Our 3rd mountain of the day was Cruach Mhór, which has a distinctive square grotto marking it’s top. We were then faced with to most challenging task of the day. Logging, and more importantly, getting safely across The Big Gun, widely regarded as the most difficult to reach of Ireland’s major mountaintops.

With a lot of scrambling and over and backs, we managed it! From there it was plain sailing, logging Cnoc na Péiste, Maolán Buí, Cnoc an Chuillin & Cnoc na Toinne as we headed for Cronin’s Yard. We had planned to descend via the Zig-Zags, but seeing as it was such a nice day we opted for The Devil’s Ladder instead.

We arrived in Cronin’s Yard by 22:00, concluding round 1 of The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships, earning a final 75 points on the Eastern Reeks Ridge securing top place on the leaderboard. We had racked up a total of 631 Points In Round 1!

When we were returning to collect the car later on we had to explain “our movements” to “An Garda Síochána” at Kate Kearneys Cottage as they were restricting traffic to the Black Road as a result of some “messing” up there earlier by so called Rally Fans!

We followed an old bogroad to start, but quickly turned off it onto the open mountain heading straight for Knocksheegowna. It was a nice day, not much sun but more importantly no rain!

Next, we headed over to Knockanaffrin, looking down on Lough Mohra as we passed it.

Now it was time for the toughest part of the whole walk; Descending 291 meters down into The Gap, and then climbing 328 meters to reach Kilclooney Mountain.

After a bit more down-and-up climbing, we reached Coumfea. From there, we just had to follow the ridge for the rest of the way, which passed over our 2 remaining mountains, Seefin & Coumaraglin.

By the time we were back down at the road it was dark, many thanks to Theresa for the lift back to the car after. Completing the 6 peaks of the Comeragh Mountain Challenge gave us 51 points and a bonus 51 for completing it in one day. An evening well spent!

This was our first visit to Caherbarnagh, and we were walking by 18:30. It was a steep, grassy climb but it was interesting to be somewhere new. We took a longer way down, meeting a farmer along the way who was looking for a lost calf!

After a short drive we were climbing again, this time on The Paps. Our route wasn’t great, a bit more research will be required before we return again! We had to trudge through extremely high heather for most of the way. We were on our way back down by 21:15 with 24 more points earned for the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships, bringing us right up the leaderboard. There is only three more days left in round 1, but a lot can happen in three days!

After Coderdojo, we headed down to Kerry. We would be hiking the Coomloughra Horseshoe, but adding on a little bit to visit Knockbrinnea.

I set off from Cronin’s yard up the Hydro Road in a shiny pair of new boots, soaking in the good weather. We turned off of the road a couple of hundred meters before Lough Eighter and followed a well-worn track to our first mountain, Cnoc Íochtair. It was a steep climb, but we reaped our rewards when we reached the summit and saw the beautiful lakes.

We followed the ridge, logging Skregmore before detouring off to reach Knockbrinnea. From there, we headed straight up the steep ridge of Beenkeragh, logging the 2nd highest mountain in Ireland at 16:50.

We crossed the bones to reach Carrauntoohil, my first visit this year. From there, we simply followed the Caher ridge back down to the Hydra road.

This was my second time completing The Coomloughra Horsehoe, in the reverse direction this time however. We were blessed with a beautiful day to spend in such a beautiful landscape.

This was only our second time ascending Mweelrea. The last time I was there, I could barely see my own feet with fog and we were met with intermittent rain showers. The conditions could not be more different today. We set off around 10:25 with the sun beaming overhead and the higher we climbed the better views we saw, especially of Silver Strand. The climb was steep, but I found it a lot easier than the last time!

Next we tracked back to the col, but instead of heading back down to Silver Strand, we climbed up the other side to Ben Bury.

After Ben Bury, we had to head out along difficult ridge that can be a small bit dangerous & technical at points, logging Ben Lugmore West Top, Ben Lugmore, & Ben Lugmore East Top on our way.

We returned back the way that we came down to Silver Strand and hopped in the car with the satnav headed for Barnacranny Hill East & West. We met a few horses when we got there, and one of them really wanted to pose for Animal Picture Of The Day!

Today was all about the 50’s. We earned 50 points for completing the Mweelrea Mountain Challenge, and a bonus 50 for completing it in one day. All these points contribute towards the The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships. We also completed the High Point Ireland 50 Challenge 2022.

Luckily for us, the gates to the mast road were open so we were able to drive to the top; an easy 9 points!

