Overview
The notch that gives Devil’s Bit (Irish: Bearnán Éile, ‘little gapped hill of Éile’) its name is the first thing you’ll pick out from the road, a clean gap bitten from the northern ridge. The hill rises to 480 m (some maps say 478 m) just north-west of Templemore, and the River Suir – Ireland’s third-longest at 183 km – rises on its slopes before its long loop south to Waterford. A 45-foot illuminated cross stands on the main outcrop, lit after dark and visible for miles across the valley.
The legend
The name comes from a tale told in Tipperary for generations. The devil, fleeing Ireland after St Patrick saw him off, took a huge bite from the hill near Templemore, broke his teeth on it, and spat the rock out a few miles away, where it landed and became the Rock of Cashel. A second version swaps the devil for Fionn mac Cumhaill, who bites the mountain in temper and spits out the same outcrop. Long before either story, the hill was a Lughnasa gathering place, climbed at harvest for seasonal fairs, a tradition that lasted into the 19th century before politics took over the hillside.
History and geology
In 1789 – some sources say 1790 – a cave on the slopes was said to have yielded the Book of Dimma, an 8th-century illuminated Gospel manuscript now in Trinity College Dublin. Scholars doubt a manuscript could have survived centuries in an open cave, but the story has stuck.
The mountain’s social history is better documented. On 25 July 1832 it hosted an anti-tithe rally said to have drawn over 50,000 people protesting the compulsory payment of tithes to the Church of Ireland, one of the largest political assemblies of its century; a semi-fictional account by Samuel Lover, describing a mock ‘burial of the tithes’, sealed its reputation as a place of protest. The lower slopes carry the imprint of the Anglo-Irish Carden family, principal landlords here, whose stone folly – Carden’s Folly – still stands on the approach, with the ruined walls of their walled garden traceable in the lower woodland. A more obscure claim to fame: a 1980 paper in Nature recorded Cooksonia-type sporangia found on the mountain, among the earliest fossil flora known in Ireland.
The cross
The cross most people climb for is not ancient at all. It was raised in 1953–54 for the Marian Year and blessed on 22 August 1954, at a cost of around IR£2,000. Every scrap of material was carried up by hand to a base of 340 tons, five feet square and ten feet deep. Mass is still said at its foot each year on Rock Sunday, the Sunday closest to 25 July, and a statue of the Virgin Mary, added in 1988, sits on the eastern side and makes a natural resting spot.
Walking the loop
The waymarked loop is 3.7 km, graded moderate, with about 200 m of climbing over sandy laneways, forestry tracks, green roads and open hillside, and most walkers take around 1 hour 30 minutes. It doesn’t ascend the summit itself, but a short, steeper spur branches off to the cross on the ‘Long Rock’, and that’s the bit to do if your legs allow – the final pull involves tight rock steps and a little scrambling, so wear proper boots.
From the top, on a clear day, the view is said to take in up to nine counties; locals more often settle on eight, and there’s honest doubt about whether Cork is really visible. Either way you can pick out the Galtee Mountains to the south, the Knockmealdown Mountains and Comeraghs beyond, the Slieve Blooms and Keeper Hill, and Lough Derg to the north-west.
Two honest warnings. The moorland up top is exposed and can be genuinely muddy and windy, so don’t be fooled by a fine morning in the car park. And in warm weather the horseflies are a real nuisance on the open ground. Dogs aren’t permitted on the loop.
Practical information
- Trail length: 3.7 km loop (moderate)
- Ascent: ~200 m
- Typical duration: 1–1.5 hours
- Start point: Devil’s Bit car park, off the R433 near Barnane
- Getting there: The access road off the R433 is narrow and winding, single-lane in places; set your GPS to ‘Devil’s Bit car park’ rather than just ‘Devil’s Bit’, which can send you astray
- Parking: Free, but limited and often full on weekends, so arrive early
- Admission: Free, open year-round, no booking
- Dogs: Not allowed on the loop
- Accessibility: Fine for reasonably fit walkers; the spur to the cross is steep, uneven rock and not wheelchair-accessible
- Refreshments: None on the mountain – head back to Templemore for cafés, pubs and takeaways
If you can, time your walk for the Sunday nearest 25 July, when the community gathers at the base of the cross for the open-air Rock Sunday Mass. The rest of the year it’s just you, the wind and that bitten ridge.