The Twelve Bens or Twelve Pins, also called the Benna Beola (), is a mountain range of mostly sharp-peaked quartzite summits and ridges in the Connemara National Park in County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The widest definition of the range includes the Garraun Complex to the north as well as several isolated peaks to the west, and is designated a Special Area of Conservation. The highest point is Benbaun at . The range is a popular location for hill-walking activities with the 16–kilometre 8–9 hour Glencoaghan Horseshoe (Gleann Chóchan), considered one of the best ridge-walks in Ireland. Topographically, the range is partnered with the Maumturks range to the east of the Inagh valley (a Western Way route); and both share a common geology being largely composed of metamorphic marine rocks, being predominantly resistant quartzite but with deposits of schists in the valleys (known as Connemara Dalradian rocks). Naming "Ben" an anglicized translation of the Irish language word "Binn", meaning "peak". According to Irish academic Paul Tempan, "An odd thing about the Twelve Bens of Connemara is that nobody seems to know exactly which are the twelve peaks in question", and noting that there are almost 20 peaks with "Ben" or "Binn" in their name. Tempan notes that term "twelve peaks" can be at least dated to the Irish historian Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh, whose writings in 1684 said: "On the north-west of Ballynahinsy [Ballynahinch], are the twelve high mountaines of Bennabeola, called by marriners the twelve stakes [stacks], being the first land they discover as they come from the maine [sea]", but he did not list them. The most common list of the twelve peaks in question are the peaks with an elevation above 500 metres in the core range, and that are not considered subsidiary peaks (e.g. they have a non-trivial prominence, and have been traditionally noted as peaks on historic maps, per below). Tempan notes the issue of "twelve" does not arise in the Irish language name as they are simply labelled "Na Beanna Beola", which translates as "the peaks of Beola". Beola was a leader of the Fir Bolg, and a giant; his name appears in the Connemara village Toombeola, or Irish language "Tuaim Beola". Geography The Twelve Bens range is a core massif of 22 peaks above in elevation, centred around the highest peak in the range, Benbaun . To the north of this core