Next up was the short but steep Musheramore. We brought wellies with us as this is usually quite muddy! It was a brilliant evening with the sun’s golden rays shining on our backs but even with the wellies, we still had to watch our step as we climbed.

After logging on Peakhunter, we slowly descended, being careful not to submerge ourselves in the bog or slip into a slide down the mud.

Luckily, after avoiding a few close calls, we made it back to the car just as the sun was setting on the horizon.

The real climbing began when we proceeded through a gate onto the open mountain, following a grassy path up Camara hill, which follows the edge of a military firing range. Many herds of Sika Deer passed by as we walked, however we didn’t delay because of our goal to log as many High Points as possible, but also because rain was forecasted for 11am and we wanted to be well down by then.
​So, we climbed on, veering left when we reached the saddle between Lugnaquilla and Slievemaan. From there on, the climb was significantly steeper, but still quite manageable. The top was covered in some thick cloud, so we didn’t see any views. After logging on Peakhunter, we headed back down to the boggy saddle but instead of heading straight back down to Camara hill we went up the opposite side of the saddle to Slievemaan, which is worth an extra 8 points on top of the 19 we got from Lug.

With a bit of twisting around some boggy ground we were soon logging the second from our list, Slievemaan and we quickly set a course to rejoin the route we came up earlier, with some nice views of Keadeen Mountain and Sugarloaf as we descended.

Next up on the list was Mount Leinster & Mount Leinster East Top. We parked up at The Nine Stones Car Park and headed up the tarmac road leading to the RTE Mast at the top of Mount Leinster. I decided to wear some old runners rather than boots for this one, thinking that they would be more comfortable for the tarmac road and naively assuming that Mount Leinster East Top would be a short walk from the top. I was surprised when I checked Peakhunter after logging Mount Leinster to find that the East Top was almost 2km away over heathery, boggy ground. We trudged on anyway and with a bit of care, I managed to keep my feet from getting completely soaked. 

​Rather than returning to the top of Mount Leinster, I skirted around the side of it to join the tarmac road. We got caught in a small shower on our way down, luckily it only lasted around 5 minutes. It did however reveal a spectacular rainbow for us to marvel at.

What makes The All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships even more interesting are the mountain challenges. These involve visiting all the Sport hillwalking locations in a specific range within 24 hours to earn double points. The Blackstairs Mountains Challenge only involves 3 Sport Hillwalking Locations; 2 Of which we had just completed! The only mountain left to complete to earn double points was Blackstairs, so naturally that was where we were headed for next!
The sun was shining down on us as we trekked up the enclosed singletrack which gives off a “magical” feel, and also leads up onto the open mountain. It is a straightforward hike from here, following the well worn (and sometimes mucky) singletrack to the top, which is marked by a cairn decorated with some colorful bunting, which reminded me of the prayer flags on Everest Base Camp. We were caught in a nasty shower at the top, which continued as we descended.

A​bout halfway down we were glad to see the shower blow away once again revealing clear skies which remained with us for the remainder of the day. When we reached the car, we checked the time and realised it was only 4:30 in the evening so decided to try and tick off a few more while heading for home.
We slightly detoured first to Brandon Hill, the county high point of Kilkenny. Rather than taking our usual route to the top, we instead followed the new waymarked route just to give it a try. It turned out to be a bit longer so we didn’t wait around at the top and headed back down via our own more direct route to the car.

Our second last Sport Hillwalking Location of the day, Carricktriss Gorse, was up next. A 10 minute walk along a forestry road brought us to an entry point into the forest, where we hunted for the trig. We found this difficult to locate the first few times we were there, but I think we have the hang of it by now. The trees also don’t help by disrupting GPS signal. After logging, we headed back to the Car and drove over to Slievenamon.

Darkness was setting in as we headed up our final mountain of the day. We followed the well worn track up, and logged it on Peakhunter, taking our picture against the beautiful dusk sky. We didn’t take our time on the way down as darkness was now well established and we were fairly peckish too, luckily Clonmel was close by where we filled our bellies with Chinese before driving home, very satisfied to have logged all 8 locations and banked the full 83 points.  

​The weather wasn’t promising for the day, especially for the morning. It was misting as we set off, however as we approached the start of the Knockfeerina trail as dawn was breaking, all rainfall had come to a halt. Even though it is a beautiful walk with great views, today’s plan was to use the bikes, get our points and head for the next location on our list. It didn’t look like the sunrise was going to be visible with low cloud surrounding the peak but to the west the almost full moon was setting nicely so we set up the GoPro in the hope that we could capture a nice sunrise. The cross on top of Knockfeerina was nicely lit and looked amazing in the dawn’s light and we wasted no time logging on Peakhunter and returned to the car with just over 30 minutes having passed. Unfortunately the timelapse wasn’t successful as the moon also decided to hide away soon after we set the camera recording. With our first three points of the day in the bag, we set off towards Limerick for the next location, Woodcock Hill.

