Dublin Mountains Partnership Website updated

IrlJidel

Looks like they've fully launced the DMP website: http://www.dublinmountains.ie/

New map from EastWest Mapping shoudl be useful when it is available

"From early 2009, a new dedicated Dublin Mountains Partnership map will be available to buy. The new map, produced by EastWest Mapping, shows all public lands in the DMP area that are accessible for recreation."

Judge

Just noticed on the Dublin Mountains Partnership website that "Section 1" of the Dublin Mountains Way is to be opened this Friday, the 19th of June: http://www.dublinmountains.ie/news/latest_news/read_article/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=79&tx_ttnews[backPid]=45&cHash=211d8f0f2b

Presume this will be the stretch from Three Rock to Massey's Wood via Fairy Castle, Tibradden, Pine Forest and Cruagh?

Can't help noticing from the pictures that they're using the same waymarkers as the Wicklow Way! This has got to be confusing for the stretch where the two will share a section of the trail?

Anyone got any idea how they're going to link up with Shankill to the east and Tallaght to the west?

dogmatix

I've often walked from Ballinteer to the Massey woods / Hell fire club and on to Cruagh. But to get to Cruagh you have to come down onto the main road - there is no right of way across the hills there. And it can be a very busy road, espicially on a sunny weekend.

If they have constructed a trail or path all the way from Massey woods/HFC to Cruagh then that would be great. But given the way so many trails spend some of their time on tarmaced roads I would hold out much hope. Fingers crossed im wrong.

It would make an interesting day circular walk: Ballinteer - Massey woods/HFC - Cruagh - Pine Forest - Tibradden lane - Ballinteer.

dogmatix

Linking up to Shankill should not be a problem - heres a route i've used in the past: Three rock mountain - Ballyedmonduff road - Glencullen - Kilternan - The scalp - Barnaslingan lane - Carrickgollogan - Ballybride road - Over the N11 - Crinken Lane - dublin road - Shankill dart station.

The roads between the Scalp and N11 are tarmaced but very quiet country roads.

I'm sure they could negotiate a path from Ballyedmonduff road to the glencullen-kilternan road through that forest to cut down excess main road walking. You could even come straight down off the three rock onto a woodland trail if they where smart. And there is supposed to be a right of way from near glencullen to the enniskerry road that would cut out a lot of walking on or beside the mains roads around Kilternan.

Judge

I've often walked from Ballinteer to the Massey woods / Hell fire club and on to Cruagh. But to get to Cruagh you have to come down onto the main road - there is no right of way across the hills there. And it can be a very busy road, especially on a sunny weekend

You can access the Massey Woods from Cruagh Road at the hairpin bend where there's a bridge over Glendoo Brook. One of the trails over Cruagh emerges right opposite it. The map used on both Coillte's and the Dublin Mountains Partnership website seems to indicate this is Coillte property. I've never seen a no trespassers sign or been challenged by anyone whenever I've used it. There are a couple of fences along the way – they seem to be there to allow livestock get to the river to access drinking water – but stiles are provided.

Linking up to Shankill should not be a problem - heres a route i've used in the past: Three rock mountain - Ballyedmonduff road - Glencullen - Kilternan - The scalp - Barnaslingan lane - Carrickgollogan - Ballybride road - Over the N11 - Crinken Lane - dublin road - Shankill dart station.

Quite a lot of road walking there though!

Whereabouts are you getting onto Ballyedmonduff Road? If you're going via Three Rock, I assume it's one of the entrances near Stepaside?

dogmatix

You can access the Massey Woods from Cruagh Road at the hairpin bend where there's a bridge over Glendoo Brook. One of the trails over Cruagh emerges right opposite it. The map used on both Coillte's and the Dublin Mountains Partnership website seems to indicate this is Coillte property. I've never seen a no trespassers sign or been challenged by anyone whenever I've used it. There are a couple of fences along the way – they seem to be there to allow livestock get to the river to access drinking water – but stiles are provided.

Quite a lot of road walking there though!

Whereabouts are you getting onto Ballyedmonduff Road? If you're going via Three Rock, I assume it's one of the entrances near Stepaside?

Never knew about the trail from massey woods to cruagh - I checked the east-west map last night and you are right. Must try it next time I walk that route. But I was thinking how nice it would be if there was a trail from the hell fire club across the piperstown gap(?) throught the featherbed forest and onto cruagh. Essentially to the south of the main road there. However much of the land is private I think. The newly opened section of the 19th last seems to be just the part from cruagh through tibradden to the wicklow way. All of that route has been present in one form or other for years.

