Glencoaghan Horseshoe tomorrow

johngalway

Well, that's the plan anyway! I hope the cloud base lifts a bit, tops have been covered today and yesterday. Will upload some photos when I've recovered

johngalway

I'm a weather lucky charm me Friday - clouds, Saturday - clouds! Sunday - sunnnnshine! Monday - clouds and rain!

We parked at the bottom of the Glencoaghan road and walked up the road until we could move onto the hill. Started up Derryclare then, steep at the beginning.

Here's Derryclare and Bencorr off to the left.



Bencollaghduff, Benbreen and Bengower at the very left.



Benbreen, Bengower and Benlettery.



So we have our 6 Bens lined up nicely

Looking across the Glencoaghan valley to Benbreen in the centre and Bengower on the left. Muckanaght & Bencullagh (walked those Monday - in the cloud...) are visible to the right of Benbreen.



Descending Bencullaghduff gave a great view of Benbaun (Done that and Benfree on the Leenane walking festival as well as Benbrack), Muckanaght and Bencullagh.



Some of our group descending Benbreen on the scree. It's a bit tricky coming down off the top, picking the correct way to get to the scree. I found the scree here less fun than the last scree I did which was above the lake at Maumahoge coming off Binn Idir an Da Log in the Turks. Small stones in that particular scree while there were some fair good sized rocks tumbling after me here in the Bens.



The next ascent, Glengower. Errisbeg hill and Roundstone bog in the distance. It's a bit of a pull up, but there's a good path a lot of the way, some scrambling required near the top. Looks a lot worse than it is, and I am no fan of steep ground. (As a friend said to me, why are you going where you're going then?! - why not!).



Great view from Benlettery. To the left of Errisgeb hill in the distance is Roundstone village, Inishnee island is across the bay. Inishlacken is at the mouth of the bay and Deer Island is the far one out. To the left of Errisbeg is Roundstone bog and back towards Slyne head. In close is Ballinahinch lake, river and forrest - the castle is in there somewhere!



Descending Benlettery took longer than expected. Steep at the top and the hill just seems to go on and on. Probably just tired legs at the end of the day.

Had a great time, fantastic weather and you'd find it hard to get better company.

I took four litres of water and three very good sandwiches , I'd go with that as a minimum for me to be honest. By the end of the walk I had given away one and a half litres to people who had run out. Better to be looking at it than looking for it I reckon.

duckysauce

great pics john, you picked a sweet day to go, how long did the horseshoe take to complete, and roughly what distance is it ?

cheers

Mickeroo

perfect weather for it! nice pics.

johngalway

Took us a long time! Ten hours, as we were going at the group pace. I'm not actually quite sure of the distance, as we had a guide. I've yet to do up my route card - too late I know, just doing so out of interest. I'm sure the distance would be on one of the walking sites as it's quite popular. We met three other groups up there, one in particular had to be one something the speed they were going at

hmmm

Great pics and arguably the best hillwalk in Ireland? Scared the bejaysus out of myself going up Muckanaght once, it is steeper than it looks.

johngalway

hmmm wrote: »

Great pics and arguably the best hillwalk in Ireland? Scared the bejaysus out of myself going up Muckanaght once, it is steeper than it looks.

Muckanaght is a hell of a lot steeper than it looks! Grassy as well which doesn't help. To top it off that grass was wet Monday as well :rolleyes: After walking Muckanaght I changed and am now walking with two walking poles, it's so much better than using just one.

Our guide was telling us about the Twelve Bens Challenge route (the Challenge hasn't been run for the past two or three years). Start at Derryclare and do the horseshoe as far as 560 on the South West of Bengower. Leave you pack there and walk out to the top of Benlettery to a check point, back to 560 and walk out to the top of Benglenisky. From there descend into the valley and skirt around under Benbreen. Head up the col between Bencullaghduff and Benbaun. Then you'd head on to do Benbaun, Benfree, Muckanaght, Bencullagh, and Maumonght. Benbrack and Knockbrack were also included I think but I'm fuzzy on the details after Maumonght as I was knackered even thinking about it

A V A

i love that spot i havent been up there in a while . . .memories of the scouts heheh

keenan110

Looks like a great walk, thanks for posting the pictures, looks amazing!

Esroh

johngalway wrote: »

Muckanaght is a hell of a lot steeper than it looks! Grassy as well which doesn't help. To top it off that grass was wet Monday as well :rolleyes: After walking Muckanaght I changed and am now walking with two walking poles, it's so much better than using just one.

Our guide was telling us about the Twelve Bens Challenge route (the Challenge hasn't been run for the past two or three years). Start at Derryclare and do the horseshoe as far as 560 on the South West of Bengower. Leave you pack there and walk out to the top of Benlettery to a check point, back to 560 and walk out to the top of Benglenisky. From there descend into the valley and skirt around under Benbreen. Head up the col between Bencullaghduff and Benbaun. Then you'd head on to do Benbaun, Benfree, Muckanaght, Bencullagh, and Maumonght. Benbrack and Knockbrack were also included I think but I'm fuzzy on the details after Maumonght as I was knackered even thinking about it

Great Pics
Did the Challenge in 06 or 07 on what was the hottest day of the year. It either makes or breaks you. The Horse shoe is a great walk but to head back to climb Ban etc was mentally so tough.13 hours it took. Still cracked the Turks, Bens, Comeragh that year.

johngalway

I might have a go at the Maumturks challenge next year, depending on how my knee is then. I think if the Twelve Bens challenge was resurrected it'd be beyond me

catbear

Did the horseshoe last weekend, exact same route as the OP. one of the group was tracking it on a gps and I think he said it was 10Km in length and about 2000m climb overall. Great walk, tough on the knees, that last descent is tough and I'd try maybe going to the right off to a lower hill to go down, longer but easier than the guts of an hour to cover such a short distance.

johngalway

Yeah Benlettery descent just seems to go on for ever, you think you have it beat then move a bit and there's ages left lol.

