Purple Mountain at high, is the 21st–highest peak in Ireland on the Arderin scale, and the 28th–highest according to the Vandeleur-Lynam scale. It is located in County Kerry, and is the highest point of the Purple Mountain Group.
Geology
Purple Mountain is composed of sandstone particles of various sizes which are collectively known as Old Red Sandstone. Old Red Sandstone has a purple-reddish colour, and has virtually no fossils. The colour gave its name to the mountain group. The composition of Old Red Sandstone is variable and contains quartz stones, mudstones, siltstones, and sandstone particles.
Geography
The Purple Mountain Group is described as a "heather–strewn" massif with five classified peaks at its centre: Purple Mountain, Purple Mountain NE Top and Shehy Mountain, Tomies Mountain , and Tomies North Top . The Purple Mountain Group is bounded to the west by the Gap of Dunloe, which separates it from MacGillycuddy's Reeks range. To the south and east are the Lakes of Killarney and to the north is the wide, flat valley of the River Laune. The eastern half of Purple Mountain is part of Killarney National Park. Within the national park, the lower slopes are covered in oak forests, some of which are remnants of those that covered Ireland before the arrival of humans. Purple Mountain's individual prominence qualifies it as a Marilyn, and its prominence is within 10 metres of the P600 prominence threshold of, which classes Purple Mountain as a "Sub–major" mountain. Purple Mountain meets the Arderin, Simm and Hewitt classifications. It ranks as the 12th–highest mountain in Ireland on the MountainViews Online Database, 100 Highest Irish Mountains, where the prominence threshold is 100 metres.
Name
Irish academic Paul Tempan wrote in his 2010 Irish Hill and Mountain Names, that Purple Mountain is "almost certainly a name coined in English". In his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Samuel Lewis wrote that Purple Mountain is "so called from the colour of the shivered slate on its surface". Tempan notes that the "Irish version looks like a back–translation from the English by OSI". Prior to the 19th–century, there are references to the massif being called Tomies, Tomish or Toomish mountain. Tempan notes that in The Ancient and Present State of the County of Kerry by Charles Smith, it is clear this name applied to the whole Purple Mountain Group. Other of 19th–century sources confirm this, and it explains why Purple Mountain is not marked on the 6" map, though Tomies and Shehy Mountain are. In Irish Names of Places, Patrick Weston Joyce writes that Tomies comes from the Irish Tuamaidhe, meaning two burial cairns on the summit. As Purple Mountain gained currency in the 19th century, the older name was relegated in status, and now refers to a lower peak of the group, Tomies Mountain.
Hill walking
The classic walk of Purple Mountain is the 14–kilometre 5–6 hour Gap of Dunloe Loop starting at Kate Kearney's Cottage and walking up the Gap of Dunloe road past Black Lough to the Head of the Gap; the route then follows the path east into the Purple Mountain massif, and then northeast up to Glas Lough, and then to Purple Mountain itself. From there, the route follows the ridge to Purple Mountain NE Top, Tomies Mountain, and Tomies North Top, and then returning to Kate Kearney's Cottage. A faster alternative to the classic loop–route is the 7–kilometre 3–4 hour route from the Head of the Gap up to Purple Mountain, and then retracing the path back down to the Head of the Gap. However, there is limited parking around the Head of the Gap area, and the best climbing between Purple Mountain and Tomies North Top is omitted; an alternative is a jaunting–car from Kate Kearney's Cottage to the Head of the Gap, from which the 9–kilometre 4–5 hour remaining Gap of Dunloe Loop route is completed. A third route is the 9–kilometre 4–5 hour route that starts from Kate Kearney's Cottage and directly ascends to Tomies North Top, via the gullies of Tomies Chimneys, with care needed to find the right paths through the heather to Tomies Chimneys. From there, Tomies Mountain and Purple Mountain are climbed, and the route is retraced to get back to the starting point of Kate Kearney's Cottage.
