The invention belongs to the technical field of catalysis, and relates to a catalyst for preparing 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol and a preparation method of the catalyst. The catalyst is characterized by being a load-type catalyst and mainly consisting of ruthenium, platinum and tin; the mass percent of the ruthenium in the catalyst is 0.3 to 3 percent, the mass percent of the platinum is 0.1 to 1 percent, and the mass percent of tin is 0.1 to 1 percent; an additive is one or more of ferric nitrate, cobalt nitrate and nickel nitrate, and the content of the additive is 0.1 to 20 percent; a carrier is silicon carbide. The preparation method adopts an immersion method and comprises the steps of dispersing 0.5g to 2g of active component precursor [PtRu5(CO)15(micro-SnPh2)(micro 6-C)] and 0.01g to 0.05g of additive in 200ml to 800ml of a mixed solution of dichloromethane and ethanol to obtain a mixture, placing the mixture into 0.2g to 1.0g of carrier SiC with granularity of 40 to 80 meshes under an inert atmosphere, stirring at the room temperature, vacuum drying, and vacuum roasting. According to the catalyst and the preparation method, only one hydrogenation catalyst and a single solvent are used, the one-step hydrogenation preparation is realized, the consumption of precious metal is small, the reaction yield is relatively high, the process is simple, the separation of middle products is avoided, and the consumption of resources and energy can be reduced.