I was in the valley today, only saw two cars parked up, pity seeing as it was such a fantastic day.

Dagon

I just did Derryclare with a friend at the weekend, and it was amazing. Not an easy climb, but once I was up there I wanted to do the entire horseshoe.

Now I'm planning to bring camping gear and do the horseshoe over a weekend with some friends. Maybe start on Friday-eve / Saturday early morning, get half-way through the horseshoe, camp in the mountains for a couple of nights, then come back down on the Sunday. Would make more sense to me than killing yourself trying to do it all in one day.

After hiking in Nepal, I have some nice gear for the harsh mountain conditions and it would be a shame not to use it!

a148pro

Did it last Thursday, same route as OP. Was alone but another guy was about an hour behind me, every time I reached the top of one I would see him making his way down roughly the same point of the previous one. Was re-assuring to know there was someone following, not advisable to do this route alone I think as lots of scree and steep slopes so reasonable risk of twisting something. Only brought 750mls of water which was also schoolboy error, was conscious of it running out by the third last climb, got through in the end though.

One of the descents, about the third last I think (prob the scree one mentioned above by OP) was basically a ski slope. I effectively parallelled and jump turned down it! The climb on the other side as well was crazy steep, just shy of needing ropes. Again, not something that should be done alone. And to think I was going to do this in Winter originally, again alone.

All in all took me about eight hours, but I'm still quite stiff today (Sunday) and consider myself pretty fit. The book I had said it was 15km with about 1500m ascent, which makes either the Mamturk or the challenge route pretty damn impressive. A nice days walking for sure but from memory driving past the Bens I thought they were a little more dramatic, I don't know....

Dagon

a148pro wrote: »

The book I had said it was 15km with about 1500m ascent, which makes either the Mamturk or the challenge route pretty damn impressive. A nice days walking for sure but from memory driving past the Bens I thought they were a little more dramatic, I don't know....

Which book did you use?

I'm hoping to bring my tent and split it into two days, walking 5 hours each day. Even when we were in the Himalayas, most days we wouldn't be doing much more than 600 to 1000m in a day. 1500m is very impressive imo.

Dagon

Dagon wrote: »

Which book did you use?

I'm hoping to bring my tent and split it into two days, walking 5 hours each day. Even when we were in the Himalayas, most days we wouldn't be doing much more than 600 to 1000m in a day. 1500m is very impressive imo.

I don't think it's advisable to split it, there are relatively few places to descend, and then you have an awful trudge through the valley back to the cars.

a148pro

Dagon wrote: »

Which book did you use?

I'm hoping to bring my tent and split it into two days, walking 5 hours each day. Even when we were in the Himalayas, most days we wouldn't be doing much more than 600 to 1000m in a day. 1500m is very impressive imo.

Joss Lynham's Best Irish Walks. To compare, the Mamturks walk is 25k with 2500m ascent!:eek:

By the way you prob only did that amount in the himalaya because a height gain of any more than that would be dangerous vis a vis acclimatisation. In the 12 you start and finish the walk at close to sea level , plenty of oxygen.

I agree with Dursey about prob not splitting it in two. Its also pretty inhospitable up on the ridge, wouldn't really be the kind of place you'd camp.

I was thinking of what I'd do if I went back there and I thought there might be a route over either half of the horse shoe and then on into Letterfrack. This would take you over one of the Bens which isn't in the horseshoe, but is the highest mountain in Galway, can't remember the name of it. Its insanely steep from that side so I'm not sure if its doable. Would be a pretty serious walk on into Letterfrack but beautiful.

So if that was doable try that. Otherwise maybe do the horseshoe and camp or use the youth hostel at its foot (not sure if that's still open), then do a second day elsewhere? Albeit I was fecked after the horseshoe so wouldn't be up to much apart from a seaweed bath, which, incidentally, is available in nearby Leenane.

Dagon

a148pro wrote: »

By the way you prob only did that amount in the himalaya because a height gain of any more than that would be dangerous vis a vis acclimatisation. In the 12 you start and finish the walk at close to sea level , plenty of oxygen.

I agree with Dursey about prob not splitting it in two. Its also pretty inhospitable up on the ridge, wouldn't really be the kind of place you'd camp.

Well, below 3000m in the Himalaya, you can ascend as much as you like in a day and it won't have any adverse effects. But above 3000m you have to slow down to doing 300-500m per day, or you could run into trouble. Although I advise to keep it below 400 as I saw a lot of people run into difficulty through over-exertion and tiredness and lack of sleep. Thankfully not a problem on our little island!:)

I know it's quite inhospitable on the ridge but for me that's part of the challenge! Hoping to bring the right gear and a good sleeping bag and find a semi-sheltered spot. When I was up there before it wasn't easy finding a potential camping spot but there are a few possible places I think.