The saddle and its lake
The Pass of Maumahoge is a saddle on the Maumturks ridge, with a small corrie lake caught just above it, set between Binn idir an dá Log (702m) and Knocknahillion (607m). The col itself sits below both peaks, so this is high, exposed ground rather than a summit. Lough Maumahoge is the reason to climb: a glacial tarn roughly 100 metres across, about 20 metres above the pass, fed by springs and seasonal meltwater, so its level rises and falls through the year. If you make it up here, the lake is the thing – eat your lunch beside it and turn back, and you’ll have had the best of the walk.
The Maumturks are quieter than the Twelve Bens across the Lough Inagh Valley, which is the whole appeal. Trails here are usually empty. That also means no one is coming if the weather turns, so the walk asks for more self-reliance than a car park and a signposted loop.
The walk
The standard approach is the Máméan route, starting from the Máméan car park and running about 6 km there and back, with roughly 450 metres of climbing – reckon on three and a half hours at a steady pace. The path climbs through heather moorland and peat bog before the ground turns rockier near the col. Sturdy boots with ankle support earn their keep on the wet, uneven sections; trail shoes will struggle.
Navigation is straightforward in clear weather, less so when the cloud comes down – and in Connemara it comes down fast, sometimes to near-zero visibility. Carry a paper OS map and a compass and know how to use both; a phone alone isn’t enough up here. If conditions close in, turn back rather than push on for the lake.
The name, the pilgrimage and the rock
Sléibhte Mhám Toirc, the Irish for the Maumturks, means ‘the mountains of the boar’s pass’. A short way off lies Máméan (Maumeen), where a small stone chapel marks a pilgrimage site traditionally tied to St Patrick’s journey west – worth the short detour if you’re parked at the Máméan car park anyway. The peaks around the pass are quartzite, the pale, hard rock that gives the Maumturks their bald, stony ridgelines.
Once a year the pass turns busy for an afternoon. The Maumturks Challenge, a roughly 25 km mountain traverse, puts a checkpoint at Lough Maumahoge with a 2pm cut-off for getting through it – a useful measure of just how serious a full day on this ridge can be.
Getting there and what to bring
From the R344, take the Inagh Valley road toward Letterfrack; there’s parking with picnic benches near the boathouse on Lough Inagh. Turn right onto the country road toward Máméan, and you’ll find space to park about 2 km along, at the trailhead.
There is nothing at the pass – no shelter, no shop, no water tap. Bring all your food and water, a waterproof and a warm layer whatever the forecast says, and don’t drink the lake or stream water untreated. Summer and early autumn give the most reliable weather and the longest daylight; a winter ascent needs ice axe, crampons and real navigation skills for frozen, white-out ground. The nearest emergency access is off the coast road near Leenane.
From the col, the Western Way carries on along the ridge toward Leenane and Killary Harbour, Ireland’s only fjord. For an easier end to the day, drop south to Connemara National Park or Ballynahinch Lake.