Home  »

The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships

Reigning Champions
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 Championship Summits 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 requires competitors to submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form as detailed below.

Participants who do not submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form are permitted "Give it a Try" in Round 1 (May) and Round 2 (June) to get an idea of what it is like to take part in the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships without having to fully commit. Their scores on the leaderboards will only be provisional and will not officially count until they submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form.

The Sport Hillwalking season starts on 1st May and finishes four months later on 31st August. 

​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:
  • Have an account on the Peakhunter platform (this is free to set up).
  • Register with us to compete in the Championships (again, this is free) by completing and submitting our online Sport Hillwalking Entry Form. This stage needs to be completed before the halfway point of the competition season (11:59pm on 30th June). This form 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).
  • Sign up to the month-long rounds on Peakhunter. These can only be accessed using the links we provide. 
  • Log visits to Irish Championship Summits while on location using the Peakhunter smartphone app.
  • Score at least 50 points before the halfway point of the competition season (11:59pm on 30th June). Participants who score less than 50 points will not be able to score any further points in Rounds 3 or 4.
  • Score at least 100 points as an individual before the competition season ends (11:59pm on 31st August). Participants who score less than 100 points will not qualify as a member of any of their chosen teams.

Each year's Sport Hillwalking season is scheduled to start on 1st May and finish four months later on 31st August. The season is split equally into four consecutive month-long rounds of competition.
​ 
  • Round 1: May
  • Round 2: June
  • Round 3: July
  • Round 4: August

Rounds 1 and 2 are open to all hillwalkers in 2025, including individuals who do not submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form. This allows first-time participants to "Give it a Try" before fully committing to the competition. Links to Rounds 1 and 2 will be available on this website soon. For Round 1 points to count in the competition, a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form must be submitted before 11:59pm on 31st May. For Round 2 points to count in the competition, the form must be submitted before the halfway point of the competition season (11:59pm on 30th June). The form only needs to be submitted once per season. This should be done as early in the season as possible to maximise scores. Participants who score less than 50 points by the end of Round 2 will not be able to proceed into Rounds 3 and 4.

To score points in Rounds 3 and 4 in 2025, participants must submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form AND score at least 50 points before the halfway point of the competition season (11:59pm on 30th June). Access details for Rounds 3 and 4 will be issued to participants who successfully make the halfway cut. Access details for the Irish Highpointeer of the Year and Irish Mountaineer of the Year competitions will also be issued to participants who make the cut.

A participant can earn points for each Irish Championship Summit once per round. Revisits within the same round will not count. This means each location can be counted up to four 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.

