Slieve Gullion
First hill of the year in NI was a rather easy hike up up with some great views, you could see Sugar Loaf to the south of Dublin all the way up to the Mournes with the sea in between. There was a large bronze age cairn at the top. Afterwards we stumbled upon a shrine to St Bridget whic apparently is the female version of St Patrick to the Irish. Then went on to a beach in Carlingford overlooking the Mourne mountains
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.
Slieve Foye next to Carlingford
Finally went hiking again, I thought I would start easy and picked Slieve Foye which is about 540 mts high on the Northern Ireland border next to the lovely old village of Carlingford. It wasn’t as easy as I thought with quite a few steep areas and very rocky compared to the Wicklows. I got back down again completely nackered after 5,5 hrs. Very beautiful though and one of my favorites with great views: the Mournes mountains across the Lough in Northern Ireland, Carlingford and the Lough, and views all the way down to Dublin.
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.
Varty Reservoir & Lough Dan
Another day in the Wicklow mountains. But before we even reached J
spotted a sign for the Avoca store so that is where we ended up first.
Then we drove around the Varty Reservoir which has a weird little
castle type tower where the water is pumped out of the reservoir for
working. Also they had a cool shield there with what appears to be a
castle under attack.
We then drove up to Lough Dan and hiked along it for a couple of
hours. Really great views.
Mountain next to Glenasmore Reservoir
A very wet day with poring rain which turned everything soggy. There were little streams everywhere and moths paths on the mountain where either extremely muddy or a stream to wade through. Low clouds again so no views.
My drive along the lake was very beautiful and I will definitely return on a clearer day. I walked for approx 3 hrs and found that my waterproof gear wasn’t as waterproof as I thought.
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.
Keadeen Mountain
It is in the south of the Wicklow Mountains and about 650 meters high. I started out at Dwyers McAllister cottage which is an original Irish cottage where two Irish rebels were cornered by the English in the late 18th century. One of them drew fire to let the other one escape by standing in the doorway.
It wasn’t a good day for hiking as there were low clouds so I didn’t get any of the great views :-(. It is a plateau mountain which means that the top is more or less flat, this unfortunately also means that the water up there is stagnant and the ground therefore very boggy.
Discovered a beautiful stream running down the mountain on the way down and followed it’s course down to the road. There was no path and it was a lot of slipping and sliding but the beauty of the stream was worth it.
Lough Tay over Djouce Mountain to Powercourt waterfall
And back…..phew. Long hike today with strong winds but not too cold. Djouce Mt links up Lough Tay to Powerscourt with great views of all my previous hills. As always in the Wicklow Mountains some great views all the way from Dublin to Greystone and the sea. Was absolutely nackered afterwards.
One good thing though: I saw the mountain rescue in action and it does give me some confidence that they will get me of the mountain if anything ever happens to me. There were about 14 of them hiking up the mountain when I was on my way down and they had enough gear with them to build an entire hospital up there. I hope they got the injured person of ok.
Lough Tay and Luggala mountain
I went hiking around Lough Tay in the Wicklow Mountains today. Unfortunately the area around it turned out to be owned privately and therefore it wasn’t possible to go where you liked. However you were allowed to hike some of the areas. I went up mountain Luggala which is actually one of the few places from where you can see the lake.It is about 580 meters high and the trail up is a track straight up the mountain, despite it being cold I was sweating quite hard by the end of it. I shared the mountain with a large herd of deer only, not a living soul in sight! From here you can also hike to Lough Dan which is supposed to be pretty too. One of my favs will definitely come back here.
Little Sugarloaf Mountain
Yeah, I have my new camera so I hope the pictures are better now. I still can’t be bothered to photoshop them. After having enjoyed the Sugarloaf Mountain so much I did the little version of it today. It is in between Bray and the Big one. Short but lovely walk with a bit of searching for the way up. Pretty cold today so I got to field test the gloves and woolly hat my wife bought for me.
Sugarloaf mountain
Today I climbed the Sugarloaf mountain (yeah my first mountain) and went down the other side to hike the three hills next to it. It was lovely with nobody there (very windy today) You could see some of my old hikes (Howth and Bray to Greystone) from the top. I need a better camera and good weather! The pictures don’t do the views justice.
Bray to Greystone
I tried a a new route today from Bray to Greystone along the track that runs above the train tracks that run along the coast and were built by Brunel. On the way back I took the higher route through the Wind Gate that leads to Bray’s Head with some great views on the cliffs, the Wicklow Mountains and Bray itself.
Nice 9km hike with some climbing.
