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county tops challenge
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12-01-2013 9:08pm#1
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mr spuckler wrote: »i'd been planning on doing galtymore this coming sunday. it's not gonna work out with this weather is it?
lugnaquilla already had to be shelved the weekend just gone.
It all depends, some might say it would be fun...as long as it keeps snowing!0 -
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where galtymore, limerick & tipperary, 919m, county top no. 2
when 27 jan 2013
distance 12.08km
ascent 664m
weather wind, cold, snow & hail
how it went a snow capped peak! was a lovely day starting out but gradually deteriorated. once we got up to the end of the path (climbed from black road side) the wind was in our faces the rest of the way and it was a real battle at times. underfoot was pretty boggy too, right until half way up the final climb to the summit. at the summit it was really difficult to stay upright it was so windy, we were lucky though that we got a break in the clouds while at the peak so had amazing views once we could steady ourselves against the wind! on the way back down we had the worst hailstorm i've ever been in, that said it was the best day i've had out in a long time
couple of pics
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Hi,
Just wondering how your challenge is going. I added another 'County Top' piece to the website. It's on Slieve Donard in the Mourne Mountains and you can see it at:
http://www.walkingandhikingireland.com/the-county-tops-number-7-slieve-donard-mourne-mountains-county-down/
hi paul, have been on a go slow for the last couple of weeks, both in terms of county tops and getting back to you...apologies for the second one, on the first i'm only disappointing myself!
so, tomorrow i'm doing loughcrew and possibly corn hill too. i've to head to carrick-on-shannon for a stag so figured i might as well do something healthy en route! both will be dependant on the back roads being in decent nick and me getting out of bed in time next friday i'll get mount leinster in on my way back up from wexford. 0 -
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mr spuckler wrote: »next friday i'll get mount leinster in on my way back up from wexford.
Well, make sure you do a decent walk on Mount Leinster - don't be 'sneaking up' the RTE road!! It really is a mountain that deserves a lot more, not least for it's cultural & historical associations. Every time I see it now and the growth of masts on it's summit, I can't help but think that this hill has been the subject of very considerable state vandalism.
The Ballycrystal approach is the standard way up but I think an ascent via Crannagh has a lot to be said for it. There's a small Coillte forest just where Crannagh is written on OS Sheet 68, it has standing stone and forts in it.
There's a partially marked forest road up to this forest, but it extends well up. When it ends, keep rightish and follow your nose up tracks and you'll reach open ground above0 -
where lough crew / slieve na calliagh, meath, 279m, county top no. 4
when 23 feb 2013
distance 1.42km
ascent 63m
weather cold & dry
how it went the thing that struck me most about meath as i headed down past kells was the number of signs for walkways and places of interest, historical or otherwise. i'm not sure why it struck me to such an extent yesterday but it's such a positive thing, would be good if a lot of other counties could follow their lead as there are a lot of amenities out there that could be better flagged.
loughcrew itself was very easy to find, being signposted from the kells to oldcastle road. there was a sign up at the start about getting the key for the cairn alright but i was tight for time so just did the walk but fully plan on getting back to explore further. the walk was short & fairly steep, as expected and took no more than 10 to 15 mins to get to the top. it starts out heading up a nice pathway but changes quite quickly into open hillside, with the cairn coming into view after a couple of minutes. when on top the views are quite spectacular on a clear day and a friendly local gent was happy to point out exactly what we were looking at in each direction. the cooley mountains and dublin mountains were just 2 that he showed me, it's always nice to meet like minded & friendly people when out and about!
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where corn hill, longford, 278m, county top no. 5
when 23 feb 2013
distance 1.81km
ascent 56m
weather cold & dry
how it went my second stop of the day, this one was a little harder to find! i'd bunged derrynacross into my sat-nav but it turned out it landed me on the wrong side of the hill...the hill itself could be seen from many miles away as it really is fairly flat countryside but it wasn't clear from where i was coming from that i was heading for the wrong side. after the extensive & helpful signposting in meath, longford let me down a bit! anyway, a helpful local gave me directions which got me to the point from where corn hill was signposted.
the walk / climb itself isn't up to much. once you've passed the multitude of warning signs at the gate a stroll up the rte access road as far as the mast and then around the mast to the point where the peak is identified by an ordinance survey marker. the views from the top are shielded somewhat by trees but from a little lower down there are good views of the surrounding countryside and i reckoned i could see back to where i'd come from earlier in the day! the big negative which occurred to me as i drove away from corn hill was the realisation that most of the handy county tops, both in terms of climbs and convenience, are now done. my struggles in finding the access point to corn hill also drove home the fact that i might need to put a bit more effort into planning from here on!
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Well, make sure you do a decent walk on Mount Leinster - don't be 'sneaking up' the RTE road!! It really is a mountain that deserves a lot more, not least for it's cultural & historical associations. Every time I see it now and the growth of masts on it's summit, I can't help but think that this hill has been the subject of very considerable state vandalism.
The Ballycrystal approach is the standard way up but I think an ascent via Crannagh has a lot to be said for it. There's a small Coillte forest just where Crannagh is written on OS Sheet 68, it has standing stone and forts in it.
