'It had to be saved': New Croagh Patrick path opens after three years

The team consisted of Frank McMahon, David Doyle, Bernard Burke and Tulio de Jesus. Picture: Frank McMahon

A Limerick man who spent the last three years building by hand a new pathway up Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo says the mountain was “being thrashed and just had to be saved".

Frank McMahon was part of a team of five men who braced the elements to create a two-metre-wide pathway from the base of Ireland’s holy mountain, all the way to top, in order to prevent further erosion.

The team consisted of Frank McMahon, David Doyle, Bernard Burke and Tulio de Jesus. They were trained and guided by Scotland’s Matt McConway, who has over 30 years experience in this field.

Their work began in December 2020, and on Monday, after three-and-a-half-years of strenuous labour, the new pathway was opened to the public.

The men were hired after a stakeholder’s group, made up of Mayo County Council, the Department for Rural and Community Development, the Catholic Church, Mountaineering Ireland, Mayo Mountain Rescue, and Leave No Trace Ambassadors, identified the extent of the erosion.

“At the start we thought we’d never get it done, but we surprised ourselves,” Mr McMahon said.

But reflecting on their tremendous feat, Mr McMahon described the creation of the pathway as “heavy, heavy work.” “It was all done by hand, our only tools were pickaxes, crowbars, lump hammers, and shovels. It was all manual. There was no machinery, no cement, just pure physics, and compressions,” he said.

According to Mr McMahon, the men must have reached the top of the mountain over 400 times during the path’s construction, but he claims that the winter months were by far the most challenging.

“From November until March, you get hit by storm after storm on the west coast, and it’s quite cold. You also have snow and hailstones battering you, and there’s nowhere to hide,” he recalled.

Frank McMahon was part of a team of five men who braced the elements to create a two-metre-wide pathway from the base of Croagh Patrick, all the way to top, in order to prevent further erosion. Picture: Frank McMahon

During the summer months, the men worked 10-hour shifts from Monday to Thursday, starting at 7am and not clocking off until 5pm.

“We still did 40 hours a week, but we did it in four days which was great. We had three days off during the summer to let our bodies rest and recover,” he said.

Mr McMahon believes that the new pathway now provides a much improved and safer way to summit the mountain.

“Anyone who has climbed Croagh Patrick before will know how slippy and how loose the stone was, and just how dangerous the cone was.

“But now, it is solid under foot, there is no moving stone anymore,” he said.

The path is now wide enough to take climbers two abreast to the summit, and it also sports enough room to overtake other hikers comfortably, if needed. Picture: Frank McMahon

According to Mr McMahon, the new two-metre-wide path means that “nobody will be walking all over the mountain like they used to.” This will hopefully prevent future erosion and encourage more vegetation to grow.

The path is now wide enough to take climbers two abreast to the summit, and it also sports enough room to overtake other hikers comfortably, if needed.

One of Frank’s colleagues, David Doyle, will now stay on the project to maintain the pathway.

“David is going to keep everything intact; he’s going to ensure all our hard work isn’t undone,” he said.

Mr McMahon however has been unemployed since the project’s completion, but he has teased something new and exciting on the horizon.

“Matt and I have been looking at another project over on the Wicklow side, but the tender is only going out, so I can’t say too much about it yet,” he concluded.