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.
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.
All-Ireland sports competitions
