Yet another absolutely stunning walk on Donegal’s North Coast with the Bluestack Ramblers. This time on Horn Head with amazing cliff views seen from multiple angles and a trip out to the tip of the horns before heading inland to the “helicopter landing pad” (Duncap Isle) and a stiff climb back up to the highest point of Croaghnamaddy (252m) ⛰️👣
9.5km and an accumulated elevation of 734m with all the ups and downs typical of a coastal walk
What a day! A hard earned 11km climbing Dooish (651m) via Maumlack (480m) and returning via Dooish SW Top/Edenadooish (528m). We had every weather today with heavy rain showers and hail that turned to snow leaving Maumlack. Lots of sunshine between the occasional shower before more heavy rain and hail to finish.
Heavy snow leaving MaumlackLooking ahead to snow capped Dooish Errigal and Mackoght from Dooish Summit Errigal and Mackoght on the left, Aghla More on the right. From Dooish Summit. A cross in the Dooish Summit Cairn
Dooish is an Arderin and Dooish SW Top is an Arderin Beg. I’ve climbed both before but not from this side and Maumlack was a new summit for me.
Brilliant walk up on the Knockalla ridge in North Donegal. Brilliant day and one of the most enjoyable hillwalks I’ve had for a while. Great views in all directions out over Mulroy Bay, Lough Swilly and along the coast to Horn Head, Fanad and even North East to Malin Head.
A place I’ll definitely be returning to and having identified a couple of possible camping spots I might even get up here with a tent.
I forgot to start my watch until I was almost 2hrs in so I’ve no real idea of the distance.
Edited 03.03.25 22:45
One of the other group members was tracking the walk and shared his gpx file with me. Turned out to be 9.7km with lots of up and down 🙂
A trip to visit the two summits on Slieve Gallion in September. A repeat of a walk from 15 years ago but this time visiting both tops.
Starting from the car park at Inishcarn Forest I followed the track through the deciduous woods, back into the conifers and eventually out on to the open mountain. Two tops with a trig pillar on the main Slieve Gallion summit before following tracks and lanes back to the car park.
Starting my new job at the end of August came with an unexpected seven days of annual leave to use before the end of the year. Four of these are required for my first Xmas off since 2012 leaving three to be used elsewhere. I used one to make the Halloween Bank Holiday into a four-day weekend and used the other two this weekend to do the same.
My Friday off coincided with a friend Gary’s suggestion to attend a Mountaineering Ireland event in Dublin on Thursday evening to hear Demort Somers speak before being presented with the annual Lynam Award for his contribution to Irish Mountaineering. Dermot was part of the 1993 expedition which saw the first Irish person reach the summit of Everest. Although he spoke only a little about Everest he was very entertaining. I’m not a climber in any sense but it coincided nicely with a podcast I’ve been listening to in the last few weeks.
Gary and myself were very kindly hosted for the night by Miriam, another friend. She attended the event with us and our plan was to go for a day hike in the Wicklow Mountains on Friday. However, a low cloud forecast required a change of plans and we headed for the Dublin Mountains instead and visited a place I’ve been interested in visiting for a long time
Montpelier Hill (Irish: Cnoc Montpelier) is a 383-metre hill in County Dublin, Ireland.It is topped by the Hell Fire Club, the popular name given to the ruined building. This building – an occasional summer residence built in around 1725 by William Conolly – was originally called Mount Pelier and since its construction the hill has also gone by the same name.
Members of the Irish Hell Fire Club, which was active in the years 1735 to 1741, used Mount Pelier summer residence as a meeting place. Stories of wild behaviour and debauchery and occult practices and demonic manifestations have become part of the local lore over the years.
All of this was fuelled by possibly the best ever breakfast I’ve had, supplied by the East Village Coffee Shop in Clondalkin.
Close by the building at the summit there was a trig pillar which I dutifully tapped. Sadly it has been vandalised over the years with all the metalwork removed but the concrete pillar is still in decent shape.
Gary was a geocacher at one time and between the two of us we made a short diversion to grab a nearby cache that was close to the path, making for a trilogy of lists that got ticked off in one short visit.
Following a short diversion into a very picturesque Massey Estate we headed for Timbertrove which according to Miriam, has the best scones in Ireland. They are certainly among the biggest I’ve ever seen anyway!
One thing for sure, I didn’t go hungry on my mini trip to Dublin!
Thursday Evening Street Pizza
Saturday morning saw me joining the Club Stabiliser Group for the weekly ride. That’s six weeks out with this group now which is becoming a really good and very enjoyable routine again. Also my 5th ride over 50km which I didn’t expect to be coming close to this soon after starting cycling again at the beginning of September.
