Knocknamuck [Cnoc na Muc]

About Knocknamuck [Cnoc na Muc]

Situated in the Slieveardagh Hills on the Kilkenny-Tipperary border, this Marilyn offers a straightforward ascent through upland grazing and forestry. As the range high point, it rewards walkers with an expansive vista across the central plains, stretching south to the lonely profile of Slievenamon and the distant Galtee Mountains.

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Did You Know?

• •The name is an anglicisation of the Irish Cnoc na Muc, meaning 'Hill of the Pigs.' While wild boar are long gone from the Irish landscape, the name likely recalls a time when these slopes provided shelter and foraging for herds of swine.
• •Standing at the heart of the Slieveardagh Hills, the summit is the highest point of a range historically significant for 19th-century anthracite coal mining, with several old engine houses still visible in the surrounding lowlands.
• •The hill is a designated Marilyn, a classification indicating that it drops at least 150 metres in all directions; this topographical isolation ensures that the view south towards the volcanic-looking Slievenamon remains entirely unobstructed.
• •The ascent is unlikely to trouble a seasoned mountaineer, though the local gorse bushes are usually happy to provide a sharp, tactile reminder of the terrain for anyone wandering too far from the farm tracks.