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county tops challenge
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mr spuckler wrote: »so i've been away since i did knockboy and am just back today...
where loughboy, cork, 706m, county top no. 11
when 25 may 2013
distance forgot GPS
ascent forgot GPS
weather dry and fairly clear
how it went i suppose you could say well! the furthest trip for a county top to date was made even longer by a diversion to athlone for a round of golf on the friday. a 3 hour plus trip to clonakilty followed on the friday night ahead of the trip up to knockboy on the saturday. and what a trip! priests leap has to be one of the coolest roads i've ever driven in ireland, single track with grass frequently down the middle only covers the half of it, the steepness was added to by the twists and several humps over which you could see nothing but bonnet and sky! that becomes fairly disconcerting when the road drops away very steeply to the side and you literally have no idea as to where the road goes over the hump. driving heaven for me!
the car park at the top marks the border between cork & kerry and the hike simply involves following the line of the fence across the road from there. the terrain is fairly soft in parts but for the most part is fine and it's really a relatively easy hike, particularly as the only navigation involves following a fence the whole way to the top! although as a picture below suggests, perhaps you should be prepared to deviate from the fence from time to time! the views from the top were really good, looking back towards bantry bay and east into cork also. some of the surrounding hills are also quite impressive with the one in the photo below particularly standing out in a geographical sense that i just couldn't possibly explain!
i was accompanied on this hike by my girfriend, who has now done 6 of them with me so far. she / we might remember this one more than most though as we only went and got engaged at the peak
sure the rest of the peaks will be much easier than the nerve filled climb i had on this one!
for reasons entirely unrelated plans have changed a bit so i think i need to work out a new plan of attack for the remaining county tops for the rest of the year. i had planned on a grand assault of the northern part of the country over a week of touring but that may not now happen, meaning more out and back trips than previously planned sure it's all part of the challenge 
4 pics below this time, 1 is the road up the priests leap, 2 the surrounding hills, 3 the point where you should step away fromn the fence and 4 the view from the top!
Congrats on the engagement. Wonder is this the first engagement on a County Top?0 -
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where trostan, antrim, 551m, county top no. 12
when 15 jun 2013
distance 6.03km
ascent 355m
weather wet wet wet!
how it went the rain on the way up through the glens was terrible, we passed a number of young people out hiking / camping as part of the duke of edinburgh award challenge who looked about as miserable as people could be! i couldn't even offer them a helping hand by way of a lift because there were too many of them! but even such poor weather couldn't hide the stunning scenery on the coast road north of belfast and later the road through the glens of antrim en route to trostan. this really is a beautiful part of the island and just another to add to the list of places to come back to. having stopped for lunch in harry's of cushendall (heartily recommended btw) and seen some charity cyclists coming in and causing 'caution wet floors' to be put up, we were both well fueled and hugely apprehensive as we hit the road ahead of our hike. as we changed in the car ahead of the stroll we couldn't even hear the radio over the sound of rain hitting the roof of the car so it was an incredible relief that we then managed to get almost no rain for our entire hike!
the route itself was saturated and there were signs that many of the deepish streams were temporary in nature, such was the amount of additional water flowing down from the hills. the actual rivers were really loud also, so much so that much of the drive & hike were punctuated by a lot of open mouthed gaping at the amount of water crashing down! while the low clouds limited visibility somewhat, the presence of frequent path markers made navigation a doddle although the first fence crossing was much further into the hike than expected, probably a good hour in. the top of the hill was sightly confusing in that you hit two small stone cairns before the peak...thankfully we had read enough in advance to be aware that the true peak was further up the way. with the clouds as thick as they were, we could just as easily have headed back down unaware that we'd missed it! the terrain at the top was quite unusual in that it was a kind of soft stony soil and a real contrast against the boggy ground for 95% of the route and also a first on my county tops so far.
so my first ulster county top done! some pics, 1 shows the rain (and scenery!) on the way up through the glens and 2 the small cairns before the peak...
