Devil's Punchbowl – Mangerton's corrie lake

The walk, not the lake

The Devil’s Punchbowl is a corrie lake about 670 m (2,200 ft) up the north-west flank of Mangerton Mountain, above Killarney in County Kerry, and the honest thing to say is that the climb beats the lake at the top. The tarn is dark and cold, roughly a quarter of a mile across and ringed by steep ground; it rarely freezes and never really warms. What earns the effort is the view at your back – the Lakes of Killarney, Muckross and the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks opening out as you gain height. The basin is the source of the Owengarriff River, which runs down the valley and spills over the crags as Torc Waterfall before reaching Lough Leane. All of it sits inside Killarney National Park, one of Ireland’s national parks.

Reaching the lake is about an hour of steady uphill from the road, and that hour is the whole point: if you only want a taste of Mangerton without committing to the full summit, the Punchbowl is the natural turnaround.

History and folklore

Long before anyone called it a corrie, the 1780s traveller Arthur Young looked at the basin and decided it was a volcanic crater. It isn’t – it was gouged by ice – but the mistake stuck around in the guidebooks for a century. The land around it was once part of the estate of the Earls of Kenmare.

The name comes with the usual crop of stories. In the best-known, the chieftain O’Donoghue Ross shared a meal with the Devil on the summit, fell out with him, threw a punch and bolted downhill; the Devil tore a lump off the mountain and flung it after him, leaving the hollow the lake now fills. One version has the flung rock landing in Lough Muckross as Devil’s Island, another has it becoming the Rock of Cashel, and a third simply says the lake was pressed out by the Devil’s hoof. Older traditions gloss the name as Poll an Ifrinn, the hole of hell, or tell of St Patrick sealing a serpent in the water until Lá na Luain. By the 1840s early tourists were already coming up to marvel at the ‘intensely cold’ water and swap tall tales about its bottomless depth.

Trails

Devil’s Punchbowl loop

• Distance: 9.5–10.5 km
• Time: 3–5 hours
• Elevation gain: ~700–800 m
• Difficulty: moderate to hard; a steady climb with boggy, rocky sections
• Start: roadside parking at the concrete bridge near Molly Darcy’s Pub, where there’s a Kerry Mountain Rescue advice board. The layby is small, so if it’s full there are a few spaces along Muckross Road.
• The lower part of the route crosses Tooreencormick, where the MacCarthys and Fitzgeralds fought a battle in the 13th century, then climbs to the lake with red and sika deer often about on the slopes.

Mangerton circular

• Distance: ~13.7 km
• Time: 4–5 hours
• Elevation gain: ~980 m
• Difficulty: hard; exposed ridges and a long cumulative climb
• Adds the Horses Glen, where cliffs drop to Lough Erhogh, plus Lough Managh and views across the Black Valley.
• Start: Mangerton Mountain car park off the N71.

Getting there

By car: from Killarney take the N71 (Muckross Road); turn at Molly Darcy’s Pub for the concrete bridge and trailhead. Parking is a small layby at the bridge plus a few roadside spots, so come early in summer.

Public transport: no bus reaches the trailhead. A taxi from Killarney is about ten minutes.

One thing worth being clear about: this is a proper mountain walk, steep and often boggy, exposed to weather that turns fast, and not one for small children or a casual stroll. Fog rolls over the top regularly, so carry a map (OS Discovery 78) or an offline GPS track, waterproofs and boots, and tell someone your route. Dogs are welcome but keep them on a short lead near the cliffs and any livestock.

Practical information

Molly Darcy’s, at the turn for the bridge, does hot food and coffee and is the obvious place to thaw out afterwards. Start early, check the mountain forecast, and give yourself daylight for the descent – that’s where most Irish mountain accidents happen, on tired legs and wet rock.