IRELAND

ON THE PILGRIM PATHS IN THE LAND OF SAINTS AND SCHOLARS

At a time when 200,000 weary pilgrims a year queue up for their certificate in Santiago de Compostela in Northwest Spain, walkers in Ireland are re-discovering their own, much less visited Caminos.

Way before a religious hermit stumbled upon the bones of St. James in 814AD and kick started what has become the most popular long distance hike in the world, Pagans and then Christians were following ancient paths to sacred sites throughout Ireland.

The pilgrimage to the hallowed peak of Croagh Patrick overlooking the 365 islands of Clew Bay in Mayo existed 3,000 BC and was popularized by the Patron Saint of Ireland 500 years before St. James’ way got going. It still draws 30,000 people to the summit on the last Sunday in July, or Reek Sunday.

Patrick is also associated with an Island in Lough Derg, Co Donegal, attracting pilgrims from all over Europe since medieval times – a site so important that it was the only Irish place named on a world map of 1492.

There are other, more unfamiliar paths now being promoted as walking trails with a difference and together they make up about a dozen routes over 250 kms of tranquil country lanes, stone paved tracks, paths through meadows and forests, across heather moor and bog lands and over rocky mountain summits, passing through some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe.

In County Mayo the 30km Tóchar Phadraig (St Patrick’s Causeway) was in use in Pagan times as the Royal Road to Cruachan Aille, the original name for Croagh Patrick and during its clearance by a local initiative ancient stone flagstones came to light indicating its archeological pedigree.

The route leaves from Ballintubber Abbey and meanders over low lying fields and through a serene and timeless landscape dotted with a round tower, holy wells, druidic sites, famine graves,
medieval churches, mass rocks and sacred stones, including the miraculous rock of Boheh. This cup and circle marked stone from around 3,000BC was the focal point of Sun worshippers and used to divide the year into 3 in prehistoric times when standing at this spot at sunset on April 18th and August 24th the Sun lands on the very peak of Croagh Patrick and then proceeds to roll or slide down the Northern slope, the angle of setting Sun and mountain side matching exactly – a truly jaw dropping sight. Even without witnessing this phenomena the view of the iconic quartzite cone of ‘the Reek”, visable for most of the way, is what draws you irrepressibly onward.

Other ways in the West include the spectacular Slieve League Pilgrim path with its 400m sea cliffs in Co Donegal and , in Connemara in Co Galway, the mountain pass of Maumeen – another Druidic sacred site that became overlaid with Christianity.

Two of the most striking and atmospheric of these age old paths are in the scenic Southwest and can both be enjoyed in a long weekend.
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Cosán No Naomh (The Saint’s Road) Dingle, Kerry. 24 km

The enchanting Dingle peninsula is the northern most of the five fingers of land jutting out into the Atlantic from Ireland’s southwestern coastline and near its western tip is glorious golden Ventry beach

– the trail head for a centuries old path traditionally culminating 952 m higher, atop Mount Brandon, the highest peak in the country outside of the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks.

The summit of Brandon was, like Croagh Patrick, the scene of pre Christian revelry celebrating the festival of Lughnasa in honour of Lug ,the God of the Pagan Celts ,at the end of July. Come Christianity and the mountain was appropriated by St Brendan who supposedly spent time on the summit praying for a safe return from his sea voyage to America in a leather skinned currach nearly 1,000 years before Columbus.

From the beach it’s a relatively flat 18 km walk along tranquil ,fuschia lined backroads and fields to the grotto at the base of Mount Brandon from where a more arduous 6 km return hike to the Summit will reward you with breath taking views of the dramatic coastal and mountain scenery (if not shrouded in fairly common mist and cloud!)

The route will certainly envelop you in the mists of time and takes in many ancient sites of interest including bee hive huts, holy wells, Churches, Ogham stones and the iconic Gallans Oratory whose dry stone sloping roof and walls have been keeping out the driving rain for 1,000 years.

The route is well marked with posts sporting a yellow pilgrim symbol and directional arrows which will lead you across this beautiful Irish speaking area.

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Saint Finbarr’s Pilgrim Way – West Cork . 36 km
Drimoleague to Kealkill 22km / Kealkill to Gougane Barra 14 km

Starting at the Top of the Rock, Drimoleague, this two day walk follow’s in the footsteps of Cork’s Patron Saint Finbarr who visited in the 6th Century before setting off to Gougane Barra to set up his monastery in what became Ireland’s first National Park.

There is a fine Walking Centre at Top of the Rock which as well as dispensing information on the many walks in the area offers transport, luggage transfers and accommodation for campers or in a range of wooden glamping “pods” and makes for a good base whilst undertaking this trail (topoftherock.ie).

Reckoned by John G. O’Dwyer, author of Pilgrim Paths in Ireland, to be the finest of them all this route reveals some of the best scenery in West Cork as it traverses three mountain systems and four river valleys.

Serene and gentle at times alongside rushing streams and through lush green meadows the way becomes more demanding when it rises on old bog roads and forest tracks to cross the higher uplands and open mountainside, before reaching the cliffs overlooking the tranquil lake of Gougane Barra.