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where slieve gullion, armagh, 573m, county top no. 13
when 16 jun 2013
distance 5.33km
ascent 293m
weather almost dry but quite cloudy!
how it went this was one of the highlights of the challenge so far, a relatively short walk with stunning views of the surrounding countryside, a gorgeous drive up to the starting point and the passage tomb under the cairn made for a pretty unique way to round off the first half of my county tops challenge! having driven down from templepatrick on sunday morning through the massive security lockdown on the route the G8 leaders were taking it was a pleasure to arrive into the quiet confines of the forest park at slieve gullion. from the main car park it's about a 2 mile drive to the car park at the bottom of the walk - for anyone else doing this only walk from the main car park if you fancy a long walk! the drive is part of an 8 mileish loop which is pretty cool, some great scenery and testing stretches of road!
but enough about driving, our walk started across the road from the car park and took us up a very clear and newish looking path the whole way to the top, passing the old stone shelter en route. as we climbed more and more views of our surroundings revealed themselves although the cloud cover often limited views up towards the mournes
the cairn at the summit was a delight, with the passage a fantastic feature. you really have to crouch to get in but it opens up and allows plenty of standing space inside. after we'd faffed about there we then broke from our intended straight up and down walk and headed across to the second cairn and lake about 10 / 15 minutes across from the main peak, they just looked so damn appealing! this is a very different walk across quite boggy ground and involves some careful stepping across ponds so as not to get soaked. not too much of a challenge like...the view back from the lower cairn is cool as it shows just how the lake almost hangs at the edge of the hill, the ground falls away very quickly from the lake side.
on arriving back to the car the drive back to the main road was more of the same from the drive up, in summary a pleasure!
so 13 down, 13 to go by the half way point in the year. this was definitely one of my favourites to date, with slieve foye, lough crew and galtymore probably the others which stand out most. i'm really enjoying the challenge, the touring and the exploring of parts of the country i've rarely if ever been to. i'm a bit apprehensive about the long trips ahead as i've done all the convenient ones already so i expect most from here on in will see me doubling up over weekends. regardless it's a great excuse for getting outdoors almost every weekend...i've almost entirely stopped sitting around watching tv of a weekend afternoon and feel great - along with the 13 county tops i've climbed on foot i've also climbed kippure on my bike! back on foot i've been up croagh patrick twice, had an aborted attempt at lugnaquilla, several shorter hikes around dublin & wicklow and maintained a decent level of training towards climbing an alpine pass on the bike later in the year!
next up (i think) is moylussa in 2 weeks time and then carrauntoohill in the middle of july.
some pictures from the weekend, 1 of a paraglider about to land beside the car park, 2 was my view towards the mournes and 3 the lake by the lower cairn
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where carrauntoohil, kerry, 1039m, county top no. 14
when 13 jul 2013
distance 14.03km
ascent 938m
weather glorious!
how it went it was a pretty amazing day all round to be honest, gorgeous weather, good craic and my first climb of carrauntoohil! we hit off at 10am from cronins yard with our guide don as part of a group of 18 or so and slowly wandered up the lower stretches, with carrauntoohil immediately looming large ahead. our guide told us that we were going to be heading up brother o'sheas gully and back down the devil's ladder. despite having read quite a bit about the mountain in advance i really had little idea of exactly what was ahead and the contrast between wandering across boggy patches, climbing up steep rocky paths and then up a very short (what i'm gonna call!) rock face provided great variety ahead of the bigger challenges ahead. due to the size of our group we stopped regularly to wait for people to catch up and had plenty of breaks en route as a result. hitting up o'sheas gully meant climbing 3 separate steep stretches with a short plateau at the top of each and the third of these had us scrambling up an extremely steep stretch which opened out onto amazing views across towards caher and down to lough eagher. seeing huge numbers of people across the way on the ridge on caher heading towards carrauntoohil, our guide told us about the looped walk from the lake which might be one that i do next summer. the large numbers of people on the mountain, good weather aside, were due to a sponsored hike for concern, meaning that our time at the peak was shared with at least 100 people! it was slightly bizarre being at the highest point in the country with so many people! after a nice half hour or so at the peak, we hit down towards the devil's ladder. the thing that hit us straight away was that this would be a very tough ascent, with a constant steep incline from the top of the ladder, not to mention the ladder itself! having read so much about the devil's ladder, it didn't disappoint although i reckon this was what left my legs in pieces for the following days!
