Elders and children, believers and hikers, tourists and locals. They come with walking sticks and hiking boots, guidebooks and rosary beads. They come for the sweeping views of Clew Bay, for the fresh air and camaraderie, for a day of fun — and penance.
Trekking to the summit in the saint's footsteps, some climb in their bare feet, pausing at three "stations" along the way to recite prayers. There is a small oratory on the summit where mass is celebrated on certain feast days and on the last Sunday in July — "Reek Sunday" — traditionally the holiest day to climb, when up to 30,000 visitors flock to the slopes.
All around, thick Irish brogues mingle with languages and accents from around the world. A family of four from Colorado huffed up the final leg, the father celebrating his 55th birthday, his teenage daughter dreaming of the spa that awaited when they got back to their hotel.
They passed a trio of twentysomething Gypsies from County Cavan, hiking barefoot in honour of two toddlers from their community who had drowned in a lake earlier in the summer.
A German tourist with a backpack helped his mother scale the rocks. A young Englishwoman wiggled her pink toenails and boasted about climbing barefoot just to prove to her boyfriend that "fancy toes" could do it. An older Polish couple picnicked at the summit with ham sandwiches and flasks of hot tea.
Although the mountain is just 764m high, even seasoned hikers are surprised by its steepness and difficulty. Over the years, climbers have eroded the original trail, so what remains is rocky, unforgiving and often slippery terrain.
The last leg, before the summit, is a formidable cliff of rolling rocks and shale known as "the scree". Casualties are common and every year local rescue squads airlift numerous injured climbers from the slopes.
But that doesn't deter pilgrims who have been flocking to the site since ancient times.
Long before Patrick, the Celts celebrated the harvest festival of Lughnasa here, beginning in early August. The sacred mountain was considered important for woman who would sleep on the summit during Lughnasa to encourage fertility.
Today St Patrick is big business in the area with dozens of statues, holy wells and shrines. Westport, a pretty port town about 10km from the mountain, is filled with stores selling memorabilia and the wooden staffs that are ubiquitous on the mountain. Westport was also home to 16th century pirate queen Grace O'Malley, who vies with Patrick for local attention and lore.
At Ballintubber Abbey, 19km from Westport, Patrick founded a church and baptised his earliest converts. The present abbey has been in daily use as a church for nearly 800 years. Ballintubber also marks the beginning of an ancient pilgrimage route (now called Tochar Phadraig) that winds for 35km over hills and fields, ending at Croagh Patrick.
But the mountain remains the big draw for pilgrims and tourists alike. At almost any time of the day, any time of the year, it is possible to make out a steady stream of climbers in the distance, inching their way toward the summit, hunched over their wooden crooks, little specks of humanity disappearing into the mist.
CHECKLIST
Getting there: Emirates flies from Auckland to Dublin, via Dubai. Westport is a three-hour drive from Dublin.
Further information: See ireland.com
- AAP
