Knockboy is the highest point in County Cork and sits at an elevation of 706m. The hike up to Knockboy mountain starts from the Priest’s Leap mountain pass monument at 519m. Knockboy is on the border of Cork and Kerry but is only County Kerry’s 30th highest mountain. The priest leap mountain pass is the highest pass road in the province of Munster.

The roadway up to Knockboy and the Priest’s Leap pass is definitely one of the most interesting roads of all the County High Point roads. The road is very tight in places with little room for error and there are large drops into the valley below if mistakes are made. Even more interesting than the tight road is the contours that the road follows, some of the vertical gains and dips are extreme, to say the least. We were greeted with cows, sheep and a horse sitting and resting on the side of the road, Ourlittlehiker loved every second of this. She hasn’t mastered the ability to string together full sentences yet but we all knew she was trying to talk about the animals for about 1 hour after seeing them so close to the car.

Overview of Knockboy County high point hike

The hike up to Knockboy is a reasonably straightforward out and back hike. We followed a fence up the hill to a T junction of fences, then took a left until we met another T junction of fences, from here we follow this fence the whole way up the hill to Knockboy mountain.

It took us 2 hours to get up to the top of Knockboy mountain and return to our car at the Priest’s Leap mountain. We had numerous stops for snacks and breaks on the way up and down.

Knockboy key information

• Location- Starting point here
• Distance- 5km
• Duration- 2 hours out and back walk
• Difficulty- Gradual climb- 3 out of 10
• Parking- 2 to 3 cars only
• Amenities- none
• Signposts- None but can follow the fence to the top
• Things to see- The road to the priest leap is great fun
• Advice- Bring waterproof boots
• Recommendation- 6 out of 10

Knockboy Hike

After our adventurous drive up to the Priest’s Leap passing, we parked opposite the monument. There looks like there is enough parking here for 3 cars if all the cars are parked tightly. After we parked our car we did some exploring of the area. The car park area is very high 463m and has spectacular views down the centre of the valley.

We walked across the road toward the monument and crossed down into the road gully and back up into the meadow. We followed the wire fencing up toward the top of the hill. After driving 3 hours 35 minutes our legs were stiff and very sluggish. We initially felt tired after the long drive but we weren’t walking long before we stretched the legs out and got into the walking rhythm.

We continued to follow the fence up the hill, the fence starts to rise out of the meadow, up over mounds and clay banks. Sometimes it is easier for us to walk around the mounds of clay than walk over them. Halfway up the first section of fencing we walked through part of the hillside that was filled with white flowers which resembled cotton or daisies, we weren’t sure but they were extremely pretty.

We reached the first fencing junction (basically a T junction), we took a left here. There was only 1 sty to cross the fencing on this whole walk so be prepared to climb wire fencing. We are now greeted with small rock mounds covered in soil in front of us, we walk around these to meet the fence on the other side. It’s amazing that someone erected this fence into the rock face going over the hill, that is dedication.

Just as we walked around this rocky mound, we walked into our first boggy area. Unfortunately, Gina walked into the mud straight down to her ankles. She had soggy wet ankles for the remainder of the hike. Ourlittlehiker loved seeing her Mammy getting wet feet and kept shouting “oh-oh Mammy”.

Overall the ground conditions were ok for us, but we had to watch out for soft spots. We can only imagine that in a wetter time, this mountain would be extremely boggy and you might even need Wellies.

We walked up to the next T junction of fencing, from here we could see a small lake below us and Knockboy mountain above us. We could even see the fencing running the whole way up the hill, we knew we would be following it to the summit. It even looks like someone has put the fence down into the lake, these are very dedicated fencers on Knockboy mountain.

We descended down into the small dip that houses the tiny lake. We walked around over to the rear of the lake and crossed over to the other side. This is the only Stile that we saw on the walk up to Knockboy. As we walk past the lake, Ourlittlehiker keeps shouting “Bath”, she thinks the lake is a big bath and she wants to get in, Lol the innocence of it all.

We now start our ascent to the top of Knockboy. We follow the well-worn path in the grass up along the fence until it crosses the fence for a final time. The main reason we cross here is that the ground conditions look better on the other side of the fence.

We can see the Cairn of Knockboy from about 50 meters away. We reached the top of Knockboy very quickly and easily. The views on the decent are amazing, we could see all Kerry’s highest mountain on the right-hand side in the far distance.

When we reached the bottom of the hike we had a lovely picnic and admired the views down along the valley. After our picnic we let Ourlittlehiker try our her new Deuter Backpack. We did a tiny little hike over to a cross and Ourlittlehiker carried her own bag and a walking stick, we can see she already loves walking and hiking.

The verdict on the Hike to Cork’s highest mountain

We hiked Knockboy in a very warm mild time of the year. The ground was dry in most places but still, there were boggy and swampy areas, so be careful and watch out for these.

On the hike up to the summit of Knockboy, the views on either side of the walking trail are slightly disappointing as there didn’t seem to be a great landscape to appreciate on the ascent. Like most of our hikes when we are climbing we generally don’t stop and look behind us but the views to the rear of us when we were climbing up were amazing, we obviously got to admire these views on the descent.

The top of Knockboy is surrounded by other larger peaks in County Kerry. The views from the top are still pretty impressive. Knockboy is a relatively easy County high point but if the weather was wet and the ground was damp and boggy, I’d imagine Knockboy would be a much harder hike.

Overall we enjoyed our hike up to Corks highest point, it was a short hike and definitely not worth all the driving but it is another high point off the list.

Which County High Point next after Knockboy?

We have only 1 county high point to climb in Munster remaining after climbing Knockboy and that is Carrantuohill in County Kerry. As we drove over 3 hours to climb Knockboy we should have stayed the night and climbed Carrantuohill the next day but unfortunately, with work commitments we both have to be home early the next morning.

We might leave the highest mountain until last now.

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