Direction Ireland

Croagh Patrick

West Ireland | County Mayo

Croagh Patrick is third highest mountain in County Mayo and has 764 m. This is Ireland's Holy Mountain, one of the most sacred and important sites of pilgrimage. The legend said that St. Patrick has fasted and prayed for 40 days here and also said that Croagh Patrick is the mount from which he banished snakes from Ireland forever! There is annual pilgrimage on the last sunday of July, when thousands of people climb the mountain to summit chapel. The final part of the climb is not easy, but the views are stunning: Twelve Bens in Connemara on the south, hundred of small islands in Clew Bay, Achill Island or even Slieve League in County Donegal on the north. The shortest and most well known route up starts from the large car park in Murrisk and it takes around 2 hours to get the summit. The opposite side of the car park there is National Famine Memorial which abstractly resembles a coffin ship filled with dying people, and just to the seaward side of the monument there is the Murrisk Abbey, a ruined Augustinian monastery founded by the O'Malley family in 1457.