Croaghaun

Not to be confused with Croghan Hill.

For Croaghaun in the Blackstairs Mountains, see Croaghaun, County Carlow.

Croaghaun
Highest point
Elevation
Prominence
Parent peak	None
Listing	Marilyn, Hewitt
Naming
Translation	little stack (Irish)
Geography
Location in Ireland
Location	Mayo, Republic of Ireland
Parent range	Achill Island
OSI/OSNI grid	F553060

Cliffs of Croaghaun, looking towards Achill Head

Croaghaun (Irish: Cruachán) is a mountain in County Mayo, Ireland. At 688 metres (2,257 ft), it has the highest sea cliffs in Ireland and Great Britain as well as the third highest sea cliffs in Europe (after Hornelen, Norway and Cape Enniberg, Faroe Islands).

Croaghaun is the most westerly peak of Achill Island, and its highest mountain. Its cliffs lie on the northern slope of the mountain. The cliffs at Croaghaun can only be seen by hiking around or to the summit of the mountain, or from the sea. They are part of a sequence of sheer rock faces which start south of Keem Bay and loop around the uninhabited north-west of the island, by Achill Head and Saddle Head, and east to Slievemore, occasionally dropping vertically into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Croaghaun cliffs are home to two families of peregrine falcons (RTÉ, 2008). September and October are the best time to see the fastest creatures on Earth here, as they teach their young to fly. Metamorphic, quartz-laden gems may be observed, along with Mediterranean heathers and the waters of the Atlantic. It is common to see shoals of bottle-nosed dolphins and basking sharks, once a source of revenue for Achill Island (BBC, 2009). Porpoises are found in large numbers. Killer whales, humpback whales, and other whales have been sighted.