Lured in by the attractive double points awarded by completing a Mountain Challenge within 24 hours, we set off at 9am on Sunday morning for Knocknafallia East, one of the 8 locations that we had to log on Peakhunter to claim the bonus points. The 8 Sport hillwalking locations in The Knockmealdown Mountains Challenge are:
- Knocknafallia East
- Knocknafallia West
- Knocknagnauv
- Knockmealdown
- Knockmoylan
- Sugarloaf Hill
- Knocknalougha
- Knockshanahullion
After logging both Knocknafallia East & West, we followed the stone wall which stretches along the Waterford/Tipperary Border. A slight detour of about 10m over the wall was Knocknagnauv and after logging that we continued to follow the wall up the severely steep slopes of Knockmealdown, the highest point in the county of Waterford.
We sat down to eat our lunch there, admiring the stunning views visible thanks to the clear, sunny weather. A few lads on dirt bikes joined us at the top as well, which was a surprise for sure.
Next we followed the well-worn path from Knockmealdown over to Sugarloaf Hill (Which like Temple Hill, is most definitely not a hill), detouring slightly to log Knockmoylan on our way.
Still following the border wall, we descended down to Baylough Car Park before ascending up the other side of the valley to Knocknalougha. From there, it was a straightfoward walk (now no longer following the wall) to our last log of the day, Knockshanahullion before our final descent to the car we parked earlier above Clogheen.
