Westport to Achill island part 2
Croagh Patrick dominates the bay between Westport and Newport. It is were St Patrick did a stint being a hermit. There is still a little building on the top, don’t know whether that is the original one though. Definately have to climb that one day.
The bay and Achill island are a beautiful mixture between impressive cliffs and mountains and lush little islands, the best of both worlds.
Nameless peaks in between Tonelagee and Mullaghcleevaun
I went hiking again today in the middle of the Wicklows. I did two nameless hills in between Tonelagee and Mullaghcleevaun. The hike was about 7 km’s climbing from 400 mtrs to 780 mtrs high. Great weather and a nice hike.
Moanbane Mountain
Back to hiking up mountains after a break. Today I planned to do Sorrell mountain but when I got there I decided to go a different route. After hiking over a small unnamed hill I got to a stream with Moanbane behind it. Followed the stream down for a bit and then climbed Moanbane.
One of the best views so far. Moanbane has no paths and was completely empty. The views were great, not a man made thing in sight. I could see the reservoir near Glendalough which looked like a weird mountain top castle from the distance. Great day.
Clifden to Westport
Today we continued our discovery of Ireland by taking off were we left off in county Galway and moving up to county Mayo. We drove to Clifden passing the Twelve Bens mountain range were we briefly stopped at an farmers auction were cows and sheep were sold. Apparently a bale of hay costs 2,50 euro in Ireland. The bales kept following us throughout the day (see the picture of the curragh with the bales in the bow)
Unfortunately the weather was very cloudy/foggy and hence the mountains that are the backdrop to practically everything weren’t very visible. We saw the only fjord in Ireland at Leenane and stopped at the Doo Lough were 400 people died during the famine. Last stop was Westport were there is a bay with loads of strangely formed Islands. But you have to climb Croagh Patrick mountain were St Patrick went on Pilgrimage.
We didn’t get to see everything and we past some of the sights so we need to go back and I have promised J to stop at the following places:
Powerscourt Mountain
Short and easy hike up Powerscourt mountain today. It has a huge areal on top so there is a asphalted road leading to the top making the normal muddy experience of going up a Wicklow mountain a lot easier. Some great views of Dublin, Bray and Sally Gap with the mountains behind. You could see almost all my previous hikes.
It’s about 740 meters high but it took me only about 1,5 hrs up and down again because you can park quite high up. Unfortunately you couldn’t hike to the cliffs with the two lakes below due to the amount of very wet peat/bog in between. Very worthwhile walk quite near Dublin very good if you’re a beginner and want to test whether you like it.
Powerscourt estate, waterfall and mountain
Today J and I had a powerscourt day. We first went to the Powerscourt estate, there were some good shops for J and she bought some knitted stuff and then didn’t want to view the gardens and mansion any more. Guess that is a strategy to make me go back there again for more shopping ;-).
We then went to the waterfall which was beautiful but you do have to pay 5.50 pp to see it. Worthwhile though. Then through Sally Gap (where I showed J some of the mountains I have walked) to Powerscourt mountain to see whether it is worth walking. Looked allright, it’s next up.
