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O’Connor’s Caravan Park, Kilnabrack Lower, Glenbeigh, Co. KerryHardHorseshoe · Iveragh · recorded
Coomasaharn
Horseshoe.
A demanding recorded horseshoe above Coomasaharn and Coomacullen lakes, crossing steep mountain ground and the Teeromoyle Tooth.
Also known as Com Sathairn.
DISTANCE
11.57km
ASCENT
873m
HIGH POINT
773m
Rob’s recorded time 5 hr 59 · experienced hikers · 745 recorded track points GRADE GUIDE ↗
Reading the map…
INTERACTIVE TERRAIN · ACTUAL GPX TRACKACTUAL GPX TRACK
A recorded time is not a planning estimate. Build your own from pace, ascent, ground, weather and daylight.
ONE · BEFORE YOU COMMIT
Is this your day?
The grade, the hazards, the forecast and the ground the route actually crosses. Everything you need to decide whether to go at all.
WEATHER AT A GLANCE
Forecast for around 750 m
Approx. 750 mNOWReading the forecast
WINDReading the forecast
TODAY’S PEAK RAIN CHANCEReading the forecast
Forecast. This is a modelled estimate for this route’s high ground; conditions can differ sharply across the mountain. Detailed planning guidance follows. Derived from Open-Meteo forecast data ↗.
RECORDED ELEVATION
159 m to 773 m.
The profile follows the supplied GeoJSON and its recorded elevation at every point.
773 m159 m
Reading the forecast
0 km873 m ascent · 873 m descent11.57 km
THE LINE
Two lakes inside a wild horseshoe.
The recording begins and finishes at the same point near Coomasaharn Lough. It climbs into the high ground around Coomacullen lake, follows the horseshoe ridge past the distinctive Teeromoyle Tooth and returns by a separate descending line.
Loch Chom Sathairn
Coomasaharn is the lake. The Placenames Database gives it as Loch Chom Sathairn, the lake of Com Sathairn, which is the townland it lies in, in the parish of Glanbehy. It is one of a run of coum lakes strung along this side of the mountain: Coomaglaslaw to the north-west, Coomnagrossaun to the east, Coomacullen and Coomeeneragh to the south.
The carved boulder
Forty metres off the line, near the end of the loop, a sandstone boulder sits in a turf bank at the edge of an old bog trackway, 185 metres up, looking north-east across the Behy valley towards Glenbeigh. Its north face is carved. The Iveragh survey recorded a cup with two rings and a radial groove, and three meandering grooves running off it, one of them nearly the length of the stone. Above that it listed nine more cup-and-rings, another cup-and-two-rings, three cupmarks with radial grooves and five plain cups.
Somebody also cut the letters M, Q and I into the rock. O’Kelly noted them in 1958 and Finlay in 1973. When the site was looked at again in 2017 only the I could still be found, and most of the carving had gone under bog, vegetation and lichen. What is left to see is one long meandering groove.
A landscape, not a stone
That boulder is not alone. Eleven more carved panels are recorded within a hundred and fifty metres of this line, the nearest four metres off it, which makes the loop a walk through a rock-art landscape rather than a walk past one stone. Five metres off the track is a large angular boulder with three V-shaped grooves cut across its north-west face, a possible cupmark and two solution pits beside them; O’Kelly thought the grooves were for sharpening pointed implements.
Fifty-two metres away, on sloping pasture above the lake and marked on no Ordnance Survey map, is a cashel: a stony mound just under sixteen metres across with stone facing still standing nearly a metre at the south-east, an entrance flanked by two low uprights, and a souterrain running under its western half.
- 01Coomasaharn startThe recorded loop begins near the lake at approximately 159 m.
- 02Coomacullen lakeThe route enters steep corrie ground above the water.
- 03Teeromoyle ToothBroken rock and an exposed mountain feature mark the high section.
- 04Horseshoe ridgeThe recording reaches approximately 773 m before turning towards the descent.
- 05Return to the lakeA separate descending line closes the loop at the recorded start.
The placename and parish follow the Placenames Database. The boulder is Archaeological Survey record KE071-013, described in A. O’Sullivan and J. Sheehan, The Iveragh Peninsula: An Archaeological Survey of South Kerry (1996), no. 272. The inventory includes cup-and-ring motifs, cups with radial grooves and plain cups, rather than a definitive total. The later letters were recorded by O’Kelly (1958) and Finlay (1973); the condition report dates from 2017. The forty-metre distance is measured between the GPX and the published coordinate and does not establish a path to the stone. The cupmarked stone is KE071-015 and the cashel KE071-019, from the same survey; the count of eleven further rock-art panels within 150 m is from the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, measured the same way. Their condition on the ground is not described here, because the records do not say.
Reading the forecast
WIND NOWReading the forecast
—cloud
—humidity
—km/h peak gust
Strongest wind today—
Peak gust—
RECENT RAINFALL · LIKELY GROUND
Reading the forecast
RAIN, GUST & VISIBILITY WINDOW
Reading the forecast
BEST HIKING WINDOW
Reading the forecast
DAYLIGHT PLAN
Reading the forecast
MET ÉIREANN · KERRY
Reading the forecast
NEXT SIX HOURS · swipe
Reading the forecast
HAZARDS & OPTIONSKnow the commitment.
Steep, rough mountain ground requires confident movement and navigation.
The ridge and Teeromoyle Tooth can become serious in wind, cloud or poor visibility.
Wet rock and grass may be slippery, especially on the descent.
This is a long mountain circuit with limited easy escape once committed to the high ground.
Turn back along the known approach before committing to the horseshoe if wind, cloud or ground conditions are unsuitable. From the high ridge, avoid improvised descents towards the lakes.
FROM THE MOUNTAIN
Rob’s photographs.
TWO · YOU’VE DECIDED
Getting there.
Where it starts, the recorded file, and the checks worth making before you leave the house.
PLAN THE GROUND
Start well.
RECORDED STARTCoomasaharn
Select coordinates to copy
The recording begins near the Coomasaharn Lough approach. Confirm current parking, access and ground conditions locally before leaving.
ROUTE FILE
Take the recorded route with you.
745 recorded track points, exactly as walked. Load it into your watch, phone or offline mapping before you leave signal.
Download original GPXcoomasaharn.gpx · as recordedGeoJSONKML
Onto a watch: import the GPX into Garmin Connect, Komoot or Strava and send it to the device from there. On a phone, the Garmin Explore and OS Maps apps take the file straight from the share sheet.
BEFORE YOU GO
Read the ground. Keep your margin.
Conditions can change the seriousness of any recorded route.
Your quick checksOptional and saved only in this browser.
0/5 checkedThese checks support your planning; they do not confirm that the route is safe.
- 01Check conditionsReview forecasts and warnings before leaving.
- 02Navigate independentlyCarry suitable mapping and know how to use it.
- 03Protect your marginTurn back early if the day exceeds your experience.
- 04Share your planLeave your route and expected return time with someone.
Leave a plan.
Tell someone your route and return time. For emergencies in Ireland call 112 or 999 and ask for Mountain Rescue.
More in Iveragh.
All 29 recorded routes →AFTER THE WALK
Post-hike picks.
A small, personal shortlist around Coomasaharn and Glenbeigh. Check current opening times before making the journey.