Recommend a hill walking weekend destination?

Mad Benny

In the past three years we've gone on hill walking weekends to Wicklow, Kerry, Antrim, the Scottish Highlands and Snowdonia.

Does anybody have any recommendations on good destinations for a two night hill walking get away?

Bristolscale7

How about Ballycroy National Park in Mayo?

chillin117

Just a Question, What's Glenmalure in Wicklow like ? I was thinking of Lugnaquilla staying in Glenmalure Hotel Fri and Sat. Anyone done that ? Hotel any good ? Thanks

Hiking.ie

Glenmalure is great, plenty of hiking. I have stayed in The Glenmalure Lodge many times and its always great. Good food and the bar has a bit of life in the evenings.

Mad Benny, have you tried to The Mournes in Co Down, staying in Newcastle, or the Caha Mountains in West Cork, staying in Glengarriff, both are great for a weekends hiking.

All the best.

Alun

I was going to suggest the Mournes too. Nice and compact so it doesn't really matter too much where you stay really.

laoch na mona

have you considered Aherlow? their is plenty climbing in the Galtees

hmmm

Achill island, and fingers crossed you get the weather.

Mad Benny

Thanks for all the great recommendations. We did the Galtees in October and we've been to the Mournes twice this year.

I can highly recommend the The Glenmalure Lodge. We stayed in the the Glenmalure hostel too during the summer. Fantastic place.

Ballycroy National Park in Mayo is on the list. Hopefully during the summer of 2016

Any other recommendations? There are so many cheap flights to Europe. We would definitely consider that too.

duckysauce

Mad Benny wrote: »

Thanks for all the great recommendations. We did the Galtees in October and we've been to the Mournes twice this year.

I can highly recommend the The Glenmalure Lodge. We stayed in the the Glenmalure hostel too during the summer. Fantastic place.

Ballycroy National Park in Mayo is on the list. Hopefully during the summer of 2016

Any other recommendations? There are so many cheap flights to Europe. We would definitely consider that too.

lake district :cool::cool: if you have never been is class

Mad Benny

hmmm wrote: »

Achill island, and fingers crossed you get the weather.

We went to Achill in August and stayed in a caravan. The weather was awful and too windy for hill walking. I don't think I'll be able to persuade my wife to go back any time soon

gomamochi1

The Cooley peninsula is a great spot for hill walking- couple of day hikes over to carlingford and back from Ravensdale. Accommodation reasonable on air b&b also. Stayed in Craig mon, Ravensdale lovely spot.

You could spend weeks in Kerry alone, Reeks, Brandon, Slieve Mish, the wonderful Dunkerrons, Mangertons, Glenbeigh Horseshoe, Cahas etc. etc. Killarney, Dingle and Kenmare all great bases.

chicorytip

Croagh Patrick!!

Carawaystick

Snowdonia,
Ogwen valley has the carneddad in the east and Tryfan and Glyddrs on the west side
Or the Snowden horseshoe over Crib Goch

Ferry, train to Bangor, bus to Llanberis


Or fly to Geneva, trains to Chamonix
Telepherique to the Aiguile du Midi for the view, back down to the plan, hike over to the Mer du Glacé
Next day hike across the Aiguille Rouge, looking back at the Mont Blanc massif

Orion

Mad Benny wrote: »

We stayed in the the Glenmalure hostel too during the summer. Fantastic place.

I'm heading there with 20 scouts tomorrow for the weekend. Plan is to do Lug but we'll see what the weather is like on Saturday.

Alun

Orion wrote: »

I'm heading there with 20 scouts tomorrow for the weekend. Plan is to do Lug but we'll see what the weather is like on Saturday.

Doesn't look promising ...

http://www.yr.no/place/Ireland/Leinster/Lugnaquillia_Mountain/hour_by_hour_detailed.html

monty_python

Hiking.ie wrote: »

or the Caha Mountains in West Cork, staying in Glengarriff, both are great for a weekends hiking.

All the best.

i second that, but consider staying in castletownbere, allihies or eyeries

Orion

Alun wrote: »

Doesn't look promising ...

http://www.yr.no/place/Ireland/Leinster/Lugnaquillia_Mountain/hour_by_hour_detailed.html

Doesn't look too bad. Winds not too strong. Dry in morning, some rain in afternoon. 1-2 degrees but you can wrap up against the cold.

Alun

Orion wrote: »

Doesn't look too bad. Winds not too strong. Dry in morning, some rain in afternoon. 1-2 degrees but you can wrap up against the cold.

With wind chill that may well drop to zero or below. Cloud level is at 225m also.

Orion

Saw that too. We'll assess it on Saturday morning and if it's too dangerous to bring a group of teenagers we might head up Table or Lugduff instead. Would have any other suggestions?

Orion

Just to mention the planned route is via Fraughen Rock and back down via Clogherna and the zigzags. Though if it's too bad then back down Fraughen Rock as well.

Tiriel

Orion wrote: »

Just to mention the planned route is via Fraughen Rock and back down via Clogherna and the zigzags. Though if it's too bad then back down Fraughen Rock as well.