I normally get down onto the ballyedmonduff road close to stepaside - just a stones throw from the turnoff road if you where heading to the blue light pub. The map seems to suggest you can walk further south and then get onto the road much closer to Glencullen and so avoid a lot of the road walking. And you can then avoid Kilternan and much of the Enniskerry road by using a supposed right-of-way nearby that gets you much closer to the scalp. But no matter what there will be a lot of road walking involved.

IrlJidel

dogmatix wrote: »

Never knew about the trail from massey woods to cruagh - I checked the east-west map last night and you are right. Must try it next time I walk that route. But I was thinking how nice it would be if there was a trail from the hell fire club across the piperstown gap(?) throught the featherbed forest and onto cruagh. Essentially to the south of the main road there. However much of the land is private I think. The newly opened section of the 19th last seems to be just the part from cruagh through tibradden to the wicklow way. All of that route has been present in one form or other for years.

It was also on openstreetmap.org!. I mapped all the Massey Wood tracks over the winter when the treecover was bare so I could get a good gps trace:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.24496&lon=-6.30796&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF


However due to a new baby :-) I wont be getting out much over the summer so would be great if people could collect and upload gps tracks to openstreetmap.org of any missing trails.

Judge

dogmatix wrote: »

I was thinking how nice it would be if there was a trail from the hell fire club across the piperstown gap(?) throught the featherbed forest and onto cruagh. Essentially to the south of the main road there. However much of the land is private I think.

That would be a good route all right. Looking at the East West map, Cruagh and Featherbed are adjacent but the problem seems to be at Piperstown Gap. Frustratingly, if I'm reading the map right, all that would be needed to make everything link up would be a short path of about 200m in length. It's like the section of the Wicklow Way at Glencullen; all that's needed there is a short path connecting the point where the Way meets the R116 at the side of Tibradden and Glencullen Forest on the other side and you'd eliminate that bloody awful (and frequently dangerous) schlep along the road to Boranaraltry Bridge.

The newly opened section of the 19th last seems to be just the part from cruagh through tibradden to the wicklow way. All of that route has been present in one form or other for years.

This is the press release: http://www.dublinmountains.ie/news/latest_news/read_article/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=83&tx_ttnews[backPid]=45&cHash=a1b998d451. The pertinent section:

The first section of the Dublin Mountains Way opened today links Coillte’s Tibradden, Kilmashogue and Cruagh forests and includes the new Tibradden Mountain Trail constructed last autumn with financial support from the Dept. of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

So nothing new for anyone already familiar with the area except the paths are in better nick than they have been for many years.

The Irish Times article mentioned has a rough map: http://mediaone.tns.ie/mms3/public/press.jsp;jsessionid=B9C0A4B40015363472735AD6BFFD678A?clip=4495522&sortingOrder=true&site_id=114&reqFrom=alert&medium=0&dateSearchType=date&siteId=114&current=-1&numArticles=0&clipId=4495522&currentPage=1&artsPerPage=0. Strangely, there is no trail through the Two Rock/Fairy Castle/Three Rock area. Instead they seem to want you to follow the Wicklow Way out onto the R116 to Glencullen (which at least explains why they erected that huge "Welcome to the Dublin Mountains!" sign there).

I normally get down onto the ballyedmonduff road close to stepaside - just a stones throw from the turnoff road if you where heading to the blue light pub. The map seems to suggest you can walk further south and then get onto the road much closer to Glencullen and so avoid a lot of the road walking. And you can then avoid Kilternan and much of the Enniskerry road by using a supposed right-of-way nearby that gets you much closer to the scalp. But no matter what there will be a lot of road walking involved.

Ah, I thought that was the likely spot if you were going up via Three Rock. I usually start at the Blue Light, taking the path that leads past the quarry. As you say, there is a route down from Two Rock/Fairy Castle that emerges closer to Glencullen. It's worth doing as it passes by a quite interesting and, considering the location, fairly well-preserved wedge tomb. The downside is that you miss Three Rock if you want to follow the Dublin Mountains Way from there.

IrlJidel

dogmatix wrote: »

I've often walked from Ballinteer to the Massey woods / Hell fire club and on to Cruagh. But to get to Cruagh you have to come down onto the main road - there is no right of way across the hills there. And it can be a very busy road, espicially on a sunny weekend.

If they have constructed a trail or path all the way from Massey woods/HFC to Cruagh then that would be great.