oddly for all of the other joys and highlights of the day, top of the list was taking off my boots and dipping my feet in a stream right beside the car park at the end of the day. bliss!
some pics, the view back towards lough gouragh and lough callee on the way up
the view of carrauntoohil with brother o'sheas gully on the right
crowds at the top
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where moylussa, clare, 532m, county top no. 15
when 14 jul 2013
distance 10.28km
ascent 487m
weather just as glorious as the previous day!
how it went we only decided on the sunday morning that this might be a good idea, ignoring the stiffness from the previous day. apart from the pain as we put on our gear at the car park, my boots were still soaking wet, i forgot that i'd walked through a deep stream towards the bottom of carrauntoohil to cool my feet down! thankfully the boots and my feet became as one pretty quickly on the climb, though the stiffness never left me! the walk itself is really nice, lower down especially. from the car park, you head straight uphill through narrow trails, skipping the longer winding forest roads as a result. the trails themselves are very pretty but it's when you emerge to a view over lough derg that you really appreciate your surroundings. on a day like this there were numerous small boats, cruisers, jetskis and kayaks on the lake below but it was the colour of the lake and it's surroundings which really caught the eye. the routes we'd read about suggested that a boggy stretch, which is very soft in the winter time, would need to be crossed. after the recent weather the biggest challenge this presented was the height of the grass / plants, the ground was bone dry! however as we got close to the peak we could see that a new road has been built around the forest area which means that you can now entirely avoid the boggy stretch if you wish, which we did on the way back down! the final climb to the top was steep, which would have been fine were it not for my legs of lead! the top is marked by a coillte stone and while i've read that there are 2 peaks at the same elevation, i wasn't in any state to be searching out the second!
typically enough, with tired minds and bodies, we took a wrong turn on the descent, which landed us back down on the main road and meant that we had to climb back up to the car park...typical!
anyway that's 15 down, great success! cycling training takes over for the next couple of weeks, hopefully august bank holiday will see sawel and errigal completed!
some pics...
back down the trail and across lough derg
view from the top
take this road to avoid crossing the bog!
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where sawel, derry & tyrone, 678m, county top no. 16
when 02 aug 2013
distance 4.77km
ascent 348m
weather bloody windy
how it went heading out to do this the day after tornadoes had been promised in dublin, it was always likely to be a bit on the breezy side. those fears were heightened when i looked out the window in dublin on friday morning and saw the trees leaning at a precarious angle and confirmed the closer we got to the start of our first hike of the weekend. thankfully i'd prepared for the hike by carefully managing my nutrition in advance, the highlight of this being the fairly terrible breakfast roll i got in an unspecified motorway service station en route. €5 incredibly well spent. a largely unremarkable 3 hour drive saw us to the start point on sperrin road, although the last 15 or 20 mins did take us through some really scenic countryside, including the fantastic drive up sperrin road itself.
the quality of my morning feast came back to haunt me as we started our hike, with my legs feeling completely empty and really worrying me considering my plans for the weekend. the ground levelled out a bit after the initial steep stretch and thankfully my legs slowly warmed up as we worked our way along. the wind buffeted us non-stop all the way up and back down, making it hard to stand up at times. wind aside the route was very straightforward as you only need to follow the fence the whole way, the underfoot conditions do vary though and care is required or you'll end up knee deep in some innocent looking puddle!
when we'd descended, we made our way to dunfanaghy for a stroll on the beach and a drive around horn head. pretty damn nice day all round!
the first view of sawel with sperrin road on the right
the trig pillar and stone circle
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where mount errigal, donegal, 751m, county top no. 17
when 03 aug 2013
distance 4.45km
ascent 508m
weather irish weather, wind, sunshine, rain!
