransomware, terrorism, solar fluctuations, space junk, etc).
In short, you should always have the relevant hardcopy map and a traditional magnetic compass in your pack when venturing off the beaten track. The convenience of a GPS is not a valid reason to go into the uplands or other wild areas without these two basic essentials.
Local facilities
If you require accommodation, food and drink, or other local facilities while undertaking the Achill Mountains Challenge, we recommend you check out what's available in the following nearby destinations.
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