Reigning Champions
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The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships are a unique set of outdoor sports competitions contested in the Irish uplands. At the end of each Sport Hillwalking season, five champions will be announced: a man, a woman, a walking club, a county team and a province team.
To take part, hillwalkers must participate as individuals. This flexible competition requires participants to log their visits to Irish mountain summits and High Points while on location using the Peakhunter smartphone app. Competitors are also required to officially register their participation in the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships. The registration process is detailed below.
The Sport Hillwalking season starts on 1st March and finishes eight months later on 31st October.
The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships also gives third-party organisations a unique opportunity to host and manage their own community-based hillwalking competitions. We have coordinated with Peakhunter to put all the tricky technical stuff in place to make this community initiative possible.
To take part, hillwalkers must participate as individuals. This flexible competition requires participants to log their visits to Irish mountain summits and High Points while on location using the Peakhunter smartphone app. Competitors are also required to officially register their participation in the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships. The registration process is detailed below.
The Sport Hillwalking season starts on 1st March and finishes eight months later on 31st October.
The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships also gives third-party organisations a unique opportunity to host and manage their own community-based hillwalking competitions. We have coordinated with Peakhunter to put all the tricky technical stuff in place to make this community initiative possible.
Take part
To compete in any of the four All-Ireland Hillwalking Championship categories (i.e. individual, clubs, counties, provinces), each participating hillwalker is required to:
Each year's Sport Hillwalking season is scheduled to start on 1st March and finish eight months later on 31st October. The season is split equally into eight consecutive month-long rounds of competition.
A participant can earn points for each Irish mountain summit and High Point once per round. Revisits within the same round will not count. This means each location can be counted up to eight times within a full Sport Hillwalking season.
Participants are not permitted to score points at the same location more than once during any single 24-hour period. This is to prevent scoring double points from a single visit before and after midnight when one round ends and the next round begins. Points scored through an illegal duplicate log will be subtracted from the participant's score. In addition, the participant will be unable to score points at that same location in the new round.
Please note that there are no bonus points on offer in the 2023 All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships. This, along with the old 4×2-month format, has been replaced by a new 8×1-month format. As a result, each competitor has the opportunity to score twice as many points in their local area compared to last year. This new approach will be more eco-friendly and wallet-friendly for all. Single-day mountain challenge completions can still be counted in the Irish Challenge Hillwalker of the Year competition which now functions as a completely standalone initiative.
Instructions
To compete in any of the four All-Ireland Hillwalking Championship categories (i.e. individual, clubs, counties, provinces), each participating hillwalker is required to:
- Have an account on the Peakhunter platform (this is free to set up).
- Register to compete in the Championships (again, this is free). The 2-stage registration process needs to be completed between 1st March and 30th June. This enables participants to score competition points and allows them to identify up to three teams they are representing in the Championships (1 club, 1 county, 1 province).
- Log visits to Irish mountain summits and High Points while on location using the Peakhunter smartphone app.
- Score at least 1 point in one of the 8 rounds of competition.
Each year's Sport Hillwalking season is scheduled to start on 1st March and finish eight months later on 31st October. The season is split equally into eight consecutive month-long rounds of competition.
- Round 1: March
- Round 2: April
- Round 3: May
- Round 4: June
- Round 5: July
- Round 6: August
- Round 7: September
- Round 8: October
A participant can earn points for each Irish mountain summit and High Point once per round. Revisits within the same round will not count. This means each location can be counted up to eight times within a full Sport Hillwalking season.
Participants are not permitted to score points at the same location more than once during any single 24-hour period. This is to prevent scoring double points from a single visit before and after midnight when one round ends and the next round begins. Points scored through an illegal duplicate log will be subtracted from the participant's score. In addition, the participant will be unable to score points at that same location in the new round.
Please note that there are no bonus points on offer in the 2023 All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships. This, along with the old 4×2-month format, has been replaced by a new 8×1-month format. As a result, each competitor has the opportunity to score twice as many points in their local area compared to last year. This new approach will be more eco-friendly and wallet-friendly for all. Single-day mountain challenge completions can still be counted in the Irish Challenge Hillwalker of the Year competition which now functions as a completely standalone initiative.