how it went this was a climb we'd been looking forward to ever since i decided to do this challenge. however, having seen it feature more than once on the rte series covering mountain & sea rescues last year, i was worried that it could be a pretty sketchy climb! combine that with how my legs were on sawel the previous day and my enthusiasm wasn't as high as it might have been otherwise! however all of that went out the window once we reached the stoney stretch of the climb and hit up at a rate of knots. our route from the car park had taken us to the right of the stream until we hit a stone cairn, then across some boggy-ish ground until the point where the defined path starts. it was at this point that we passed a group of schoolkids who we were to meet again later... legs cured from the previous day, we really flew up the climb to the peak. much of the climb reminded us of croagh patrick, the steep ascent, the loose rocks & stones and the wind! the peak however was a completely different beast to anything i've previously seen, it really is a very small area, while one man's pass across to the northwest top is worth the climb in itself. while i imagine that the breeeze at that height is rarely weak, we struggled to stand up when crossing the pass! the peak was possibly my favourite to date, with a combination of the wind when crossing the pass and the quite incredible views really making it one to remember.
on our way back down we passed the groups of schoolkids who were stopped for a snack. while we were chatting to one of their guides / group leaders one of the kids went chasing a pack of crisps that had blown away in the wind. only for the quick reactions of the guide who reached her before a sharp drop, it could have been pretty grim but thankfully no harm was done apart from a stern talking to!
thoroughly pleased with ourselves, we headed south towards sligo and more county tops!
looming large
me on the northwest peak
the sculpture at the car park paying tribute to jason black, the first donegal man to summit everest
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where truskmore & truskmore east, sligo & leitrim, 647m, county top no. 18
when 04 aug 2013
distance 8.89km
ascent 457m
weather varied between cloud and sunshine
how it went we'd read (in the book covering the county tops by kieron gribbon) that this takes 2 1/2 to 4 hours and having been at both ends of estimates on previous hills we aimed for an early start and rolled up to the starting point at about 10am, worried that we might lose the entire day to the hike! with quite heavy cloud cover, the mast on top of truskmore was frequently out of sight but even the clouds couldn't hide the unappealing access road which could best be described as 'meh'
hopping over the gate, a pretty constant grind awaits, with an average gradient of just over 10% for the 4km hike to the summit. the panicked scattering of the somewhat nervous sheep (maybe it's me, not them?) and the surrounding countryside did provide some relief from the monotony of the road, especially when the clouds lifted from the nearby hills. the view across the gleniff valley is quite a sight, while clear views across benbulben and out to the coast also revealed themselves from time to time.
on reaching the top, unfortunately industrialisation is the name of the game. obviously i expected the mast but i didn't really expect the scarring to the surrounding land. i'm not sure if it's currently a building site or if this is just the way they've left it after recent site works, either way it's not a great way to leave the site in an otherwise largely untouched place.
climbing down off my soapbox, we found our way to the trig pillar and then across to the cairn marking the leitrim county high point. i must admit it was odd being at a county high point on a slope! another first occurred on our way back down as we both got bored of the strain of slowing ourselves down and proceeded to jog most of the descent, in full hiking gear. slightly overheating by the time we hit the car we'd done it in 1:50 with a lot of wandering around and giving out at the top taking a good chunk of that
on the way back to sligo we stopped by glencar lake and waterfall, a really surprising treat not too far off the beaten track. a trip out to the beach at enniscrone for the afternoon resulted in a thoroughly worn out pair with 1 county top still to go!
view from the slopey leitrim county top
summing up the hike, the cairn, the mast and a fleeing sheep!
sunset at strandhill
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where corrie mountain (seltanasaggart) roscommon, 422m, county top no. 19
when 05 aug 2013
distance 4.89km
ascent 114m
weather cloudy but dry
how it went after my mini rant about the damage done to the top of truskmore, this possibly wasn't the best place to visit next! having done 3 hikes in 3 days and slept in a tent for 3 nights in a row, i was also more ready for my bed than a stroll through a windfarm...if only i'd known what i discovered on the drive afterwards, i pretty much could have driven to the top
anyway, walk i did and while this hill is in quite a nice area with good views over lough allen, the surroundings very much play second fiddle to the windfarm which just dominates everything. i don't want to come across too negative but it really is just an industrial site, again with no real visible attempt to return the site to the original state post construction.