Coffee Stop
Sunday afternoon it was my turn to look after my Great Aunt Ruby while Mum and Dad had a few hours to themselves. I’ve spoken here about Ruby before but she is now the oldest living person in Ireland and it’s an honour to be able to spend time with her like this. Unsurprisingly, she is not the same lady at the end of the year that she was at the beginning but she still has moments to make me laugh.
NYE 2023
Today I had planned to cycle in the morning but Winter has come rushing in late but with a wicked bite. Temperatures hovering just above freezing created a fog thick enough to make it unsafe that didn’t lift until well after noon. By that stage I was too lazy, was settled in with the heating on and a really good book (The Reckoningby Jane Casey) with a few episodes of Justified to break up the day.
There’s something in me that tends to see days like today as a waste but I managed to ease the “guilt” with a bit of housework in the afternoon. Going back to work tomorrow I may appreciate the rest better in the morning.
Four days definitely is a good long weekend but it has felt a good bit longer in a positive way.
Back in August I went for a hike under and over Binevenagh, the most Northerly summit of the Sperrin Mountains. I managed to lose my way in the trees, follow a track that didn’t go where I expected, logged a geocache and tapped a trig. It was a mixed up day that I mostly enjoyed and the video is now live on YouTube 👣⛰️🎥
I don’t think I’ve ever written on this blog about geocaching before? It’s a hobby that I picked up in 2005 and it was my main pastime for a good few years. It suited my lifestyle perfectly at the time as it was just before Owen was born, work was very busy and it was a hobby that I could fit in with family life very easily. It was also a great way to spend more time outdoors as I had let that slide quite a lot at the time.
What is Geocaching? Well essentially a geocacher hides a container (sometimes large, sometimes small, often tiny), records the GPS coordinates and shares the location on Geocaching.com along with some information on the location and maybe a hint to help find it. Other geocachers then use this information to go and find the container and log their find on the website and in the physical logbook in the container.
a variety of geocache containers a lot looklike this though
In 2007 I also became a geocaching reviewer which meant I checked listing submissions to make sure they were in suitable places and not contravening any of the placement guidelines. All checks were done virtually using digital maps and asking questions of the cache owner.
The geocaching community is incredibly diverse and mostly very friendly. Through my geocaching duties and attending social events I made many good friends and a lot of them I’m still in touch with today. However, as time moved on I retired as a reviewer (2017) and gradually geocached less and less as other hobbies (mostly cycling) took over. My last physical cache find was back in 2018 and since then I’ve only logged virtual caches on holidays in Prague and Venice to add them to my list of countries.
I have either removed or transferred ownership of most of my placed caches to other active geocachers but a small number still remain active under my account. One of these is at Beltany Stone Circle just outside Raphoe and a 10-15min drive from home.
Beltany is a place I really enjoy and being so close to home this is one I hadn’t really thought of giving up. It’s not one that gets a huge amount of visitors due to it’s category of Multi-Cache so it rarely gives me any issues. In the last couple of weeks though it seems to have gone missing and I have been communicating over and back with a number of people that have been trying to find it. The weather for Sunday was a bit iffy so I dug out a box of old containers and Geocaching.com branded items and soon had a new one ready to go.
I had a very enjoyable walk up to the stone circle, replaced the cache and had a mooch around the neighbouring small stand of trees. I have a notion of bivvy camping up here at the stone circle to get the sunset and sunrise some time, getting in touch with my pagan side! I also found a couple of great spots in the small forested area for a hammock or maybe even a tent camp.
All the discussions over the last week or so must have re-ignited some dormant spark of interest as I also downloaded the geocaching app and had a quick look to see what new cache placements have been published in the last 8 years. Unsurprisingly there are a few!
My nearest one is a 5min drive from my house, on the edge of my home village and a spot I drive past at least once every day. On my way home from Raphoe I came this way, found it and logged my first geocache for 8 years. Took way longer to find it than it should have (it’s a very small hide but in the logical place, it just took a while for the penny to drop) but I put that down to being rusty.
I wouldn’t say I’m fully back into the hobby but it’s definitely sparked something again. There’s a whole new category of geocaches called Adventure Labs that sound interesting and there are two locally that I’ve highlighted to have a closer look at.
The geocaching theme continued into Monday. The weather forecast looked promising and significantly, even where showers were forecast, the cloud base was predicted to stay high. That has been a real issue for me this year! I initially had a hike in the Sperrins earmarked but instead decided to head for the Derryveagh Mountains.