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 to compete in the Championships. The 2-stage registration process needs to be completed between 1st February and 30th June. This enables participants to score competition points and allows them to identify up to three teams they are representing in the Championships (1 club, 1 county, 1 province). We strongly recommend registering for all 8 rounds on Peakhunter. Each round's dedicated challenge page on Peakhunter features its own month-long leaderboard. At the end of each round, all participants' individual scores will be extracted from the leaderboard and added to their cumulative totals on the overall Championship leaderboard. The Championships comprise 8 consecutive month-long rounds of competition. It is not necessary to score points in all 8, but it is recommended.
- Log visits to Irish mountain summits and High Points while on location using the Peakhunter smartphone app.
- Each mountain summit and High Point in Ireland has been assigned a point-score value based on its elevation and High Point status. When you score your first point in a round, a Championships badge will appear in your Peakhunter profile for the remainder of the Sport Hillwalking season. Your score will also appear in the respective round's real-time leader board.
- To represent a walking club in the Clubs Championship, it must have a completed profile page on The Ireland Walking Guide website. If your club's profile page is incomplete, please contact the relevant member of the club committee to arrange its addition.
- We aim to announce the results in mid-November.
Winner selection
Click on the links below to find out how the five All-Ireland Hillwalking Champions are identified:
Disclaimer
The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships are intended only for experienced and well-equipped challenge hillwalkers, mountaineers and Highpointeers who are physically fit and can navigate themselves confidently through rugged and exposed terrain in any weather. If you are planning to compete, please be aware that hillwalking, mountaineering and Highpointeering are risk activities. High Point Ireland, The Ireland Walking Guide and Donard Media (the websites' publisher) accept no responsibility for any injury, loss or inconvenience sustained by anyone competing in the Championships. 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 competing in the Championships. We encourage each participant to have adequate insurance to cover any injury, loss or inconvenience that may result from their hillwalking, mountaineering and Highpointeering activities.
The inclusion of each mountain summit in the Irish Sport Hillwalking list 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. The inclusion of each High Point in the Irish Sport Hillwalking list is based entirely on it having met the criteria for at least one of the eight primary High Point lists. It should not be assumed that access is permitted to any of the Irish Sport Hillwalking locations. High Point Ireland, The Ireland Walking Guide and Donard Media recommend that anyone planning to visit any of the mountain summits and High Points as part of their Championship efforts should check for potential access restrictions and to request permission from the relevant landowner(s) in advance.
Register
Registering to take part in the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships is a quick and easy 2-stage process:
- Complete and submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form. In the past, a much more comprehensive form was required at the end of the season. This new, quick and easy online form is required from each participant to formally register as competitors in the Championships. As such, it also gives them the opportunity to identify up to three teams they are representing (1 club, 1 county, 1 province). From 2023, the form can be completed and submitted at any time between 1st February and 30th June. During this period, the form can be accessed via the green button below. To complete the form, you must be logged into your Peakhunter account. After submitting this form, each newly-registered participant will be given access to the eight competition rounds Peakhunter. This will be in the form of a link posted via the Peakhunter messaging system. Please allow a couple of days for this message to appear.
- Register for the relevant competition round(s) on Peakhunter. From 2023, the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships will consist of eight consecutive month-long rounds of competition. To take part, individual hillwalkers are advised to register for all eight rounds on the Peakhunter platform. This is a simple process for each round which takes only a few seconds. Once registered for a round, a participant's score will automatically update with each location logged. When a participant scores their first point in a round, their score will appear on the real-time leader board for that round.
Once a round has ended, it will be impossible to register for that round. We would therefore encourage all potential participants to go through the full 2-stage registration process as early as possible in the season in order to maximise their point score.
To officially compete in the Championships, a participant must score at least 1 point in one of the eight rounds.
Links to register for the competition rounds on Peakhunter and to view their respective live leaderboards will be provided to each participant after they submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form. This will be in the form of a link posted via the Peakhunter messaging system. Please allow a couple of days for this message to appear.
Leader boards
Competitors who log a visit to at least 1 Sport Hillwalking location in a round of the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships will appear on that round's respective leader board. Depending on the mobile network coverage at the time of logging, it should be possible for scores to update instantly on the current round's leaderboard. This requires the competitor to submit their logs to Peakhunter while in the app and should be done as soon as possible to avoid an accidental loss of points.
To officially compete in the Championships, a participant must score at least 1 point in one of the eight rounds.
Links to the leaderboards will be provided to each participant after they submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form.