the route we took was up an old access road, which can be quite rough in places. it winds around the windfarm, gradually revealing the scale of the installation and at one point takes you under the spinning arms of a turbine. i'm man enough to admit that this almost scared the bejaysus out of me!! i knew it was safe and the blades were spinning far above me but there's a stretch of about 30m where you're looking at this thing spinning above your head and it doesn't result in a warm fuzzy feeling! having located the small cairn before retracing our steps to the car, we then drove past the new access road which doesn't appear to have a barrier on it, might be worth taking this route up instead!
i think that this place is worth a visit, if for no reason other than to see the effects of this kind of installation up close. between the noise from the spinning turbines and the residual impact on the landscape, it certainly creates a vastly different impression than when just seeing the giant spinning fins from afar.
so 19 down, 7 to go. we're planning on 4 trips to complete the set, waterford & kilkenny, mayo & galway, cavan / fermanagh & monaghan and down. i'm thinking i might leave slieve donard until last in the hope that i might get to climb it when there's snow at the peak towards the end of the year however for now, due to holiday plans etc, there probably won't be any more hikes until late august or early september
very much a first, a digger at the roscommon county top!
the well hidden stone cairn
the noise of the turbines drove this lad potty
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where slieve donard, down, 850m, county top no. 20
when 15 sep 2013
distance 9.39km
ascent 851m
weather a bit blowy!!
how it went this was a while ago to be remembering! i've been away and stupidly busy at work so haven't had a chance to catch up on posting here have done 3 since and will try to catch up on these over the next few days.
there was no plan to this one, i woke up on a windy sunday morning and decided to head on up and knock donard on the head. of course i made a stop en route at the applegreen on the M1 for a sneaky fueling breakfast roll, they've been a staple of this challenge! it rained on and off on the way up and started again just as we left the car park to hit up the climb from newcastle village. heading through the forest on the lower stretches we were overheating to the point of taking off our jackets but as soon as we exited they were back on as were suddenly exposed to the harshness of the wind and rain on open ground! we ended up having to step into a forest to shelter for a few minutes out of the worst of it, such was the severity...once that eased off we hit on up towards the mourne wall where we took a break. as much a break from the wind as for food, i was disappointed to see a good bit of rubbish lying around, that's a type of ignorance i'll never understand.
anyway, feeling like the stretch to that point was much easier than when i'd done it before we hit for the top and i very quickly remembered just how steep that ramp was! my favourite memory of the whole climb was being blown up the final stretch, my feet were literally barely touching the ground for the last couple of hundred metres!! at least the wind served some purpose...
however after sheltering up top for a few mins i kinda forgot about the wind and nearly got blown over as soon as i stood up! the wind then became my nemesis as i had to work hard to descend back down from the top. thankfully on the way back down the weather cleared, opening the views across newcastle and beyond. back to dublin that evening knowing that i;d done number 20 ahead of being away for a few weeks was a good feeling!
posing near the top of the cairn!
the view back down towards newcastle
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where brandon hill, kilkenny, 515m, county top no. 21
when 19 oct 2013
distance 5.12km
ascent 385m
weather very windy as has been typical of late!
how it went i saw / see this as the start of the finishing straight, with this weekend covering kilkenny and waterford and another 2 knocking the last 4 hikes on the head. combining this with not having been out hiking for 5 or 6 weeks, i was pretty giddy heading south towards brandon hill! that was soon knocked out of me however as the heavens rightly opened while i was driving down the motorway, so much so that i wondered was i being reckless overtaking everyone at less than 100kph!
having erred by doing a previous hike on an empty stomach, we knocked into a pub in bagenalstown which served more food on a plate than any normal man (or woman) could eat in 1 go! cottage pie with turnip and cabbage and roast potatoes and mash and the chips which i declined was a dose of food i just couldn't handle!! the mound of food initially made me feel like i'd an extra couple of litres of water in my camelbak when we eventually started hiking!
from the food mountain it was on to brandon hill and the shock of walking uphill again after so long. the walk itself was quite straightforward, following the edge of the forest for much of the way. the couple of steep ramps really knocked the wind out of me but i suspect if i'd been doing more recently that shouldn't have been the case. i'd read in advance about the various structures scattered at the peak but even still was surprised by how much was there! aside from the cairn there was a concrete shelter, a stone circle type thing, a little pillar with a sign pointing out the surrounding landmarks and a ridiculous lump of a cross!! the cross didn't look in the best nick, with various spotlights having fallen from their perches. would be a strange sight to see it lit up at night-time...
from brandon hill it was on to clonmel for the night ahead of knockmealdown the following day...
an eerie sign for the cross on the way up
a little panorama from the top, including that pesky cross!