I have a series of caches on two summits beside Errigal and a third at Lough Altan that are designed to be a great hike if done together. I did have one on Errigal as well but someone agreed to adopt it a while ago. All three of these caches were in need of some TLC and coincidentally I had 3 more containers left and enough Geocaching.com stuff to stock them. So my new plan was to hike the route, skipping Errigal and replace them all. This turned out to be a great decision!
9.8km with 605m of climbing
I started at the Errigal car park and followed the new path until I reached the cairn where the climb up Errigal proper starts. Here I diverted right and followed the faint track up the steep and rocky side of Mackoght (555m) which is also known as “little Errigal” or “Errigal’s little brother“.
in 100m, at the cairn, turn tight
Mackoght is a really enjoyable climb. In many ways I prefer this climb to Errigal. It’s a really satisfying mix of short grass, heather and broken rock. The summit itself is fantastically rocky with a really nice marker cairn and in my opinion the best view around of Errigal’s twin peaks.
reverse view over lough altan with the aghlas behind and muckish in the distance
I spent well over an hour on the summit of Mackoght replacing the cache container, having lunch, flying my drone and soaking in the views. The weather was perfect, lots of sunny spells and hardly any wind, a stark contrast to my last Irish mountain experience! Best of all I had it all to myself while there was a steady parade up to the summit of Errigal as the good weather drew people in. Sitting on Mackoght I could occasionally hear voices carrying across while I sat in splendid isolation.
The publication date of the cache on Mackoght is 2010 but it was part of the original multi stage cache placed in 2006. That box has been up there for 18 years! The logbook was the real surprise. It’s the 2010* logbook and was still in good shape, good enough to keep using. I guess the box did a good job all things considered!
old cache, new cache still in good shape after 14 years restocked and ready to go
*I made a new logbook in September 2009 but wasn’t able to get it in place until July 2010 thanks to some help from a group of geocaching friends.
Leaving Mackoght it was a steady drop to the damp col between Mackoght and Breaghy. This descent required careful route selection to avoid the many rocky outcrops on this side of the summit that make it so impressive looking from the top of Breaghy.
little brother with big brother behind
The col wasn’t as damp as it looked from above and I was soon picking my way back up towards the top of Breaghy (392m). Some confusion set in here as there are a number of rocky outcrops. The summit always felt like it should be closer and somehow even OSI have managed to mark the wrong one as the actual summit!
actual summit with a marker cairn marked by the red circle
Anyway, after enjoying the brilliant views out over Lough Altan and towards the Aghlas I found the cache container (half full of water and contents thoroughly waterlogged) and replaced it with the brand new box and logbook.
lough altan and aghla more, breaghy summit off to the left
The final descent from Breaghy to Lough Altan was “fun“! Instead of the longer and more gentle route I decided to take the steeper, direct route. Halfway down, scratched to bits by heather and with a bum wet from sliding numerous times, I realised it wasn’t a great idea and contoured around to a much more sensible and easier descent and was soon crossing the stones on the river just before the ruined tower.
altan farm from partway down breaghy
Here I met the first people I’d seen since leaving the Errigal footpath. A Mum and Dad and 3 teenagers were just heading back to the road. They were friendly but not chatty and I did wonder if they were geocachers. I wouldn’t imagine that many people make the effort to walk out to here and they didn’t really look like hikers if that makes any sense? I haven’t had any logs on that cache yet so they probably weren’t.
As I was now alone I headed to the cache location, retrieved and replaced it. The original container was a large vitamin bottle in a hole between rocks. The issue here is that the hole is deeper than I originally thought. The first container from 2006 disappeared into the bowels of the earth as it was too small and this one replaced it in 2010. Even still this one required the full length of my arm to retrieve which wouldn’t be pleasant on a wet day! So, the replacement is much larger and is attached to a hidden external tent peg via a length of paracord that should make it simple to retrieve yet still unlikely to be discovered accidentally.
I took a while here on the edge of the lough to enjoy the view and take some photos but with time marching on I couldn’t sit too long and began the climb out along the boggy track. I was last here in August 22 and back then the track was horrible with large sections flooded with deep boggy holes. Thankfully it has dried out a lot since then and only one or two spots caused me any concerns.
neighbours at the back door compulsory photo of the tree through the front window with the lough in the background altan farm and the aghlas from the track out
I arrived back at the Errigal car park approximately 5.5 hours after starting with 9.8km hiked and 605m of climbing. It should have been quicker but I spent a lot of time enjoying the views and it was time well spent. This was the most enjoyable hike I’ve done for a long time and part of that was the good feeling from getting these caches back to the standard that the locations deserve.
