The Twelve Bens (Na Beanna Beola)
A rugged range of quartzite peaks at the heart of Connemara.
The Twelve Bens rise sharply above the bogs and lakes of Connemara, their bare grey summits a magnet for hillwalkers. Benbaun, the highest, tops out at 729 m within Connemara National Park.
At a glance
- A range of twelve sharp peaks
- Benbaun is highest at 729 m
- Heart of Connemara National Park
In County Galway
The Twelve Bens is in County Galway, Gaillimh in Irish, which means “the stony river (the River Corrib)”.
More in Galway
- Aran Islands (Oileáin Árann): A group of three islands located at the mouth of Galway Bay.
- Connemara Gaeltacht (Conamara): The largest and best-known Irish-speaking region, a wild landscape of bog, mountain and Atlantic coastline.
- Lough Corrib (Loch Coirib): The Republic's largest lake, dividing Galway city from Connemara.
- Kylemore Abbey (Mainistir na Coille Móire): A romantic lakeside castle turned Benedictine abbey in Connemara.
- Dún Aonghasa (Dún Aonghasa): A spectacular prehistoric stone fort on the cliff-edge of Inis Mór.
Other places of this kind
- Carrauntoohil (Corrán Tuathail): The highest mountain in Ireland, standing at 1,038.6 meters.
- Croagh Patrick (Cruach Phádraig): Ireland's holy mountain, climbed by pilgrims for over a thousand years in honour of St Patrick.
- Slieve League (Sliabh Liag): Among the highest sea cliffs in Europe, rising almost 600 metres from the Atlantic in County Donegal.
- Benbulben (Binn Ghulbain): The dramatic flat-topped 'table mountain' of County Sligo, at the heart of Yeats Country and Irish legend.
- The Mourne Mountains (Beanna Boirche): A range of granite peaks in County Down, and the inspiration for songs and for the land of Narnia.
- The Sperrin Mountains (Sléibhte Speirín): A sweeping range of rounded hills across counties Tyrone and Derry, and one of the largest upland areas in Ireland.
The Irish name
The Irish form of The Twelve Bens is Na Beanna Beola. You can hear it spoken, and take apart names like it, in the Placename Explorer. The authoritative record for any Irish place-name is logainm.ie.