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mr spuckler wrote: »where brandon hill, kilkenny, 515m, county top no. 21
when 19 oct 2013
distance 5.12km
ascent 385m
weather very windy as has been typical of late!
how it went i saw / see this as the start of the finishing straight, with this weekend covering kilkenny and waterford and another 2 knocking the last 4 hikes on the head. combining this with not having been out hiking for 5 or 6 weeks, i was pretty giddy heading south towards brandon hill! that was soon knocked out of me however as the heavens rightly opened while i was driving down the motorway, so much so that i wondered was i being reckless overtaking everyone at less than 100kph!
having erred by doing a previous hike on an empty stomach, we knocked into a pub in bagenalstown which served more food on a plate than any normal man (or woman) could eat in 1 go! cottage pie with turnip and cabbage and roast potatoes and mash and the chips which i declined was a dose of food i just couldn't handle!! the mound of food initially made me feel like i'd an extra couple of litres of water in my camelbak when we eventually started hiking!
from the food mountain it was on to brandon hill and the shock of walking uphill again after so long. the walk itself was quite straightforward, following the edge of the forest for much of the way. the couple of steep ramps really knocked the wind out of me but i suspect if i'd been doing more recently that shouldn't have been the case. i'd read in advance about the various structures scattered at the peak but even still was surprised by how much was there! aside from the cairn there was a concrete shelter, a stone circle type thing, a little pillar with a sign pointing out the surrounding landmarks and a ridiculous lump of a cross!! the cross didn't look in the best nick, with various spotlights having fallen from their perches. would be a strange sight to see it lit up at night-time...
from brandon hill it was on to clonmel for the night ahead of knockmealdown the following day...
an eerie sign for the cross on the way up
a little panorama from the top, including that pesky cross!
Good write-up. I was up there on my own in mist and that cross frightened the bejaysus outta me! Have you many left to do?0 -
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mr spuckler wrote: »haha i'm not surprised! did knockmealdown the following day so just 4 left to do now
slieve beagh east
cuilcagh
ben baun
mweelrea
i've yet to figure out when exactly i'll be able to do them and with the winter ahead i might need some luck to get all completed by the end of the year. i'm away for 3 weekends in a row from next week which doesn't help! although the 3rd of those is in tipperary and might see a second summit of galtymore if i'm lucky.
the news from mweelrea this week is also quite sobering and reinforces the importance for me of having a good day for that climb.
I have just happened across your diary and have really enjoyed your write-ups.
I have to come out and admit that I'm at this lunacy myself and just a few peaks left:
Sligo/Roscommon/Leitrim
Kildare
& Cuilcagh
I was at Mweelrea & Benbaun two weeks back and was very sorry to hear the news about Geoff, so needless to say I agree with you there. Conditions for the search sounded very challenging. It was very brave work by the volunteers.
I am based in Dublin, I could PM when I am going to Cavan or vice versa if you like.
Not to steal your thunder but I have a little tumblr photo blog here:
http://countyhighpoints.tumblr.com/
(it's sort-of in reverse order)
I'm raising a few euro's for the Peter McVerry Trust in the process. I'll start hassling everyone when I only have Kildare left!0 -
I have just happened across your diary and have really enjoyed your write-ups.
I have to come out and admit that I'm at this lunacy myself and just a few peaks left:
Sligo/Roscommon/Leitrim
Kildare
& Cuilcagh
I was at Mweelrea & Benbaun two weeks back and was very sorry to hear the news about Geoff, so needless to say I agree with you there. Conditions for the search sounded very challenging. It was very brave work by the volunteers.
I am based in Dublin, I could PM when I am going to Cavan or vice versa if you like.
