Binn Chaonaigh, Mountain summit in County Galway, Ireland.
Binn Chaonaigh is a 633-metre summit in the central spine of the Maumturk Mountains in Connemara, County Galway, rising between Binn idir an dá Log to the northwest and the pass of Máméan to the south. A long rocky spur runs northeast to the subsidiary peak of Binn Mhairg (612 m). The summit is the fourth-highest of the Maumturks and the 185th-highest in Ireland on the Arderin list.
Máméan, the pass at the foot of Binn Chaonaigh, was a Lughnasadh site before becoming a Christian pilgrimage linked to Saint Patrick, whose arrival in 441 AD was recorded by folklorist Máire MacNeill. Faction-fighting and poitín drinking brought the pilgrimage into disrepute in the 19th century and it nearly died out by the mid-1900s. Fr. Micheál MacGréil revived it in 1979, and a small chapel, Cillín Phádraig, was built on the site in the 1980s.
The name Binn Chaonaigh is Irish for "peak of the moss". At the base of the mountain, the pass of Máméan holds a holy well, Saint Patrick's Bed (Leaba Phádraig), a circle of stones for the Stations of the Cross and a Mass Rock used in the 18th century when Catholicism was outlawed. Pilgrims gather three times a year: Saint Patrick's Day, Good Friday and the first Sunday in August.
The climb from Maumeen Pass to the summit takes about three hours and follows marked paths over moorland and rocky ridges. Proper footwear and weather protection are essential, as the mountain often becomes misty and windy.
Since 1975 the University College Galway Mountaineering Club has run the annual Maamturks Challenge Walk, a 25-kilometre route from Maam Cross to Leenaun with about 7,600 feet of ascent. The club mans a checkpoint at Maumeen beside Binn Chaonaigh, and the summit of Binn idir an dá Log marks 54% of the climbing completed.
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