Mount Leinster is the highest point in County Carlow and Wexford and sits at an elevation of 795m. Everyone has a home mountain, by this I mean, a mountain that is close to them and they have climbed before. We have climbed Mount Leinster numerous times together without Ourlittlehiker. As this is our local mountain and we only live 15 minutes drive from the county high point, we decided to try and hike this for our first county high point hike with Ourlittlehiker, who was only 6 months old at the time.
This was the very first Mountain that we hiked as part of the 32 Peak county high points with Ourlittlehiker but we didn’t record much information from that adventure, we decided to hike it again but this time with our 2 little hikers. This will be our baby hikers first time up Mount Leinster and Ourlittlehikers second time.
Our Babyhiker is 7 weeks old and we pushed her to the top of Mount Leinster in her Quinny Buzz and carrycot. Ourlittlehiker is now 2 years old and she walked a good section of the road herself. When she got tired, we put her into her own buggy. This is the first time we brought the kids pushchairs on a hike. We previously hiked Mount Leinster with Ourlittlehiker, when she was 6 months old, the photographs are a mixture of both hikes.
Why Hike Mount Leinster?
Mount Leinster is an easy mountain to hike, as there is a tarmac RTE access road leading from the carpark at the nine stones the whole way to the summit. This is similar to Kippure, Truskmore and Cornhill, county high points. Out of all the access roads to the county high points, Mount Leinster is definitely the steepest hike to the top.
As this was our first hike to a County High Point with Ourlittlehiker, it was more of a recce mission than actually trying to complete a full hike to the summit. We really wanted to see how comfortable OutlittleHiker would be in her Deuter baby hiking bag, especially for a long period of time, potentially 2-3 hours in warm conditions.
2017 Hike to Mount Leinster
Hiking Mount Leinster
We walked around the metal barriers and started walking uphill. The road is fully tarmacadamed to the top of Mount Leinster. We initially walked beside a wood to our left that seemed to be filled with flies. We put some insect repellent on Ourlittlehiker, which seemed to be doing a good job of keeping them all off her and projecting them onto her parents.
As this was our first CHP with a baby, we wanted to see were we able to hike up these hills with a baby on our back and wanted to make sure that our baby daughter was enjoying herself. After walking halfway up toward Mount Leinster, we quickly realised that our fitness levels were not as good as they were in 2015, but we were loving the challenge and more importantly, Ourlittlehiker was amazed by all the views, wildlife and other families out hiking.
We reached a gate and cattle grid, we decided to swap the bag over to give Mammy an opportunity to carry Ourlttlehiker up the side of the mountain. Gina did a super job and carried her the remaining way to the summit. This section after the gate was definitely the steepest section of the Mount Leinster hike.
We reached a left bend in the road and then reached a right bend, we could see another long steep section of road ahead. When we reached the final corner we could eventually see the compound for the TV mast in front of us. The summit is to the right-hand side of the compound gate of the mast. We quickly ran over and got a few pictures at the top.
The verdict of Mount Leinster Hike
We were super nervous about this whole hike. As this would be the first proper mountain that we would hike with our baby daughter. We were initially afraid that it would be too warm for her in the bag, we then were afraid of all the flies. The higher we got, we started becoming fearful of the wind and cold but we quickly realised that we had chosen the right hiking bag in the Deuter. (Ourlittlehiker was 6 months old at the time of writing this)
When the wind started to become cold and stronger we put blankets around Ourlittlehiker and installed the windbreaker cover. This is a godsend and we definitely wouldn’t attempt mountain hikes without it.
The hike up Mount Leinster is very easy. Okay, it is steep but the road brings you straight to the summit and we were reasonably sheltered from the wind until we reached the summit.
Conclusion on hiking Mount Leinster with a buggy or baby Carrier?
After hiking Mount Leinster once before with our Deuter Baby Carrier and once with the Quinny buzz buggy, we found it far easier with the Deuter baby carrier. We found it hard to push the buggies up the steep incline and the kids seemed far more content in their carriers. Our new addition to the family (babyhiker) loves her Ergo Carrier and sleeps constantly in it but she doesn’t seem to sleep in the baby buggy. When she is in the Ergo carrier she is nestled up against her Mammys skin and can even breastfeed while walking, she sleeps 90% of the time when she is in it.
Ourlittlehiker likes being up high and looking around her in the Deuter carrier when she gets tired from walking. She didn’t really like been in her buggy and she kept trying to get out. She kept saying she wanted to be on her daddy’s back, we assume this is toddler code for the baby carrier.
In future, we are going to stick to the Deuter kids comfort for hikes.