Not to steal your thunder but I have a little tumblr photo blog here:
http://countyhighpoints.tumblr.com/
(it's sort-of in reverse order)
I'm raising a few euro's for the Peter McVerry Trust in the process. I'll start hassling everyone when I only have Kildare left!
definitely PM me or i'll do likewise if i haven't heard from you. i'm away for the next 3 weekends though so will be late november / early december before i make it up that direction.
great photos on the blog btw, lugnaquilla looks incredible!0 -
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where knockmealdown, 794m, county top no. 22
when 20 oct 2013
distance 4.81km
ascent 558m
weather miserable! dry & windy to start with, wet wet wet to finish
how it went this was a tough one, as i kinda expected it to be. a bit of a slog of a climb across largely trackless ground which unusually enough was notable only for the number of sheep that fled in terror as we approached. my reputation preceded me it seemed!! given that this was a few weeks ago i'm struggling for detail but i do remember that the drive down from clonmel that morning was fantastic, narrow country roads first off followed by a gorgeous drive across the mountain to the start of the climb. i suspect that if i was to read back through these posts i've mentioned the quality of roads / drives a few times...a good insight into my personality there we passed a large group of mountain rescue people on an exercise, thankfully i've never needed their services yet but it's such a massive reassurance to have them nearby and seeing them giving their free time for the benefit of others is pretty damn humbling.
anyway as we left the car-park we met a local gent who informed us of the many wonderful walks to be done in the general area...does he not know how many i'm already meant to return to?!
leaving the car-park you head up the road for a short stretch before crossing the ditch at an arbitrary point, crossing a couple of streams before starting the rise. as we headed up we fought our way through the long grass, i'm not sure if it was the struggles of the ground underfoot or our general waining fitness but we paused for breath at regular intervals, only to see that the peak didn't seem to be getting much closer! it took about 1h 15mins to get there and as soon as we did the cloud completely enveloped us, almost hiding the trig pillar that i was standing beside from view. it had been a long time since i'd been out in those kinds of conditions and reminded me of one of the big dangers in this kind of activity. getting back to the car, my GPS was far more use than the map or compass in my bag, one of my goals for next year will definitely be to complete the mountan skills courses and hopefully equip myself far better for those situations. in this case the GPS proved it's worth and thankfully got us back to civilisation without any drama.
not many pics taken that day, first below is the view towards the peak from the road and the second is the gathering gloom by the trig pillar
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where cuilcagh, cavan & fermanagh, 665m, county top no 23, 08 dec 2013
distance 10.29km
ascent 460m
weather more misery!!
how it went this was a bit of a squeeze, needing to do both cuilcagh and slieve beagh in a single day in order to keep on track to finish this challenge by the end of the year! having stayed just outside derrylin on the shores of lough erne the previous night, we arrived and left in darkness as another trip ended without getting time to explore the area. unfortunately this has been a bit of a recurring theme during the year but it's been the only way possible for me to get it done. anyway, with a sense of trepidation we hit for cuilcagh, with heavy cloud cover and a howling wind knocking along for company.
parking at the bottom of the mast access road, you hit on up the road for about 1km before arriving onto open ground. from here it's a long boggy slog as you aim for the peak. we found the defined path which has cliffs falling away to your right hand side but which makes the navigation far easier and takes you most of the way to the peak. this was a huge help as there really was limited visibility at all times, along with the aforementioned wind, rain, hail etc. the climb took about 1:45 and such was the misery up top that we waited till we had descended a good bit before tucking into food and hot drink!! en route back towards the car we met a group of 3 who were on their way up. one of them had just finished the county tops while another was (i think) 17-18 through. the other lad didn't speak so no idea what his story was!! very helpfully, they told us that the GPS co-ordinates in kieron cribbon's book for the start of slieve beagh were to be ignored as they're incorrect, telling us to aim for three county hollow. armed with that knowledge we ignored the sign-post for three county hollow and followed the sat-nav inot the abyss, where it tried to send us across the bog! so we drove back to three county hollow...good to know for anyone yet to do it...a good 3 hour hike behind us on a sunday morning in december, we made the hour long drive to slieve beagh for another stroll!!
it wasn't much of a day for photos!
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