"Mountain Meitheal volunteers started constructing a new section of the Dublin Mountains Way linking Cruagh and Massy's woods". See here

If you go to pathsavers.org one of the comments of the photos says "This trails links Massy's Wood with Cruagh and will allow the Dublin mountains way DMW go all the way from the Hellfire Club to Fairy Castle OFF ROAD."

dogmatix

Thats very welcome news. Sounds like they are officially opening up the trail you mapped for openstreetmap or they are using a similar route. It will be interesting to see what they have planned for the route from three rock to Shankill.

Judge

Bit more info from the link above:

This 370m section of trail will be constructed using a turnpike type of trail. This involves a retaining wall of large Ballylusk stone, and the main treadway consists of a layer of geotextile, covered with a layer of 2" stone and then a layer of crushed stone/dust. This trail type will raise the walking surface above the water table and provide a sustainable durable trail.

The entrance to Masseys near Cruagh is pretty close to the river so I would say that heavy footfall would quickly result in serious erosion unless reinforcement works were carried out. Not sure what they mean by a turnpike - this is an American word for a toll road, is it not?

Judge

Just found this on the DMP website:

Rambler Bus Service - the Dublin Mountaineer

The DMP will shortly announce the provision of a rambler bus service, the Dublin Mountaineer, which will link the Dublin Mountains with Sandyford Luas and Marlay Park.

The service will run five times a day, on weekends and Bank Holidays from mid July until the end of September. Departure times from the Luas are as follows: 10am, 11.30am, 1pm, 3.15pm & 5pm.

The bus will follow a circular route from Sandyford Luas to Stepaside, Ballyedmonduff, Glencullen, Wicklow Way, Tibradden, Cruagh, Hell Fire and Marlay Park. We are hoping to have a bike rack on the front of the bus. Fares will cost €5 (daily pass) and €12 family rambler ticket (2 adults & 2 child), which will be available on the bus. Keep an eye on the website for more details and when the service will commence.

Good news if this comes about given that Dublin Bus have ceased serving Balledmonduff/Glencullen and Rockbrook at weekends.

Judge

Just a minor update regarding the Dublin Mountains Way.

Was in Massey's last week and discovered there are now DMW waymarkers in the Southern part of the wood, leading to the entrance at Cruagh Road that I mentioned in my earlier posts. They have also erected a gate. Across the road there is another gate and beyond it you can see the trail through Cruagh built by Mountain Meitheal. The gate was locked – I briefly considered scaling it but then wussed out. They must be waiting for some official opening. I stand by my earlier assertion that the trail into Massey's needs to be upgraded as do the stiles along the way.

I've also noticed that the maps on the Coillte Outdoors site (www.coillteoutdoors.ie) are now showing the DMW from Two Rock to Massey's. The route through Massey's is somewhat circuitous, presumably to take in points of interest in the wood? No route marked for Hell Fire Wood yet. From the summit of Two Rock, the DMW seems to descend towards the tors that lie to the South East of Fairy Castle before stopping. No indication of where the route will emerge to reach Glencullen but I assume it will be through the woods, past the Neolithic tomb in Ballyedmonduff and out on the road near the golf course.

The DMW is also marked on the Barnaslingan/Carrickgollogan map. The map seems to indicate that the route enters land around Rathmichael – is that area open to the public? I'm not familiar with the area at all.

IrlJidel

Thanks for update.

I started mapping the DMW in openstreetmap last month.
Here's what I have so far: (route is highlighed in blue)
http://osm.org/go/es@HFJW?relation=286707&layers=0B00FTFT

As you can see I'm still unsure of route between Barnaslingan and Three Rock.

Is what I've mapped so far correct (besides the 'scenic' route though Masseys which I'll fix over the weekend) ?

Judge

IrlJidel wrote: »

As you can see I'm still unsure of route between Barnaslingan and Three Rock.

I'm speculating but there is apparently a right of way from Enniskerry Road (opposite Kilternan Grange) to Ballybetagh Road via Ballybetagh Wood. Never used it but it seems the obvious link route.

dogmatix

That right of way is marked on a DLRCC map but i've never walked it. It sounds like the obvious route for the mountain trail.

I suspect the reason why the gate is locked at the cruagh end of the massey woods is due to problems with scramblers. Already some of the trails and paths being put down by pathsavers are being damaged by scramblers and their ilk. I would imagine a stile is going to be put in at some point.

piggle

The large gate at Massy's / Cruagh has a small pedestrian gate as part of the main gate which is open at all times.