Overview
The Maumturks are a quartzite ridge – not the limestone some older guides claim – running parallel to the Twelve Bens across the Lough Inagh valley, in the heart of Connemara in County Galway. In Irish they’re Sléibhte Mhám Toirc, ‘the mountains of the pass of the boar’. The high point is Binn idir an dá Log at 702m (2,303ft). The peaks are a shade lower than the Bens across the valley, and that is the appeal: the trails here are usually empty. The whole range sits inside the Joyce Country and Western Lakes Geopark, which was granted UNESCO Global Geopark status in April 2026.
Landscape and geology
The rock is very old. The quartzite, marble and schist here formed between 475 and 460 million years ago in the Caledonian mountain-building, and the glaciers of the last two million years did the carving – gouging the corries, U-shaped valleys and knife-edge ridges that make the skyline. Some approaches still follow relief roads built during the Great Famine of the 1840s. Historically the passes were shepherds’ routes and pilgrim paths, and the range forms a major section of the Western Way long-distance trail.
The walk to Máméan
For most visitors the way in is the walk up to Máméan (Mám Éan, ‘the pass of the birds’), a gap near the middle of the ridge that has been a pilgrimage site to St Patrick for centuries. There’s a small chapel, a holy well and a Stations of the Cross, and under the Penal Laws it served as a secret mass rock. The climb from the valley is steady rather than technical, on open and often boggy ground, and the pass itself is a sheltered, quiet spot with the land opening out on either side. If you’ve only a few hours in the range, this is the walk to do.
The car park is at the Holy Shrine of Máméan, up a country road off the R344 in the Inagh Valley. It’s small and fills fast, so come early on a fine weekend rather than reverse back down a single-track road past everyone else.
The ridge and the Maumturks Challenge
The serious undertaking is the full ridge from Maam Cross to Leenaun – about 25km with over 2,000m of climbing. The thing older write-ups get wrong is the timing: this is a single hard day, not a multi-day trek, and a fit party will be out for 10 to 12 hours. The University of Galway Mountaineering Club has run it as the annual ‘Maamturks Challenge’ since 1975, which tells you both that it’s a rite of passage and that it isn’t to be underestimated. Much of the ridge is unmarked and exposed, cairns are few, and there’s no easy way off once you’re on it. For climbers rather than walkers, the corrie at Loch Mhám Ochóige holds rock routes graded from V-Diff up to HVS.
Practical information and safety
The range is free to access; the terrain does the gatekeeping.
- Navigation: carry a good 1:30,000 map – the Harvey Superwalker Connemara sheet is the one worth having – plus a compass, with an offline GPS track as backup. The ridge is easy to lose in cloud.
- Weather: Atlantic fronts come in fast. Check Met Éireann, dress in layers, and treat a waterproof shell and wind protection as non-negotiable on the tops.
- Footwear: sturdy, ankle-supporting boots with good grip. After heavy rain the quartzite slabs turn greasy; in a hard winter they ice up and you’ll want spikes.
- Emergency: phone signal is patchy above the valley. Tell someone your route and your expected time back, and carry a beacon for a full ridge day.
Getting there and when to go
From Galway city, take the N59 to Oughterard, then head into the Inagh Valley; Máméan is signposted off the R344. Parking is free but very limited. The ground is best from May to October, when the days are long and the paths reasonably dry; winter turns the higher ground into a proper mountaineering environment. Whatever the season, start early and leave yourself time to be off the tops before the afternoon cloud rolls in off the Atlantic.