Woodcock Hill is easily logged, parking at the entrance to the Irish Aviation Authority radar site with a short walk to the trig. This earned us another 4 points and we were soon on our way heading for Ballycuggaran Forest to tackle Moylussa, the highest point of Clare.​

​I awoke from a nice nap in the car to misty rain as Dad parked up at our third County since leaving home (Cork, Limerick and now Clare) and it was still only half past eight in the morning! Both bikes and wet gear were used here now that rain had arrived but we had a secret weapon to use at the top: Wellingtons! Those would come in handy as the extra 4 points gained by visiting the NW top required the traversal of extremely boggy ground. All was going well taking into account the misty conditions, we were passing many walkers as we proceeded upwards and suddenly I noticed Dad had come to a standstill, so I doubled back for a look. It turned out that the chain had jumped and pulled the rear derailleur into the wheel spokes causing some damage to the derailleur, but luckily the wheel escaped without damage. After a rough fix which limited the bike to one gear we were off again, hoping that the makeshift fix would last. The steepest part of this walk is at the end and is suitable for walking only so we hopped off the bikes and pulled on our wellingtons, setting off for the final ascent. We logged the SE point first, before trudging through the muddy bog to the NW top. While the SE point is clearly marked by a plaque on a large boulder, the NW top is unmarked so Peakhunter was critical here to provide evidence of our visit. Once we had it logged we didn’t delay getting back to the bikes and back to the car as fast as possible, passing many devoted walkers climbing in the poor conditions on our way. Thankfully the bike held out and we were quickly back at the car with 8 more points secured!

With the bikes loaded and wet gear off we headed to Tountinna, on the other side of Killaloe. Walking is an option here if you set off from the Graves of The Leinster Men but that’s not what we were interested in today so instead we drove up the mast road in the car. As it was now raining quite heavily we were happy to be able to log it without venturing far from the car. Five more easy points attained and after a spot of lunch in the car we were on the road again with the satnav set for Keeper Hill.

We arrived to the entrance of Keeper Hill’s walks at Doonane Forest Car Park and surprisingly found the road into the car park is in very poor condition. It is a nice family walk of about 16Km but our plan again was to cycle as much as possible but as it was still raining quite heavily we just decided to keep driving and see how far we could get. With every corner and turn we just kept going and soon enough we were parked within 3km from the peak. We decided not to use the bikes, but the big decision was what to wear, as the weather was constantly fluctuating from dry to rain. A fellow walker passed by and I couldn’t but agree with his comment; “Are we mad?”! Eventually we decided to go with the wets and we were soon logging at the top before making our way back towards the car, happy as Larry with another twelve points. 

Next up was Cullaun, an easy enough one. We were able to bring the car to within 2km of the top, allowing us to be back on the road again with five more points within 45 minutes.

The Devil’s Bit was our next target offering up 6 more points. The weather was now dry and sunny so with our walking boots on we set off to reach the trig point and logged it using Peakhunter. There were some great views from the top and as we descended we met plenty others out for the afternoon sunshine and fresh air.

​We decided to break slightly from our original plans to include Arderin, the county High Point of Laois and Offaly, which would boost our points by another eleven. Having frequently climbed this one it was smooth sailing all the way to the top but experience told us to use the wellingtons once again and that was definitely the right decision. Usually our visits here are surrounded by fog but today we had clear conditions. Eventhough we were fast enough up and down we were certain it was nothing like the pace of Carolyn McKinney, who, five days previous had set a blistering time during her County High Point Challenge. Well done Carolyn and team.

The evening was moving on now and we still had a few more in mind. Clomantagh Hill is always a nice walk through old stone walled fields with whitethorn trees and limestone rocks speckled amoung the grass. A quick walk as the sun started to set meant another five points before we were on the road heading south once again.

The sunset was amazing, setting the sky on fire.

With the sun now setting quickly as we drove, we decided on just one more short log for four final points at Knocknamuck. Again no bother here with a very quick walk to the High Point from the car.

With just over an hour to drive home we fueled up at McDonald’s on route, delighted with our tally of sixty three points from the day long adventure.