An Bóthar Pub & Guesthouse
A traditional pub and guesthouse in Cuas serving drinks and evening food, well placed after a day on Mount Brandon. Check Instagram for current opening times and food service.
Cuas, Dingle, Co. KerryHardRidge · Dingle
Cnoc Bréanainn
West Loop.
A long circuit from the western side of Cnoc Bréanainn (Mount Brandon), climbing to the high ridge before looping back across open mountain ground.
Also known as Mount Brandon.
DISTANCE
15.73km
ASCENT
992m
HIGH POINT
941m
My time 5 hr 23 · long, exposed mountain circuit · western Mount Brandon start and finish 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.
01 · DECIDE
Is this your day?
ELEVATION PROFILE
From the west to 941 m.
Every height on this profile was measured on the walk, not estimated between the ends.
Reading the forecast
992 m ascent · 995 m descent
THE LINE
A signal station, an inscription and a cashel.
On Brandon’s western side the circuit passes a Napoleonic signal station, an ogham stone and a cashel. They have nothing in common beyond the ground the walk crosses.
The barracks in the gap
The remains in the saddle between Brandon and Masatiompan belong to the coastal signal network developed during the Napoleonic wars. The Archaeological Survey places the barracks’ likely construction between 1808 and 1812, after the first signal towers. Its high position was intended to help link stations where visibility between them was difficult.
Ballydavid Head is 8.2 kilometres west-south-west of this spot. What is left is mostly spread rubble, but the shape is still readable: an enclosure of about 24 metres by 22, with square bastions at each of the four corners, and a collapsed building south of centre. The Ordnance Survey surveyors of 1841 marked it Signal Tower (in ruins); by the survey of the 1890s it had become Signal Tower (site of). Whether it was ever finished is disputed.
Ronán the priest
Nearby stands the Arraglen ogham stone, a sandstone pillar about 1.9 metres tall. Ogham uses groups of strokes along a stone’s edge; here the inscription runs up the edges and across the top. Macalister read it as QRIMITIR RONANN MAQ COMOGANN, commemorating Ronán the priest, son of Comgán. Crosses on the faces include a chi-rho, a monogram formed from the opening Greek letters of Christ’s name.
The stone has been standing, falling and standing again for as long as anyone has been recording it. It was first found buried in peat to within two feet of its top. It had fallen by 1937, and then disappeared under hillwash and sod. It was dug out and re-erected in 1982, and again after the winter storms of 1995, that time 4.4 metres to the north-west of where it had been. Local information says even the 1982 position was ten or twelve metres downslope of the original.
Cathair Fionnúrach
Lower on the western slope, Cathair Fionnúrach is a cashel: an enclosure bounded by a stone wall. Two conjoined huts survive inside it to about a metre, looking out over the Feohanagh river and west to the Blaskets. The larger is 6.5 metres across and its entrance lines up with the entrance of the cashel itself. Westropp recorded a paved path running between the two; three kerbstones of it are still visible.
- 01Western approachA steady opening climb from the start.
- 02High mountain groundExposed terrain where cloud and wind can arrive quickly.
- 03Mount Brandon ridgeThe recorded high point reaches 941 m.
- 04Western returnA long separate descent closes the loop.
The barracks is Archaeological Survey record KE025-004 and the ogham stone KE025-002, both in Airghleann. Cathair Fionnúrach is KE034-041, with its larger hut KE034-041001. Descriptions follow J. Cuppage, Corca Dhuibhne: Dingle Peninsula Archaeological Survey (1986), nos 790 and 547, and revised Survey entries. The ogham reading follows R. A. S. Macalister, Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum (1945); see the DIAS Ogham in 3D record ↗. For related histories, see the signal tower on the Ballydavid Head Loop and the summit pilgrimage on Teer to Faha.
Forecast for around 900 m
Reading the forecast…
NOW
WIND
TODAY’S PEAK RAIN CHANCE
Reading the forecast…
–cloud
–humidity
–km/h peak gust
Strongest wind today–
Peak gust–
RECENT RAINFALL · LIKELY GROUND
NEXT SIX HOURS · swipe
Reading the forecast
Forecast. This is a modelled estimate for this route’s high ground; conditions can differ sharply across the mountain. Derived from Open-Meteo forecast data ↗.
HAZARDS & OPTIONSKnow the commitment.
A long mountain circuit with almost 1,000 metres of recorded ascent.
Exposed high ground where Atlantic wind, cloud and rain can arrive quickly.
Navigation can become demanding when the ridge and descent are obscured.
Wet, rough or boggy ground can slow the western return considerably.
The recorded loop is not a bad-weather escape plan. Before you reach the exposed high ground, the safest option is to turn back the way you came. Later decisions require confident navigation and current ground knowledge.
FROM THE MOUNTAIN
My photographs.
03 · GO
Getting there.
Start well.
STARTWestern Mount Brandon
Select coordinates to copy
The walk starts from the main trailhead car park on the western side of the mountain. Check access on the day, and don’t block homes, farm traffic or emergency vehicles.
ROUTE FILE
Take the route with you.
The original GPX, exactly as walked. Load it into your watch, phone or offline mapping before you leave signal.
Track geometry and activity time come from the GPX. Elevation, cumulative distance, ascent and descent come from my matching GeoJSON.
Download original GPXmt-brandon-west-loop.gpx · as recorded
Confirm the download when your browser asks, then open the file from your browser’s downloads and your mapping app will offer to take it. HiiKER and Garmin Explore both do; the route loads on HiiKER’s free tier, though its EastWest mapping of the Irish uplands is a paid layer. Onto a watch: import the GPX into Garmin Connect, Komoot or Strava and send it to the device from there.
A long, exposed mountain day.
Plan for the ridge, not the car park.
Mount Brandon’s upper slopes are open mountain terrain where navigation, wind, cloud and ground conditions matter. This recorded loop is long and has almost 1,000 metres of ascent.
Before you leave
- Check the forecast and warnings
- Plan your daylight
- Save the GPX or an offline map
- Pack footwear and layers
- Share your route and return time
- 01Navigate independentlyCarry a paper map and compass and know how to use them.
- 02Keep a backupAvoid relying on a phone or this GPX alone.
- 03Know when to turnTurn back if cloud, wind, rain or winter conditions exceed your experience.
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 Dingle
All 33 routes →AFTER THE WALK
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A small, personal shortlist around Mount Brandon and Cuas.