The Filling Station Camp
A nearby coffee stop in Camp after walking through Gleann na nGealt. Check Instagram for current opening times.
Camp, Co. KerryModerateGlen · Dingle · recorded
Gleann na
nGealt.
A compact loop through Gleann na nGealt (Valley of the Mad), roughly two miles west of Camp on the road to Dingle.
Also known as Glannagalt, or Valley of the Mad.
DISTANCE
7.64km
ASCENT
305m
HIGH POINT
301m
Rob’s recorded time 2 hr 10 · short upland loop · 488 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 300 m
Approx. 300 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
70 m to 301 m.
The profile follows the supplied GeoJSON and its recorded elevation at every point.
301 m70 m
Reading the forecast
0 km305 m ascent · 306 m descent7.64 km
THE LINE
The valley people came to be cured.
The route leaves and returns to almost the same point, climbing from enclosed green lanes onto open hillside before looping back through a landscape of standing stones and old field boundaries.
Tobar na nGealt
Tobar na nGealt, the Well of the Mad, is an ancient holy well in Gleann na nGealt, anglicised as Glannagalt. People came here to be cured, and they came for a very long time. The stories name Gall, a king of Ulster, restored after drinking the water and eating the watercress that grows in it, and Bolcán of France, who came here in flight from the battle of Ventry. The twelfth-century Buile Shuibhne puts Mad Sweeney in this valley, finding peace in the course of the year and a day he spent wandering Ireland.
Cloch na nGealt
The valley has been the resort of the afflicted since at least the seventeenth century. There are two wells, not one, and between them stands Cloch na nGealt, the Mad Stone, Cloghnagalt on the Ordnance Survey sheet: a block of sandstone barely half a metre high with a shallow bowl cut into its top, a hand’s span across and no deeper than your palm. The women of the valley left milk and food in it for whoever came. Two more hollows in the stone, natural ones, are said to be the handprints of those who drank.
Joyce set the whole route down in 1869: the sufferers crossed the stream at Ahagaltaun, the madman’s ford, passed the stone, drank at the wells and ate the cress at the margin.
2012 · Lithium in the water
Then in 2012 the water was tested, and the well came back at 55.6 parts per billion of lithium, far above the other samples taken nearby. Lithium is what modern medicine reaches for in the treatment of some mental illness. It does not make the legends true, and it does not make the water a treatment. It does mean that people walked to this particular well for a thousand years and were not simply imagining the reason.
- 01Green-lane startThe route opens through enclosed, grassy ground.
- 02Standing-stone hillsideOld features mark the transition to open country.
- 03Recorded high pointThe loop reaches approximately 301 m.
- 04Return to the laneDescending ground closes the circuit near its start.
The stone is Archaeological Survey site KE036-058; the wells are KE036-057 and KE036-071. The account of milk and food is from An Seabhac (1939), the seventeenth-century reference from de Brún (1973), and the visitors’ journey from P. W. Joyce, The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places (1869). Brigid O Connor’s local well account ↗ records the traditions as folklore. The wells are places of local devotion rather than medical ones: drink nothing on the strength of a story. The 2012 analysis by Dr Henry Lyons and Dr Páidí Ó Domhnaill is reported in the West Kerry account ↗ and the documentary is covered in Brian O’Connell’s Recovering well, The Irish Times, 23 October 2012 ↗.
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.
Wet grass and uneven ground can be slippery.
The route passes through working countryside and old boundaries.
Open hillside can become difficult to follow in poor visibility.
Standing stones and other features should not be climbed on or disturbed.
Because this is a compact loop, the conservative choice is to reverse the known line if visibility or ground conditions deteriorate before the halfway point.
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 STARTGleann na nGealt trailhead
Select coordinates to copy
The supplied recording starts and finishes at almost the same coordinate. Confirm current parking and access locally, respect farmland and never block gates.
ROUTE FILE
Take the recorded route with you.
488 recorded track points, exactly as walked. Load it into your watch, phone or offline mapping before you leave signal.
Download original GPXvalley-of-the-mad.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 Dingle.
All 29 recorded routes →AFTER THE WALK
Post-hike picks.
A small, personal shortlist around Gleann na nGealt, Camp and Stradbally. Check current opening times before making the journey.
Tomásín’s Bar & Restaurant
A traditional pub and restaurant in nearby Stradbally for food or a post-hike drink. Check Instagram for current opening times.
Stradbally, Castlegregory, Co. Kerry, V92 AD65