Conor Pass
R560 · Dingle → Cloghane · Ireland
- Length
- 8 miles
- Drive time
- 25 min
- Type
- Technical road
- Region
- Ireland & the Isle of Man
Before you go: ⚠ Weight/width limits; single-track cliff section — check bus/campervan restrictions
Ireland's highest mountain pass: a shelf of single-track rock climbing out of Dingle with corrie lakes below and, on a clear day, half of Kerry laid out from the summit car park.
The R560 out of Dingle climbs to Ireland's highest mountain pass on a shelf of rock, with corrie lakes below and, from the summit car park, Brandon Bay and a lot of Kerry if the cloud lifts. The Dingle side is the easier approach; the north-east drop toward Cloghane is the narrow cliff section where two cars do not always pass. Weight limit 2 tonnes and length limit 7.2 m north-east of the summit car park — coaches, campervans and caravans are not a good idea and often not legal. Fuel in Dingle before you climb. O'Connor's in Cloghane is food at the far end.
The summit car park is the photograph and the turning point if your vehicle is too big to continue. Pedlar's Lake on the north side has a smaller pull-in. Go early; summer middays are hire cars meeting each other on the shelf.
Pair it with the rest of the Dingle peninsula, or with the Ring of Kerry and Healy Pass on the Kerry & Beara trip. Do not add a motorhome to this road because a sat-nav said it was shorter.
If you cannot reverse neatly on a cliff, this is not your road. The view from the car park is still the view. From Dingle to the summit is legal for more vehicles than the Cloghane drop; if in doubt, up from Dingle, park, turn round. Buses still appear. The corrie lakes are below you on the north side — a short walk from a pull-in, not a reason to halt on the shelf. Cloud sits on this pass as a habit. Cloghane is a village, not a services area; Dingle is where you still have choices.
Highlights of the Conor Pass
- Summit view over Brandon Bay
- Corrie lakes & waterfall
- Dingle town at the foot
Where to stop on the Conor Pass
- Dingle town fuel — Fill up in Dingle — no fuel over the pass until the Castlegregory side
- Conor Pass summit viewpoint — Car park at the 456 m crest of Ireland's highest surfaced pass — single-track with passing bays on the north side
- O'Connor's, Cloghane food — Family pub and guesthouse at the mountain's foot — over 150 years in the trade
Drive the Conor Pass
Open Conor Pass on the map → ⬇ Download GPX
GPX works with Garmin, TomTom, Beeline and most bike sat-navs. Free, no sign-up — these are indicative waypoints, so follow the road signs, not the arrow.
Plot it, add it to a club run with a meeting point and pit stops, then share the whole trip as one link. Free, no account, works offline.
Route research: Club road index
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