There's a partially marked forest road up to this forest, but it extends well up. When it ends, keep rightish and follow your nose up tracks and you'll reach open ground above
thanks for the advice, what route (apart from the road!) would offer the best underfoot conditions?0 -
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where mount leinster, carlow, 796m, county top no. 6
when 01 mar 2013
distance 5.38km
ascent 349m
weather cold & dry
how it went well in spite of the helpful advice to the contrary here, i only managed to do the path most trodden up the rte access road! mrs spuckler was with me and owing to a (hopefuly temporary) dicky hip wouldn't be up to a more strenuous hike, leaving the access road as the only viable option. i do need to start planning these outings a bit better from here on though as when i was driving up towards mount leinster this morning (from new ross) i passed brandon hill, the kilkenny county top. a little bit more thought would have meant that i could have done 2 today, although i'd definitely have been on a solo march for 1 of them!
the walk itself was basically a trek up a very steep hill, bordering on extremely steep at times. both the car park at the access gate and the top of the hill offered great views on the surrounding regions, including a couple of appealing looking hills! the clouds covering the top of the hill disappeared just as we got up to the top, which was a huge relief...no views after a tough hike can be very frustrating!
so 6 down in 2 months (plus 1 day!). good progress so far but all the more difficult trips still to come!
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mr spuckler wrote: »where mount leinster, carlow, 796m, county top no. 6
when 01 mar 2013
distance 5.38km
ascent 349m
weather cold & dry
how it went well in spite of the helpful advice to the contrary here, i only managed to do the path most trodden up the rte access road! mrs spuckler was with me and owing to a (hopefuly temporary) dicky hip wouldn't be up to a more strenuous hike, leaving the access road as the only viable option. i do need to start planning these outings a bit better from here on though as when i was driving up towards mount leinster this morning (from new ross) i passed brandon hill, the kilkenny county top. a little bit more thought would have meant that i could have done 2 today, although i'd definitely have been on a solo march for 1 of them!
the walk itself was basically a trek up a very steep hill, bordering on extremely steep at times. both the car park at the access gate and the top of the hill offered great views on the surrounding regions, including a couple of appealing looking hills! the clouds covering the top of the hill disappeared just as we got up to the top, which was a huge relief...no views after a tough hike can be very frustrating!
so 6 down in 2 months (plus 1 day!). good progress so far but all the more difficult trips still to come!
Great stuff. That is one steep road alright! One of the handier County Tops and you get great views from relatively little effort!
Where have you planned next?0 -
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where cupidstown hill, kildare, 379m, county top no. 7
when 31 mar 2013
distance ??
ascent ??
weather very cold, dry, some snow on the ground
how it went one of the joys of this challenge so far has been the opportunity to visit parts of the country that i'd never otherwise have the opportunity (or reason!) to see. kildare isn't far away from me in dublin but sure when else would i be driving through kilteel?! the walk itself from the road up to the vodafone mast is a really short one and despite this not being the lowest county top i've been up i reckon it was definitely the shortest and easiest walk. it was a shame that the trees at the top hindered the view towards the dublin & wicklow mountains, especially with the mountains being fully covered with snow. the view across kildare was quite exceptional though, with the slieve blooms (again i think!) visible in the distance.
i forgot my GPS so no distance or ascent. both numbers are definitely at the lower end of the scale though!
here's a panorama from the top, trig stone included. and some scenery from the forest entrance!
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where slieve foy, louth, 588m, county top no. 8
when 20 apr 2013
distance 9.52km
ascent 658m
weather a delight! mainly sunny although the breeze was fairly brisk on open ground
how it went wow, what a hike! this was completely different from any hike / climb i've done in ireland before. probably a combination of starting from a town and the general terrain & landscape, higher up especially which set it apart. the walk from carlingford starts with a steep narrow road which leads onto a narrow rocky pathway where at times you've to duck under the branches of the surrounding trees. it was such a scenic start and surprisingly it didn't set us up for a fall as we expected at the time! once onto open ground, slieve foy looms large above you on the right hand side, with barnavave to the left and a ridge running between the two (i think this is goylin's pass?). having failed to plan by way of buying a map or printing the route description, we weren't sure where we needed to start aiming for the top of slieve foy. thankfully i had a niggle of a memory of needing to get to the ridge so we headed up a seriously steep cross country route to get ourselves onto the beaten path. from here it was through a rocky passage and onto the rocky route to the top of the mountain where we were greeted by the now familiar trig stone. what we hadn't expected on the way up this morning was the views right back to dublin, with the sugar loaf visible in the distance. the mournes were also clearly visible but they are just across carlingford lough. the views in general were amazing though, whichever way we looked. getting back to the hike, the entire route up (partially because of our off piste stretch) was extremely steep and despite it not being one of the highest climbs we've done, it was a testing climb all the same. following a well earned & sheltered lunch break, we hit across the ridge to barnavave and then went off piste again on the way back to carlingford.
one of the joys of this challenge so far has been getting to places where i wouldn't normally go and carlingford is no exception. i think i'd passed through it once before but never stopped. we're both now really inclined to come back to carlingford at some stage, it seems like a really nice small town, has the cooleys and mournes on it's doorstep and potential for water based activities too. i might avoid a weekend night though for fear of the stags and hens which i understand take over the place at weekends!
paul, having forgot to give you a shout until i was about 15 mins away from carlingford, i'll make sure to pre-arrange hiking slieve gullion as i think you'd mentioned that previously? i'll generally flag them up here in advance here anyway so let me know of any that work for you and sorry about this morning!
some pics. first from the walk up, second is the view from the peak and third is the view from our lunch spot!
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