It is this variety in the trail and the far reaching views of Bantry Bay and the mountains surrounding it that make this such a special walk that well rewards the effort put in on and rocky and boggy stretches.

Although mostly in the wild western counties there are pilgrim paths in other areas including, in the south, the 96km St Declan’s Way from Ardmore in Waterford to the Rock of Cashel in Co Tipperary which crosses the Knockmealdown Mountains, and Saint Brigid’s Way in the east, rediscovered or created in 2013 along a 112km route linking the Saint’s Shrine and Holy Well in Faughart, Co. Louth to her Monastic City in Kildare, passing a variety of Sacred Sites along the Way.

Also in the East is Saint Kevin’s Way in Co Wicklow, starting either in Valleymount or Hollywood where the Saint slept in a cave and ending at Glendalough. Both routes are less than 30km and take about six hours.
Although this way includes a fair bit of road walking the second half from Ballinagee Bridge up over the Wicklow gap, down along the Gendasan river and into the hauntingly beautiful lakeside valley make it worthwhile.
St Kevin came here to retreat from the world and spent his life in quiet contemplation and after his death in AD 618 his followers developed it into a thriving monastic centre of learning that has now become a tourist hot spot.

In the centre of Ireland is Clonmacnoise, another medieval seat of Knowledge and artistic culture and the destination of countless thousands of seekers over the centuries.

Now know as the Pilgrim Path the way follows the ridge of the Esker Riada, a glacial gravel deposit that afforded the traveller a dry route raised above the wetlands of the Shannon Callows. Starting in Ballycomber the flat route takes 25km to reach the monastic site of Clonmacnoise on the mighty river’s bank to which it owes its original popularity being on a transportation hub of water and roadways. Now developed as a cycleway rather than a walking route it nevertheless is a worthwhile trip into the tranquil heartland of Ireland.

Details of these and other routes and the annual pilgrimages along them can be found at pilgrimpaths.ie.

BANGOR TRAIL 2 and the FAMINE WALK : 15/16th MAY

28/ 18km

We were off to the wilds of Mayo last week for a trek across the Nephin Beg wilderness area through the Ballycroy National Park and the most “out there” spaces in Ireland.

The trail, an old drovers road used for bringing cattle from the Erris peninsular and area to Newport market crosses 30km of bog and many many streams as it makes it’s lonely way along a route as far from any house or road as you can get.

I’ve already posted a blog on this route from when i tackled it solo last September, camping out and making it a circular hike by returning on the Western Way but this time i was accompanied by trail buddies Mor and Beg Dawson, Ivor Bundle and The Missus as well as four dogs in a range from lap to hound.

We started with a bit of a road trip in order to leave a vehicle at the finish in Bangor, driving up a beautiful road heading northwest from Castlebar past the 800m Nephin mountain before returning to the start of the hike at the little bothy at Letterkeen above Lough Feeagh.

Heading out about 7 in the following morning we were hopeful the dry weather would continue although the skies were fairly leaden and the forecast was not great.

The area around the bothy has been spruced up with new tarmac and a wheelchair friendly path and decking over the bridge spanning the Attamoney river with picnic tables affording views of the surrounding Nephin Beg range of mountains.The invading rhododendron i had noted last time was just beginning to come into flower and another week would see the landscape turn purple.

The beginning stages of the walk, as we headed north into the hills, were dry underfoot as the valley is covered by glacial gravel, apparently to a height 100m.

As we rose higher the blanket bog and forestry around us would give us no idea that in prehistoric times” the area was a Shangri-La with an oasis of well drained fertile soil, sheltered by a ring of high ground”

In fact excavations on a rath here have revealed two periods of habitation and agriculture. Bronze age people were here perhaps 3000 years ago before abandoning the site to shrub and later the arrival of Early Christian farmers saw grain being grown in what is now a vast inhospitable bog.

The strangely fluid venticular clouds added to the otherworldly atmosphere as we trekked over the shoulder of Nephin Beg and up past the only tree on the trail, an heroic oak with little chance of procreation.

The trail was still furnished with stepping stones across the wettest sections here but soon these luxuries were gone, leaving us to squelch through the mire as the rain started to make it as wet above us as below.

After passing the forlorn ruins of an ancient habitation we climbed another rise before coming down into the valley bottom to follow a stream where we found a relatively sheltered spot for lunch. By now the wet had penetrated pretty deep and feeling chilly we didn’t hang about too long stopping only to empty boots of water.

and to collect a momento.

The next challenge was to cross the Tarsaghaunmore river where the footbridge was down which involved a balancing act on the remaining girder for some and a wet footed wade for others.

From there the remaining 8 or so km were a bit of a slog through deep sponge occasionally relieved by wooden boardwalks and with the view reduced to a swirl of grey mist.

It was a relief to make it to the van at the finish and return to the bothy where we celebrated the heroic efforts of men, women and dogs.

The next day Mor, Beg and The Missus headed home whilst Ivor and I drove down past Clew Bay and west along the coast under Croagh Patrick to Louisburgh to take part in the Afri Famine Walk.

