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Mount Leinster Walk

3.11 miles (5 km)

Open Streetmap Climb to the 796-metre-high (2,612 ft) summit of Mount Leinster on this challenging walk in the Blackstairs Mountains. The mountain is located on the border of Counties Carlow and Wexford, near the town of Borris.
The walk starts from the Nine Stones car park, a landmark point at the foot of Mount Leinster on the L3005. You then follow a car free tarmac road to the summit where you will find a 2RN transmission site with a mast height of 122 m. There's also wide ranging views over the countyside of Wexford, Carlow, Kildare and Waterford. On a clear day you can see all the way to Wales.
This is the easiest route to the summit, running for about 1.5 miles, so it's a 3 mile hike in total. Look out for wildlife including wild horses which can often be seen grazing on the hillside.
To extend the walk you can continue east from the summit to East Top and Black Rock Mountain, the terminal peak of the eastern shoulder of Mount Leinster.
The South Leinster Way also passes the mountain. The National Waymarked Trail runs for 104km from nearby Kildavin to Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary.

Mount Leinster Open Street Map Open Streetmap - Mobile GPS Map with Location tracking

Further Information and Other Local Ideas

Just to the west you can pick up the Barrow Way, a 100km walk following the River Barrow from Robertstown, County Kildare to St Mullins in County Carlow.
Further west is the city of Kilkenny where you can try the Kilkenny River and Canal Walk. The easy waterside walk also takes you past the 12th century castle with its lovely grounds and gardens.
You can also pick up the waymarked Nore Valley Walk which starts in the city.
The Brandon Hill Loop starts in nearby Graiguenamanagh. The circular waymarked trail climbs to the summit of the the highest mountain in County Kilkenny. There are great views over the countryside to the coast from this fine vantage point.
To the north there's the town of Carlow where you can pick up the Carlow Oak Park Forest Loop. The trail takes you along boardwalks surrounding a shallow man-made lake with a number of islands.

Photos

The Nine Stones - geograph.org.uk - 536833

The Nine Stones

Road to Mt Leinster summit - geograph.org.uk - 536836

Road to Mt Leinster summit

Mt Leinster - geograph.org.uk - 1222009

Mt Leinster

Mount Leinster - geograph.org.uk - 290244

Mount Leinster

GPS Files

GPX File

Mount Leinster.gpx (On Desktop:Right Click>Save As. On Ipad/Iphone:Click and hold>Download Linked File)