I’m not sure how far my renewed geocaching interest will take me but it’s a start anyway and totally unexpected…
Friday evening was spent meeting Martin and a few others from the Galtee Walking Club I’d met before. We went for something to eat in a pub up the street having missed the cutoff in the South Pole. Long story but it was Martin’s fault 😉
Turned out well anyway as I had one of the best fish and chips I’ve had for a long time as well as a lovely pint of local golden ale Béal Bán
Friday night we spent in the car park at the starting point of the challenge hike. It’s the first time I slept in Catriona’s car and it was surprisingly roomy and comfortable. Only problem is dawn comes early just after 4am and there’s no escaping it in a car.
Our plan was to skip the bus transfer from Annascaul and start at 6am and be approx 1hr ahead of the crowds. Also giving us an extra hour on the cutoff, just in case…
Wakening up it was obvious that the weather forecast was accurate. Low cloud was hanging over the tops and partway down into the valleys. We still had a great view out to sea but only had partial views of what I think was Great Blasket Island.
Starting from the car park we followed a rough track before turning off onto the grassy and sometimes rocky path that heads straight up to the summit of Mount Brandon. At 952m Brandon is the 3rd highest mountain in Ireland. It’s named after St. Brendan and on the summit there is a stone building (Sáipéilín Bréanainn) believed to have been used by him. The route we followed to the summit is part of a Pilgrimage Route (Cosán na Naomh – The Saint’s Road) and is clearly marked by small white posts and large metal crosses marked with numbers that I think denoted stations of the cross.
The weather forecast was for low cloud which was correct. It also predicted pretty windy conditions on the tops (30km/h or 19mph) and light rain for most of the day with more prolonged rain for the late afternoon. Well it was worse than that. We were getting rain spots from the car park and at 1km in the rain coat came out and stayed on for the rest of the day. After a further 0.5km we crossed 400m and into the clouds and the rain started properly. We weren’t to escape the clouds for the rest of the hike.
As you can see the first 4km is pretty full on. From the car park at 170m you climb almost 800m to the summit of Mount Brandon at 952m. This was the part of the hike that I was most concerned about. My fitness is far off what I would have liked for this event, I’m carrying about 13kg in excess weight and I had Covid about 4 weeks ago that left me breathless up until about a week ago. Climbing Brandon definitely challenged me, I struggled with my breathing but kept it steady and managed to keep my heart rate relatively steady without red-lining.
The last couple of hundred metres to the summit was pretty rough. The rain was pretty constant and by now the wind had really picked up driving the rain hard. The rain stopped briefly just before the summit but the wind was very strong and it definitely wasn’t a place to hang around. We got some shelter in the lee of the summit cross before a couple of summit photos, a very quick chat with a couple of other early starters and headed on. It was shocking how cold it was in that wind and my hands were painful as we headed off along the ridge.
i think that’s sáipéilín bréanainn behind the trig but it wasn’t a day for sightseeing!
Leaving the summit we had a long and soggy drop down that was a relief for the legs before picking up a track. Cloud cover reduced visibility to 30-50m and the wind was blowing very strong, once again driving the rain into us. At times I could see Martin ahead of me walking at an angle as he leaned into the wind to stay upright
This was a lonely section with no possibility to talk, no views and just your own voice in your head. On days like this it’s hard to stay positive.
come for the views they said!
In a brief stop Martin warned me that we were approaching the ridge proper. This is a section called An Géarán and is a rocky, sharp and exposed ridge. Apparently the views down into both valleys are amazing but not today!
Crossing the ridge there was a real sense of a steep drop to both sides even with the thick cloud cover. Thankfully we were able to cross on the leeward side and stayed out of the wind. I’m not sure we would have been able to cross safely otherwise.
look at those contour lines!
On the approach to Brandon summit and heading across this ridge there was the very real feeling that there were a world of fantastic views that were hidden by the clouds. For this reason alone I’m very sure I’ll be back to walk this route again.
Leaving An Géarán we steadily dropped elevation along a fenceline and across boggy terrain that was oozing water everywhere. There were a number of tricky areas that were very boggy and verging on small streams that required a bit of thought. However, as we dropped down here the rain and wind eased a bit and we were finally able to have a proper conversation for the first time in over an hour.
I think it was around here (possibly earlier?) that Martin first mentioned the possibility of finishing early at the halfway point on The Connor Pass. I was glad to hear him voice what I’d been thinking in my head already. What was always going to be a tough walk was becoming even more difficult due to the weather. Although we were in a sheltered area now we would soon be a lot more exposed again as we climbed higher. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be finishing today.
