Hike - taking in Silsean, Moanbane and Mullaghcleevaun?

unkel

Thinking of going out early tomorrow morning. One car only and don't have all day, so looking for the quickest route to take in above

Will I

1. park at Glenbride and hike up to Silsean, Moanbane, Billy Byrne's gap, Mullaghcleevaun and back

2. park at Ballyknockan and hike up to Silsean, Moanbane, Billy Byrne's gap, Mullaghcleevaun and back

Which is quicker, does anyone know distances, time taken and ascent roughly of these two or is there a quicker again hike I don't know about?

hmmm

The carpark at Ballynultagh gap and Balinagee Bridge are other options. I'd guess a circuit via Ballynultagh Gap would be quickest.

Alun

If you mean parking in Glenbride itself rather than at Balinagee Br. and walking up into Glenbride first, then I reckon that'd be the shorter of the two. Otherwise not much in it.

Only other alternative off the top of my head would be to park at Ballynultagh Gap and do Black Hill first and on the way back as well. Would mean doing Moanbane (or Silsean if you're using the EW map!) twice too as well.

unkel

Looks like I'll only have time for a 3 hour max hike, so anywhere around here is out. Will do it another time.

unkel

Managed to do it today. Lovely day for it too, and I was glad I didn't go up Lug as it did seem to be covered in clouds for most of the day while I had hazy sunshine after the early morning fog had gone

Tough walk though with wet rough underground, lots of bog and no paths whatsoever apart from the forest track where I started and the path on the final ascent to the summit of Mullaghcleevaun. Took me about 7 hours / about 25km with a few detours starting from Glenbride. Didn't quite manage to return to where I started (I'm not much of a stickler for precisely planning routes, sparingly use compass / only use gps when there's limited vision) - had a very hard descent down fields and had to walk for a bit on the road to get back to the car

CardinalJ

unkel wrote:

Managed to do it today. Lovely day for it too, and I was glad I didn't go up Lug as it did seem to be covered in clouds for most of the day while I had hazy sunshine after the early morning fog had gone

Got up early yesterday to go up lug. Was indeed covered in cloud.

Losty Dublin

CardinalJ wrote: »

Got up early yesterday to go up lug. Was indeed covered in cloud.

Did you take Lug on in the end?

CardinalJ

Losty Dublin wrote:

Did you take Lug on in the end?

We did. Was cloudy but pretty used to it. Wanted to get down before the rain.

unkel

I think everywhere was cloudy on Sunday. The funny thing on Saturday though was that once the morning fog had blown away, all of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains were clear, except Lug (from what I could see from the Mul area)

Carawaystick

Lug often gets a cloud stuck on it, the top is so large, there's plenty of air that has to get up and around it for the cloud to form, and then go away as the air comes back down lower and warmer.