Step-by-step instructions

​
  1. Install the Peakhunter app on your smartphone (you should only have to do this once per device)
  2. Create a profile (you should only ever have to do this once). Choose a memorable username and password, and remember the email address you use to set up your profile.
  3. Sign into your Peakhunter account on the smartphone app (if not already signed in).
  4. 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.
  5. Register with us to compete in the Championships by completing and submitting our online Sport Hillwalking Entry Form. Registration must be completed before the halfway point of the competition season (11:59pm on 30th June) at the very latest if you want to compete in the Championships. This enables you to score competition points and allows you to identify up to three teams to represent in the Championships (1 club, 1 county, 1 province). Please note that if you score points during Round 1 (May) which you would like to count towards your overall Championship score, you must submit your Sport Hillwalking Entry Form before 11:59pm on 31st May.
  6. Sign up to the competition rounds on Peakhunter. Links to Round 1 (May) and Round 2 (June) are provided on our Sport Hillwalking Links page. Rounds 1 and 2 are open to all hillwalkers. Links for Round 3 (July) and Round 4 (August) will be issued in early July to participants who successfully make the halfway cut. Each month-long round has a dedicated challenge page on Peakhunter with its own live leaderboard. To score points in each round, you must sign up for it by clicking the orange "Participate" button on the respective round's page on Peakhunter. You must do this for each round you wish to score points in. The button will immediately change to "Participating" as soon as it is clicked and will remain that way until the round ends. Once signed up to a round, your score for that month will update automatically on its live leaderboard each time you log and submit a new Irish Championship Summit. At the end of each round, all registered participants' individual scores will be manually extracted by us from the leaderboard and added to their cumulative totals on the overall Championship scoreboard. The Championships comprise 4 consecutive month-long rounds of competition. It is not necessary to score points in all 4, but it is recommended if you want to maximise your overall score and your teams' chances.
  7. If you are a first-time participant and would like to "give it a try" without fully committing to the competition, you can sign up for Round 1 (May) and Round 2 (June) without submitting a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form. Links to Round 1 (May) and Round 2 (June) are provided on our Sport Hillwalking Links page. Your provisional score will appear on those month-long live leaderboards, but it will not be transferred to the overall scoreboard unless you choose to submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form before your first point-scoring round ends. This gives you an opportunity to start building up a score while deciding whether or not to commit. Please be aware that each month's points are locked into the overall scoreboard during the first day or two of the following month. As soon as an ended round's points are locked in, that round is never revisited again.
  8. Log visits to Irish Championship Summits while on location using the Peakhunter smartphone app. All of these 1,240 summits have been added to the Peakhunter database as virtual markers. Please be aware that multiple markers for the same summit may exist on Peakhunter. Only one marker carries competition points for each summit, so please check your logbook in the Peakhunter app before you leave its location to ensure that you have logged the correct one. If you log the correct one, an orange "C" icon will appear in the logbook. If this does not appear, you need to seek out the correct one, otherwise the points will not be added. It is your own responsibility to make sure that you log the correct marker before you leave each summit. Please note that some Peakhunter marker names may not match summit names on published hardcopy maps. It is therefore important to compare these as part of your pre-walk planning. We will not be manually adjusting any scores as a result of logging a wrong marker or missing a summit.
  9. Submit your logs to Peakhunter as soon as possible to avoid accidentally loosing any of your hard-earned points. You need to do this in the logbook section on the Peakhunter smartphone app. You may be able to do this on location if you have sufficient mobile network signal. If not, you can wait until you get back to civilisation. Please note that there are weekly deadlines for submitting your logs to Peakhunter during Round 3 (July) and Round 4 (August) as explained in paragraph 12 below.
  10. Each Irish Championship Summit has been assigned a weighted point-score value based on its elevation and prominence. When you log and submit to Peakhunter your first Irish Championship Summit in a new round, your score will automatically appear in that round's real-time leaderboard.
  11. Score at least 50 points before the halfway point of the competition season (11:59pm on 30th June). If you score less than 50 points by the end of Round 2, you will not be able to score any further points in Rounds 3 or 4. To score points in Rounds 3 and 4, you must submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form AND score at least 50 points before 11:59pm on 30th June. Links to Rounds 3 and 4 will be issued to you if you make the halfway cut. Access details for the Irish Highpointeer of the Year and Irish Mountaineer of the Year competitions will also be issued to participants who make the cut.
  12. During Rounds 3 and 4, you must submit all new logs you create before the weekly deadline of 8:00am on each Wednesday of July and August. This new rule is being introduced for 2025 to ensure that the live leaderboards for Rounds 3 and 4 are kept up-to-date so that they reflect the actual state of play as closely as possible. In the interest of fair competition, this will allow all competitors to see exactly how their scores relate to everyone else's at any given time. If you fail to submit new logs on a weekly basis during Rounds 3 and 4, it could result in having all points deducted for the respective week(s) when logs were not submitted on time. Please note that logbook entries are only stored locally on your phone until they are submitted to Peakhunter. Unsubmitted logs and all points associated with them are at risk of being lost. For this reason, we recommend submitting each log as soon as it is created.
  13. Score at least 100 points as an individual before the competition season ends (11:59pm on 31st August). If you score less than 100 points you will not be in a position to qualify as a member of any of your chosen teams. A club / county / provice can only qualify as a team if at least two of its representatives each score at least 100 points over the four-month competition season. A team will comprise up to five of its representatives (i.e. its 2 - 5 highest point-scorers).
  14. 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.
  15. We aim to announce all competition results by mid-September.
​

Register


Complete and submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form. This quick and easy online form is required from each participant to formally register as a competitor 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). The form can be completed and submitted at any time before 30th June. The form can be accessed via the green button below. To complete the form, you must be logged into your Peakhunter account. Participants who do not submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form are permitted "give it a try" in Round 1 (May) and Round 2 (June) without fully committing to the competition. Their scores will only be provisional and will not be counted until they submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form.
​

Sign up on Peakhunter


Sign up for the relevant competition round(s) on Peakhunter. The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships consists of four consecutive month-long rounds of competition. To take part, individual hillwalkers are advised to sign up for all four rounds on the Peakhunter platform. This is a simple process for each round which takes only a few seconds. Once signed up 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 sign up for that round. We would therefore encourage all potential participants to sign up as early as possible in the season in order to maximise their point score.