Coming down the fenceline we came to a junction and crossed over. The little marker flags that had marked the way were gone and we soon realised we had lost the proper route. It just shows you how easily it is to get off track in poor visibility as Martin has walked this exact route 4 times before! A few others had made the same error as ourselves and within 5min we realised what we had done wrong and how to swing around back to where we needed to be. You can see clearly on the two maps below where we went wrong.
official route my recorded track
Having gained some height on this loop around the 623m point we dropped back again and reached the unmanned water station at Mullaghveal and 10.5km where we filled both ourselves and our bottles for the next big push.
Along the route so far I’d found it difficult to get food into me. The rain and wind just made it too much work but I took the opportunity here to scoff two bars.
Shortly after leaving Mullaghveal the climbing starts again. Martin told me that this is the last big climb before Connor Pass but that it was a long one. Later we were informed that the summit is called Ballysitteragh but is known on this route as Bally-fucking-sitteragh. It is well named!
I really struggled on this climb. It goes from 400m to 620m in just over 1km and the terrain is pretty boggy and rough. My brain was tired, I was soaked from the waist down and my legs were feeling it by now. However, I really struggled with my breathing. I was very breathless and struggled to get a proper breath at times. I have to say mentally I gave up too!
With many stops I eventually reached the top but once again we couldn’t hang around. We were back in the rain and the wind was really strong again. We pushed on towards Connor Pass for 4km gradually descending but getting absolutely battered by the wind. This was definitely the worst weather I’d ever been out in and the fun was definitely gone today.
Connor Pass came on me unexpectedly at the end. I was expecting a significant drop into a lower altitude level but didn’t realise that the pass sits quite high at 410m. Because I wasn’t expecting it so suddenly the final km to the pass seemed to be never ending but the car park and checkpoint appeared magically out of the clouds.
I have to give a huge amount of credit to the volunteers at this checkpoint. They were waiting here with fruit, cake and water with a smile for everyone, full of positivity in terrible conditions. They were getting battered by the same wind and rain that we had been getting on the hike.
Martin spoke to some of the ladies and we were soon hooked up with a guy (Seamus I think?) that was taking people back to town in his car. We felt pretty shit about having to cut it short, despite knowing it was the sensible thing to do but our guy soon made us feel better when he told us a number of people turned back at the summit of Brandon and quite a lot more came off at the 10km water station. They were expecting a high drop out rate at Connor Pass so he was expecting to be kept busy all day.
We seemed to be taking a long time to get to Annascaul when I suddenly realised that he was taking us to the car park at the very start of the walk! I was really pleased and Seamus really went out of his way to look after us so well. I was expecting to have to get a taxi from Annascaul!
Once back at the cars we wasted no time getting changed into dry clothes and getting some much needed food down our necks. There is a free BBQ in the evening after the walk but we were at least 5-6hrs too early. After a good chat we decided not to wait around and to head for home. Another 7hrs and 480km in the car for me but I felt it was worth it to get back home and sleep in my own bed that night….
Overall I enjoyed my trip to Kerry but I really did feel that it could have been so much more. On the drive home I made the decision to give it another go in 2025 and hopefully get the real experience. I also hope to be at least 10kg lighter and in a lot better shape now that I know what is ahead of me!
I’m finishing this post on Monday afternoon in offline mode somewhere over The Bay of Biscay as we head for Faro and the start of the second part of my holiday break with a family holiday near Albufeira. The forecast for the next few days is 28-30°C and wall-to-wall sunshine ☀
As part of the holiday I hope to be able to complete a hike approximately 30min drive from our accommodation that I found on Outdooractive but seems to be well described in a number of places as it’s part of an official group of waymarked routes.
So to kick off my holiday break I’m currently sitting in Co. Kerry. Tomorrow I take part in The Tom Crean Endurance Walk.
This is a 30km mountain hike in the Dingle Peninsula that takes place every year in memory of the Irish Polar explorer. It’s a long drive down from Donegal so I’m here the night before and hopefully will be a great but enjoyable challenge 🤞
short diversion to harvey norman in limerick
I left about 10am and arrived shortly after 5:30pm so I had plenty of short breaks and didn’t rush myself. Check in started at 5:30pm anyway so no point being much earlier!
named in memory of tom crean
I’m walking with a friend Martin and he’s not due until 7:30pm so I’ve been having a wee wander around and visited the Tom Crean Memorial Garden.
There’s a second memorial just beside it to the many, many people from Annascaul that died in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. It’s very sobering, obviously an area proud of their Republican roots….
I didn’t feel it was appropriate to be taking photos but the local historical society have some online already.
