An action packed day: A 5am start, a 10pm finish, 450 Km of driving, 10 High Point Ireland Sport Hillwalking Locations visited, 63 points gained in the All Ireland Hillwalking Championships. Walking boots, wellingtons, wet gear and bikes were all used on road, trails and mud. Here’s how it went!
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.