If you're very familiar/have strong navigation skills etc. then it's not so bad, but with low cloud it can be very difficult to navigate your way down from Lug.

Orion

Few of there with good navigation skills but tbh if it's visibility is too bad I won't be bringing the scouts up. Fog is always a problem on Lug so contingency is Lugduff at the moment.

Alun

Orion wrote: »

Just to mention the planned route is via Fraughen Rock and back down via Clogherna and the zigzags. Though if it's too bad then back down Fraughen Rock as well.

As Tiriel says, if you're familiar with the route and can navigate, that should pose no particular problems, although keeping a group as big as 20 together, esp. if they're of differing ability / fitness can be a challenge at the best of times, but can be even more so in bad visibility.

Finding the start of the track heading towards Clohernagh when you come off the summit, plus making sure you don't head off towards Corrigaslegaun by mistake when you get to the track split where the WMNP marker post is will be the main things.

BTW, I don't know if you've been that way recently but the last bit of the route off of Clohernagh down to the top of the zigzags is getting extremely eroded.

Orion

About a year since I last did the zigzags and it was pretty eroded then too There is another route down just after the summit of Cloghernagh heading northwhich I haven't done myself but a friend did it two weeks ago. It's marked on the map so we may take that route. It brings us back to the road about 2-3km closer to the hostel.

My concern is not finding the way it's, as you say, containing a group of kids who are differing abilities. They're good kids and don't wander but with all the crags and cliffs up there I'd rather not take the chance if visibility is too poor.

Alun

Orion wrote: »

There is another route down just after the summit of Cloghernagh heading north which I haven't done myself but a friend did it two weeks ago. It's marked on the map so we may take that route. It brings us back to the road about 2-3km closer to the hostel.

Yes, that takes you along the edge of the cliffs to the start of a grassy ramp which goes down towards Art's Lough. Before you get to the lough itself, you drop off right and across to the edge of the forest and join a muddy track through the trees down to the forest tracks proper down through Clonkeen Woods. I've done it many times.

My concern is not finding the way it's, as you say, containing a group of kids who are differing abilities. They're good kids and don't wander but with all the crags and cliffs up there I'd rather not take the chance if visibility is too poor.

Good call.

hmmm

Orion wrote: »

My concern is not finding the way it's, as you say, containing a group of kids who are differing abilities. They're good kids and don't wander but with all the crags and cliffs up there I'd rather not take the chance if visibility is too poor.

The Arts Lough route (from the top of Clohernagh to the cliff edge) can get a bit disorientating & the track isn't entirely clear in places so requires decent navigation skills. Just FYI.

brownian

Carawaystick wrote: »

Snowdonia,
Ogwen valley has the carneddad in the east and Tryfan and Glyddrs on the west side
Or the Snowden horseshoe over Crib Goch

Ferry, train to Bangor, bus to Llanberis


Or fly to Geneva, trains to Chamonix
Telepherique to the Aiguile du Midi for the view, back down to the plan, hike over to the Mer du Glacé
Next day hike across the Aiguille Rouge, looking back at the Mont Blanc massif

There are multiple bus companies that do door-to-door Geneva to Chamonix transfers - much less painful than the train. google them...

hardCopy

Bristolscale7 wrote: »

How about Ballycroy National Park in Mayo?

I took a spin out to Ballycroy over Christmas with the in-laws.

We only did a short loop out of Letterkeen but it's a beautiful spot.

We only passed one other person all morning and they were on the other side of a river.

Sundance_Kid

Hi folks,

Any recommenations for a hill walking destination for one night - the plan would be to head up early some Saturday morning, go for a hike and head out that night for a food and some drinks and hope to stay somewhere local.

Preferrably not in Wicklow and ideally no more than 90 minutes from Dublin?

Thanks in advance

Mad Benny

Slieve Donard? It's the highest mountain in Ulster. It's about 95 minutes from Dublin to Newcastle.

falan

Sundance_Kid wrote: »

Hi folks,

Any recommenations for a hill walking destination for one night - the plan would be to head up early some Saturday morning, go for a hike and head out that night for a food and some drinks and hope to stay somewhere local.

Preferrably not in Wicklow and ideally no more than 90 minutes from Dublin?

Thanks in advance

How about the Galtee mountains in Tipperary or the Knockmealdowns or Comeraghs? You'd be talking a 2 hour drive at least from Dublin but some nice mountains all the same. I have a lot of hikes done in those areas.

Alun

If you want something a little closer then Blackstairs / Mt. Leinster would be an option. Stay overnight in Bunclody.

hmmm

The Coolies and Carlingford would make a nice weekend. Busy little place too, a couple of choices for food.

Alun

hmmm wrote: »

The Coolies and Carlingford would make a nice weekend. Busy little place too, a couple of choices for food.

True, but it does get VERY busy on Saturday nights in the town, and we've had problems recently getting tables in some of the restaurants / pubs there after walks in the area, as it seems to have become a bit of a stag/hen destination.