Gaelforce Events story

Gaelforce West was set up in 2006 and was the brainchild of Jamie Young of Killary Adventure Co. It consisted of two events Gaelforce 6 and Gaelforce 12 and was run by a voluntary committee supported by Failte Ireland.  An adventure festival was also run in conjunction with the races for the first two years. In 2008 GF 12 was no longer run as enthusiasm for such a long and gruelling race was minimal. In 2010 GFW grew in numbers seeing 3,000 competitors take part.

Gaelforce Cycle West, a 24hour mountain bike and road bike race ran for the first time in 2009. This event saw 140 competitors cycle through the night on both road and mountain bike routes.

Gaelforce Events was set up in 2009 to bring these events under one brand umbrella. In 2010 we introduced two new events, the Connemara Adventure Challenge and the Turf Guy Challenge. The Connemara Adventure Challenge saw 900 competitors cover a 31km course over Connemara. Turf Guy, saw over 300 competitors complete a 10km course over coming a number of obstacles along the way. In 2011 we added another new event to our calendar Gaelforce North in Donegal. This saw over 400 competitors take on a great new 64km course.

For 2012 we are adding two great new courses to our events. Gaelforce North will see the additional of a new sprint course of 40km to go along with the 64km course. Gaelforce West will have an Extreme version which will see the country’s elite take on the tried and tested Gaelforce West course but will also have to conquer Mweelrea mountain and complete a 4km kayak.