​Links to Round 1 (May) and Round 2 (June) are provided on our Sport Hillwalking Links page. These two rounds are be open to all hillwalkers, including first-time participants who may wish to "give it a try" before fully committing to the competition.

Links to Round 3  (July) and Round 4 (August) will only be made available to participants who successfully make the halfway cut by submitting a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form AND scoring at least 50 points before 11:59pm on 30th June. These links will be issued during the first day or two of July. Access details for the Irish Highpointeer of the Year and Irish Mountaineer of the Year competitions will also be issued to participants who make the cut along with a special Hillwalking Challenge Completion Form (Single-Day Challenges) for the Irish Challenge Hillwalker of the Year competition. 
​

Winner selection


Click on the links below to find out how the five All-Ireland Hillwalking Champions are identified:
​​

Leaderboards


Competitors who log a visit to at least 1 Irish Championship Summit in a round of the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships will appear on that round's respective leaderboard. 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's logbook and should be done as soon as possible to avoid an accidental loss of points.

The Round 1 (May) and Round 2 (June) leaderboards will be visible to everyone. Links are provided on our Sport Hillwalking Links page.
​
The Round 3 (July) and Round 4 (August) leaderboards will only be visible to registered participants who make the halfway cut.
​

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 Championship Summits 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 summit in the Irish Championship Summits list is based entirely on it having met the criteria for at least one of the eight primary High Point lists and having a topographical prominence of at least 30m. 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.

The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships have been designed in a way that gives all hillwalkers a means to convert their normal hillwalking activities into a measurable points score. No matter where in Ireland they happen to be based, there are lots of local point-scoring opportunities nearby. If they decide to go above and beyond their normal hillwalking activities as a result of taking part in our competitions, they are solely responsible for covering all associated personal costs they incur.

It is each participant's own responsibility to make sure that they submit a Sport Hillwalking Entry Form in good time.

It is each participant's own responsibility to make sure that they sign up for the Peakhunter elements of our competitions in good time. There are 4 consecutive month-long rounds in the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships. Participants can choose which rounds to sign up for, but cannot score points in rounds they do not sign up for.

It is each participant's own responsibility to make sure that they log the correct virtual marker on Peakhunter before leaving each summit. We will not be manually adjusting any scores as a result of logging a wrong marker or missing a summit.

It is each participant's own responsibility to make sure that they submit their logs to Peakhunter in good time (i.e. before end of Round 1, before end of Round 2, and before 8:00am every Wednesday during Rounds 3 and 4).

Participants who only manage to score 49 points or less by the end of Round 2 will not proceed into Rounds 3 and 4.

Participants who only manage to score 99 points or less by the end of Round 4 will not qualify for any teams.
​

Use our affiliate links


All of our Sport Hillwalking initiatives are 100% free for you to take part in. However, please note that we do have significant operational costs which we cover on a voluntary basis ourselves. The long-term development strategy for High Point Ireland, Sport Hillwalking and our growing family of independent Irish information websites will continue to be implemented over the coming years and for as long as it takes until our strategic goals are achieved. To help us speed things along, we'd be most grateful if you would consider using the affiliate links we have set up on The Ireland Travel Guide website to buy your outdoor gear and book accommodation / transport online in the future. Using these links will not affect the price you pay at checkout. However, each purchase / booking you make could send a small commission our way at no extra cost to you. Make no mistake, this is certainly not a get-rich-quick effort, but rather a very slow drip-feed of pennies and cents to partially cover the time, effort and money we continue to invest in our range of independent projects. Thank you for your support.
​

Our recent news

Connect with us

Supporting good causes

Our supporters

Our partners

Disclaimer

If you are planning to visit any of the locations on the Irish High Point lists, please be aware that Highpointeering, rambling, hill-walking, hiking and mountaineering are risk activities. High Point Ireland and Donard Media (the website's publisher) accept no responsibility for any injury, loss or inconvenience sustained by anyone using this website. Personal safety is entirely the participant's own responsibility.
The inclusion of locations on the official list of Ireland's major geographical High Points is based entirely on each location's ability to meet the necessary criteria for at least one of the eight primary sub-lists contained on this website. It should not be assumed that access is permitted to any of the High Point locations on the list. High Point Ireland and Donard Media recommend that anyone planning to visit any of the High Point locations on the list should check for potential access restrictions and to request permission from the relevant landowner(s) in advance.

Copyright © Donard Media 2015 - 2025