Hillwalking - recommendations for nice walks

calcifer

Hi there,

can anyone recommend hillwalking routes either in the Wicklows or the Mournes, that are fairly easy to walk? By "easy to walk" I mean walks that have some kind of a path (doesn't need to be paved or gravel paths) or go through low (= not more than knee-high) vegetation.

Hillwalking culture in Ireland seems to be mainly focused on cross-country walks, and maps and books often don't mention if there is a path, so I'm counting on first hand reports.

Maybe I should mention a couple of things;

- I'm NOT interested in joining a walking club. Walking with larger groups (5+) isn't too much fun in opinion.

- I know the walks around Glendalough.

- While I have been walking in the Wicklows for almost 3 years now, I just started walking in the Mournes (so I would probably not know of fairly well-known walks in the Mournes).

- Circular(ish) walks would be great, so that you don't have to walk the same way back you came. However, any information is appreciated!

- I'm into day walks, so walks of a length of 5-25 km.


And if anybody is interested, I can recommend a couple of nice and easy walks that I did in return!

Thanks a lot for all hints!

loz

Have a look on mountainviews.ie

Some good write-ups on there.

hmmm

There's a couple of good books you can pick up in any bookstore in town these days which will give you ideas. Glenmalure has plenty of walks, around Djouce there's loads.

Alun

I can sympathize. I'm from the UK originally and it was a bit of a culture shock when I first started walking here. Over there, unless you're going to be doing major league stuff in the Scottish highlands or suchlike, you can pretty much just buy the OS map of the area, 1:50k or better the 1:25k, and just plan away using the marked footpaths and rights of way. Here it's a different story altogether, but that's a discussion for another day.

Anyway, after a few frustrating attempts to plan my own walks, I decided to join a local club, which was a real eye opener. There are actually huge numbers of footpaths over the Wicklow hills that aren't anywhere to be seen on the OS maps, and even those that are marked are either wrong or way out of date. Doing any decent long distance also will probably involve hacking cross country for a while, which can bring it's own problems (like disappearing up to your knees in bog!) but with a bit of experience you soon get to know the areas to avoid or be very careful with.

If you're more interested in planning your own walks then get yourself a Harvey's map of the Wicklow Mountains from the Great Outdoors or elsewhere. Tons more detail than the useless OSi 1:50k maps and a lot of paths marked. It's an odd scale (1:30k) but I rarely use anything else these days.

calcifer

Hey, thanks for the replies so far.

I think I have about every map and every book (at least the ones that are still available in the book and outdoor shops) about the Wicklows. And I also have a lot of maps & books about the Mournes.

All of the maps I found here so far are not really reliable in terms of footpaths. The Superwalker Map about the Wicklows and the 1:25 000 OS map about the Mournes are the best I could find - and as I had to find out, they're not 100% reliable.

That's why I was looking for first hand reports. Also recommendations on which areas are nice are welcome.

Up to now, I think the most beautiful areas I walked in the Wicklows were the area around Lough Dan - and of course Glendalough.

I'll have another look at Glenmalure - I've only been there once. However, the map doesn't show too many paths there (at least not obvious circular paths).

And I hated Djouce. It looks awful with all that erosion.

So I'm looking forward to any further tips

Thanks!

thehighground

calcifer wrote:

Hey, thanks for the replies so far.

So I'm looking forward to any further tips

Thanks!

My first tip for you if you don't want to join a club is to do a Mountain Skills course as you really need good map reading skills to fully enjoy walking in the Irish hills, as most low level walks where there are tracks are through forestry. Any other trails through the hills are just eroded tracks and if the weather changes, new streams appear, forestry felled since the map was printed - you need to be able to read contour lines. I've got lost a few times in Wicklow and the map was never wrong!:D

All the routes that anyone will give you are in guidebooks - but here is one suggestion for a nice long ridge walk: the Brockaghs with very little up and down and an eroded track to follow, start at the Church in Laragh - all the guidebooks would have this one in them.

What might be a useful tool for you which would help you plan routes is the OSI's Trailmaster (visit http://www.osi.ie/trailmaster/index.asp ) which lets you view the landscape 3D and has aerial photography so should help you plan a route. There are a couple of areas covered, including the East of the country which would have Wicklow. Its Euro 99.00 - The Great Outdoors in Chatham Street has then or you can probably buy direct from the Ordnance Survey.

Enjoy.