Irshalgad is a fortress located between

Matheran Matheran is an automobile-free hill station and a municipal council in the Karjat taluka of the Raigad district located in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Matheran is part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and one of the smallest hill ...

and

Panvel Panvel () is a city and taluka in Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. It is highly populated due to its closeness to Mumbai. Panvel is also governed for development purpose by the body of Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Panvel Municipal Corpor ...

in Maharashtra,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is a sister fort to

Prabalgad Prabalgad (also known as Muranjan, Pradhangad or Prabalmachi) is a fort located between Matheran and Panvel and comes under the Raigad District in the state of Maharashtra, India. The Prabalgad Fort stands at an elevation of in the Western ...

. The area of the fort is not large but there are several water cisterns cut from the rock. The nearest village is Irshalwadi.

Trekking to Irshalgad

Irshalgad is 6.5 km out and back trek located near Chauk railway station. Irshalgad pinnacle is an easy to moderate difficulty which takes 2 hour to ascend and 1.5 hour to descend. The road head, if travelling by your own vehicle is Nanivali village near Chowk town. Chowk town lies on NH4 that connects Panvel with Karjat. Chowk also has a train station (Station cod
CHOK
.
Pune - Bhusaval express
stops at Chowk train station. From Chowk, Nanivali village (the starting point of this trek) is a comfortable 2.3 kilometres walk. From Nanivali village you follow a wide well defined path till Irshalwadi village. The path climbs a steep ridge and then tapers to an easy ascend till Irshalwadi. From Irshalwadi village head towards a temple dedicated to a local deity and access the Irshalgad plateau via a west–east axis. The trek is child friendly till the pinnacle base. Nevertheless, there have been numerous fatalities while climbing the pinnacle.

References

Forts in Maharashtra {{Raigad-geo-stub