We set off for The Purples from just below Black Lake, following the road for a short while before turning left to face the steep mountainside. And up that steep mountainside we went! A bit of zigzagging was necessary to help with the climb, and we were extremely lucky the ferns weren’t fully grown, or it would have been a lot harder! We skirted around Tomies Mountain North Top as it wasn’t part of the challenge, and continued onto the much larger Tomies Mountain instead.

From Tomies, we headed straight for Purple Mountain Northeast. But before we began the final climb, we skirted around it to reach Shehy Mountain first, a sneaky mountain that was a bit out of our way!

Then we headed back to Purple Mountain Northeast, our penultimate log of the evening.

From there, Purple Mountain was easy to reach, following the ridge. We could see a rescue operation over on the Reeks and we heard later that all were removed from the mountain safely.

Then, we descended back to the “Head Of The Gap”, passing Glas Lough on our way. We had stashed a bike at a House Ruin just below “The Head Of The Gap” so Dad cycled (freewheeling!) back to the car and then returned to get me.

We put the bike into hiding again for the night and set off on our first Carcation for 2022, staying at the Hydro Road Car Park.

Once we had some breakfast, We were walking for 7:30am the next morning, with hopes to complete the The MacGillycuddy’s Reeks Mountain Challenge.

We started off up the Hydro Road, leaving it to begin the climb to Cnoc Íochtair, our first log of the day at 08:53.

We continued on, logging Skregmore and taking a short detour to Knockbrinnea East Top before reaching Beenkeragh.

To get to Carrauntoohil, we had to cross The Bones, a narrow and extremely rocky ridge, good practice for The Big Gun!

We had to go out to reach Caher and then come back again to continue on with the rest of the challenge. We dropped our bags on the way over and collected them on the way back, which sped us up a bit.

Next up was Cnoc na Toinne. We passed the top of The Devil’s Ladder and after a short climb we were logging. Following the same ridge we reached (With a lot of ups and downs) Cnoc an Chuillin, Maolán Buí & Cnoc na Péiste. We had a bit of lunch on Cnoc na Péiste, eyeing up The Big Gun

Before, we had traversed the Big Gun before from the other direction but we found it tricky from this side, and the fact that the conditions had now changed to mist and fog made it even harder but after a bit of scrambling and over and backs we managed it. Will definitely take another look at the route for the next time.

We ended up having to lose a lot of height, so we ascended from from the ESE to Cruach Mhór. The summmit is marked by a large grotto, which made for an interesting background for our Peakhunter log picture!

We were on the downward stretch now, we had the all the highest mountains ticked off!

It was mostly downhill to reach our second last mountain, Cnoc an Bhráca.

To get from Cnoc an Bhráca to Cnoc na dTarbh, you had to drop down 100m, before climbing back up another 50m! We probably wouldn’t have found this too bad if our legs were fresh, but after 20km walking it felt pretty sickening!

But luckily, once we reached Cnoc na dTarbh, that was it, we had completed The MacGillycuddy’s Reeks Mountain Challenge. Now, we just had to get down!

We had planned to descend via Drishana to The Gap Of Dunloe and then walk the road back down to the bike, but opted to come down the face of Cnoc na dTarbh instead. It was pretty steep, but we definitely saved a lot of distance.

15 Peaks later we were back to the bike once again and Dad set off for the 20K cycle to get the car and come back to collect me. Killarney McDonald’s was a welcome sight after such an action packed weekend and then home to get some sleep, with the satisfaction of finishing on top of the Leaderboard once again!

To conclude The Blackstairs Mountains Challenge we headed over to Blackstairs Mountain. We were trying our best to stay ahead of the bad weather, so speed was of the essence!

Now that we had completed The Blackstairs Mountains Challenge, we paid a visit to the highest point of county Kilkenny, Brandon Hill.

Next, we headed over to The Comeraghs to log Knocksheegowna & Knockanaffrin. By logging these now, it would cut out a lot of walking when we return to log the rest of The Comeraghs.

We drove over to The Knockmealdowns with a similar tactic. By logging Knocknafallia East, Knocknafallia West, & Knocknagnauv, cutting off the eastern side of the Knockmealdowns.

Then, to conclude the day, it was over to the other side of the Knockmealdowns for Knockshanahullion & Knocknalougha.

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 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.

1. Knocknafallia E​ast
2. Knocknafallia West
3. Knocknagnauv
4. Knockmealdown
5. Knockmoylan
6. Sugarloaf Hill
7. Knocknalougha
8. 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.