Markethill mountaineer, Oscar McKinney, has set yet another record after becoming the youngest recorded person to scale the 100 highest mountains in Ireland.
Oscar’s mum, Carolyn proudly says the youngster has been “climbing mountains since he was three-months-old” and – despite being diagnosed with epilepsy – he amazed hikers across the country when he became the youngest child to scale the high points of each of the 32 counties of Ireland in 2023.
Back then, the young trailblazer was just eight years and 355 days old. His attempt shaved 142 days off the previous record which had been set by Dillon Lynch in 2016, who was aged nine years and 132 days at the time.
And now – almost exactly two years to the day of his previous record – Oscar has become the youngest recorded person to complete the highest 100 peaks in Ireland.
Related: Markethill youngster becomes youngest child to scale 32 county high points of Ireland
Together with his mum, brother Jai and friends from Hiking Buddies NI, Oscar completed four summits in the Bluestack Mountains of Donegal on Saturday (September 20) with two of those peaks being on the ‘highest 100’ list and therefore signalling the end of his challenge.
Speaking to Armagh I of her son’s achievement, Carolyn said: “I worked on my highest 100 list first. I like to go up the mountains first before I take him just so I know where we are going and to make sure they are safe.”
Carolyn completed her highest 100 and then the Vandeleur-Lynam list in May 2025 and that provided her the free time to help Oscar finish his own challenge.
She added: “He had 44 left at the start of May and we spent the whole summer then finishing his list. It’s a lot of driving – you’re talking a twelve hour round trip going to Kerry so we were going away maybe for a week at a time. It was a lot of logistics and driving but it was nice to be able to spend the whole summer together.”
On the final day of his highest 100 list, a few of Oscar’s hiking buddies brought along gifts to mark the momentous occasion, Carolyn said. And, he also has an awards presentation to look forward to with the recording body, MountainViews.com in February 2026.
But the real treat came when he returned home.
Carolyn explained that very same day, Oscar – who is also an avid swimmer – got the additional good news that he had been selected to represent Ulster in the All Ireland Special Olympics Games in Dublin next year.
“He’s well pleased,” said Carolyn, who has also been assured of the potential longevity of her son’s record by fellow ramblers.
“A few people said he will probably remain the record holder for quite some time because there’s not too many children who would be climbing mountains like that!” she added. “A few of my friends from my hiking group are working on their 100 highest and they can’t get to it either as adults.”
And, there’s no sign of the intrepid Oscar slowing down.
Carolyn is in the latter stages of preparing for a trip to the world’s highest freestanding mountain, Kilimanjaro in 2026. After a meeting with her Kilimanjaro team last week, she said Oscar was “raging” that he didn’t get to go.
