Twelve year old Dillon scales the heights with support of his Clogheen family

A twelve year old young man used to scaling the heights took on an almighty one day challenge to raise funds for children using Barrettsown House.
Dillon Lynch his dad, Clogheen man Pat O'Brien, uncle Johnny and aunt Josephine completed a sunrise to sunset assault on the highest points in the six Munster counties.
They climbed 2,564 meters, walked 45.37km and drove 613 km in a frantic dash around Munster on the longest day of the year, June 21 as part of the feat which saw them take on the highest points in Kerry, Cork, Clare, Waterford and Limerick/Tipperary in the one day.
Dillon is an intrepid walker and walking with his dad Pat , his uncle Johnny and aunt Josephine ( the O'Briens from Clogheen) is a hobby of his.
As part of his walking pastime Dillon is getting through the 188 high points in the country, a list set out by Kieron Gribbon.
“We would have been walking anyway so we decided to do the highest points in the six counties in Munster on the one day on the longest day of the year” said Dillon.
Dillon said he was very excited about the challenge as he had been thinking about it and planning it for a year beforehand.
“When we realised it was possible to do it in the one day we decided to go for it” said Dillon.
They started off with Carrauntoohil before going on to Knockboy(the highest point in Cork, Moylussa ( the highest point in Clare) Knockmealdown (the hightest point in Waterford and finishing up with Galtymore (the highest point in Tipperary and Limerick).
“We decided to get the toughest one out of the way first and went to Carrauntoohil to start it all off”, said Dillon.
“We were at top of Carrantouhill at 5.19am for the sunrise and finished on Galtymore 9.45 at sunset around 10pm” said Dillon.
“We managed the climbs in fourteen minutes under the target and we were from home to home in twenty four hours. It was fantastic just to get it done in the one day.I tried to get up out of bed early the next day but I fell down with the exhaustion and went back to bed for a while” said Dillon.
A total of €2,400 was raised for Barrettstown House as a result of the sunrise to sunset challenge they took on.

Dillon said they had a sponsor for each climb (The Old Convent sponsored the highest Tipp point) and he thanked them and everybody who donated.
“We picked Barrettstown because they help kids my age. My cousin used to work there and he told me all about the good work that they do there for young people” said Dillon.
Dillon and his father Pat will continue to tick off the remaining high point targets.
After doing the sunrise to sunset challenge they have now only eight of the 63 high points in Munster left (the 63 Munster high points are art of the 188 high points in Ireland as part of the Kieran Gribbon list.
Outside of walking Dillon enjoys karate.
He is a member of the Kildorrery club, where he lives with his father Pat, mother Gillian Lynah and sister Rachel who joins him for some of the walks.
Dillon is off to Prague this October to represent Ireland in karate, adding another high point to his life.