Arderin is a mountain on the border of County Offaly and County Laois, it is both counties highest point. Arderin is the highest mountain in the Slieve Bloom mountains. The mountain is only Irelands 399 highest point and sits at an altitude of 527m.
Where to start hiking Arderin Hike
We started at Glendine Gap which is on the Offaly/Laois border. There is a carpark behind the lovely border statue seen in the picture below. We parked our car here while climbing the mountain, there seems to be parking for only about 5 cars so come early or you might have to park on the road.
Hiking Arderin
Looking towards Arderin Summit to your right, just beside the car park entrance is a path that descends through a shallow bog. Be careful climbing down here as it is a little steep and the path is very slippery from water flowing down it. From here you then cross the flat part that was very wet when we walked through it and then climb up the mountain following a dirt track through the heather.
Arderin hiking Path
The path through the heather is quite worn from other hikers walking the trail and it is easy to see where the trail is leading. As the path starts to rise out of the flat section, we passed a nature reserve sign to our left. We walked through a few larger puddles that we couldn’t walk around and we couldn’t jump over either so we had to get wet feet early.
We followed the path through the heather and purple grass that lead us all the way up to the cairn. This high point is very easy and it only took us 25 minutes from leaving the car to walk to the two counties high points. When we reached the top the cairn was marked with a wooden stake and the high point had an OS marker pin in concrete.
Arderin Peak- Laois and Offaly County High Point
Arderin is an extremely easy hike for a high point but it is very enjoyable. On the way up to the cairn, you walk through heather, bogs, streams, and wild purple grass. When you reach the top you get panoramic views of the Slieve Bloom mountains while also looking across numerous other counties.
This is a great hike and our only advice would be to try to go in a dry spell as the ground is very wet.
We lost ourlittlehikers favourite Flamingo teddy while walking up the mountain so the whole way down we traced our footsteps but luckily we found the teddy about 20 meters from the car, since then we tie the Flamingos leg to the bag so we won’t lose the teddy in future.
Additional hikes and information
See here for more information about the Slieve Blooms. The Glenbarrow and Monicknew hikes are worth visiting after this hike.
