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Sport Hillwalking in Ireland

Hillwalking in Ireland has seen a growth in popularity as an adventure and tourism activity over many decades. In recent years, more and more people have discovered the recreational opportunities available in the Irish upland areas. For many participants, hillwalking is all about exploring Ireland's great outdoors, improving / maintaining physical fitness and mental wellbeing, and meeting up with other like-minded people. More experienced hillwalkers embrace the various challenges on offer. Some participants have long regarded hillwalking as a sport. However, unlike every other sport in Ireland, hillwalking was lacking its own national or All-Ireland competition. The absence of such competition prevented hillwalking from being classed as a true sport.

This changed in 2016 when Sport Hillwalking officially became a true sport through the introduction of the first-ever All-Ireland hillwalking sports competition: the All-Ireland Highpointeering Individuals League. This ground-breaking points-based competition was delivered by High Point Ireland and has been run every year since. In 2017, we introduced the Clubs, Counties and Provinces Highpointeering Leagues. In 2020, we created the All-Ireland Mountain Race for experienced challenge hillwalkers wishing to introduce a time-based person-versus-person competitive element. The Highpointeering Leagues and the Mountain Race now run in parallel as two separate competitions between the Spring Equinox and Autumn Equinox each year. At the end of the season, the combined results of these two competitions allow us to identify the individual, club team, county team and province team champions in the annual All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships: the ultimate achievement in Irish sport hillwalking.

Our All-Ireland Sports Competitions are the first-ever national hillwalking competitions to be hosted anywhere in the world. As such, they provide the perfect template for other countries to replicate. In time, if other countries choose to follow our example, we could even look at the possibility of setting up the first-ever Hillwalking World Championships.

On 10th May 2021, High Point Ireland became the All-Ireland governing body for Sport Hillwalking. As such, High Point Ireland delivers all official hillwalking competitions at national level across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Other matters related to the activity of hillwalking outside of sport hillwalking (the primary one being insurance provision) remain within the remit of Mountaineering Ireland and the Ulster Federation of Rambling Clubs.

We invited Mountaineering Ireland to get involved in our All-Ireland sport hillwalking competitions on numerous occasions between 2016 and 2020. Despite introducing the necessary competitive element to justify hillwalking as a true sport, they declined our invitations.
  • Mountaineering Ireland and Sport Hillwalking.

All-Ireland sports competitions



Sport Hillwalking in Ireland




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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.
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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


The Ireland Walking Guide - www.theirelandwalkingguide.com
High Point Ireland - www.highpointireland.com
Ireland's County High Points: A Walking Guide
  • 2025 Schedule
  • Locations
    • Irish Championship Summits
    • Ireland's mountains (the Irish Hewitts)
    • Ireland's Major Geographical High Points
  • The Championships
    • Hillwalking Individuals Championship
    • Hillwalking Clubs Championship
    • Hillwalking Counties Championship
    • Hillwalking Provinces Championship
    • Hill Running Championship
    • Specialist Awards
  • Community
    • Social media
    • Individuals
    • Teams >
      • County Teams >
        • Team County Antrim
        • Team County Armagh
        • Team County Carlow
        • Team County Cavan
        • Team County Clare
        • Team County Cork
        • Team County Derry
        • Team County Donegal
        • Team County Down
        • Team County Dublin
        • Team County Fermanagh
        • Team County Galway
        • Team County Kerry
        • Team County Kildare
        • Team County Kilkenny
        • Team County Laois
        • Team County Leitrim
        • Team County Limerick
        • Team County Longford
        • Team County Louth
        • Team County Mayo
        • Team County Meath
        • Team County Monaghan
        • Team County Offaly
        • Team County Roscommon
        • Team County Sligo
        • Team County Tipperary
        • Team County Tyrone
        • Team County Waterford
        • Team County Westmeath
        • Team County Wexford
        • Team County Wicklow
      • Province Teams >
        • Team Connacht
        • Team Leinster
        • Team Munster
        • Team Ulster
    • Supporters
    • Charities
    • Partners
    • Walking information
    • Travel information >
      • Accommodation
      • Food & Drink
      • Shopping
      • Activities
      • Transport
  • Initiatives
    • The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships
    • Community Hillwalking Competitions
    • Irish Sport Hillwalking Awards >
      • Specialist Awards
    • Hillwalking Challenges >
      • Single-Day Challenges
      • Year-Long Challenges
      • Hillwalking Challenge Completion Form
    • Irish Sport Hillwalking Records
  • Extra
    • About us >
      • Contact us
      • Follow us
      • Sport Hillwalking
      • Privacy policy
      • Terms & conditions >
        • Terms & conditions for advertisers
    • Being a Sport Hillwalker >
      • All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships
      • Hillwalking challenges
      • Sport Hillwalking locations
      • Point-score values
      • Using Peakhunter
      • General walking advice
      • Travel Guide
    • Our news
    • Our other websites