Afri are a 40 year old aid organisation concerned with global justice, peace, human rights and sustainability and ending poverty and hunger. Every May for the last 27 years they have hosted a Famine Walk between Louisburgh and Delphi Lodge to commemorate and re-enact a tragedy that took place in the freezing winter of 1849 when dozens of starving died by the roadside on their way back to Louisburg after being turned away from Delphi Lodge where they had been told to walk to in order to receive food aid.

Afri always invites walk leaders from a range of campaigns around the world to attend and this year a couple of hundred people gathered in the town hall to hear brief talks from family of Chelsea ( Ex Bradley) Manning the US whistleblower serving 35 years and Maitet Ledesma, a Philippino who works with an NGO that supports social movements all over the world.

We were then bundled into buses and driven the 18km to Delphi where there was a tree planting ceremony before we headed off from the grounds of the imposing “big house” behind the leaders flags.

It was good to be walking in a large group for once, especially one with a political or humanitarian aim. Hiking with a conscious purpose to protest or bare witness has an honourable history and a great power to it.

However we were on a tight schedule and the pace was too slow for us so we pulled on ahead and set off down the side of Doo Lough where it was fitting to experience a couple of freezing showers of rain and hail.

The countryside was dramatic and as we climbed to the top of the rise and the Famine memorial i looked back to the straggle of walkers and tried to imagine the horrors of the journey in 1849, but it was too lovely in the sunshine.

Once away from the lake we headed north across the bogland with fantastic views of Croagh Patrick but unlike the day before we were walking on a hard surface, in fact by the time we had made it back to Louisburgh my knees were complaining slightly. My suffering was put into perspective by a reminder of the history of our walk.

BALLYHOURA WAY: 20/21/22nd April

18/32/20kms

Glorious sunny weather and beautiful lush spring countryside this week on the Ballyhoura Way, another dog friendly trail me and the hounds undertook over 3 days.

It’s a 90 km walk, starting east of Liscarroll in Co Cork and finishing at Limerick Junction near Tipperary town.

There are spectacular views for much of the route over the Golden Vale, the Glen of Aherlow and the Galtee Mountains as the way involves 4 upland sections over the Ballyhoura Mountains, Slievereagh and Benyvoughella Hills and along the ridge of Slievenamuck before coming down into Tipp.

The way makes up a segment of the Beara-Breifne Way which follows the route of the 14 day March of Donal O’Sullivan Beare and 1000 of his supporters in January 1603 from West Cork to Leitrim where only 35 people remained. It’s an epic tale and wonderfully told in a one man show by Aidan Dooley if you get a chance to see it.

Coincidentally the International Ballyhoura Walking Festival is happening next weekend over the May bank holiday and sections of the route had been freshly strimmed and a couple of new bridges installed. It’s the oldest walking festival in Ireland ,celebrating its 21st birthday and is expecting over 1000 walkers. The whole area is really well marketed as Ballyhoura Country with a wealth of outdoor activities intergrated with accommodation etc and made me wonder if the Slieve Aughties could do likewise.

The first 20 km of the way is on tarmac roads which I didn’t fancy with the dogs so I left the van at the 2nd trailhead just south of Ballyhea where the trail heads off road and heads into the hills.

A nice stretch of primrose dotted boreen with plank bridges over ditches led us up to a rutted farm track with views back over the Golden Vale.

Before long we entered forestry where it was a bit off putting to come across this sign

but heartening to find a weath of mountain biking trails looping and crisscrossing the walking routes.

I usually find forestry boring to walk through but here it seemed more open with cleared views and plantings of beach.

I don’t know wether it was bad signage or loss of concentration but somehow I missed the turn to take us up over the top of Carron mountain and had to use the maps I had downloaded from the irishtrails website to follow forest tracks around to get back on track. In doing so I came upon the site of a party held many years ago where a troop of scouts had hiked through the marquee erected over the trail during my early morning ambient set. A surreal memory.

As is the sideways image of the site that I cannot make go the right way up.

We reached open moorland

and climbed to the Ways highest point at Castle Phillip (477mt) and down a little to camp witha view North.

A fine sunset

and a fine sunrise

We carried on down through the forest with more bike trails

and the Ballyhoura Trim Trail, a looped circuit of exercise stations for sit ups, parallel bars, hurdles, ladder walk etc

There were info boards on different species of fauna and flora and a bridge led us through a lovely beech wood.

Out to open country again overlooking the vast 6500 acres estate of Castle Oliver where the tree planting in the 18th century was based on the battle positions at the battle of Waterloo and was thought to be the birthplace of Marie Gilbert better known as Lola Montez, actress and dancer and mistress of King Ludwig of Bavaria.

One of the gate lodges of the now broken up estate.

A riverside strip of ash woods led to a collection of holiday lodges both grand and basic

though none as basic as the little off grid Eco cabin we came to a little later

A lot of wind blown trees on Ballyroe Hill made for an interesting archway n the way to Kilfinane the main town of the Ballyhoura Country area where the lady in the impressive info centre ran around sourcing maps and guides for me and water for the dogs. On the outskirts of town the site of the old corn mill set up by Richard Oliver which brought prosperity to the town was being invaded by Knot Weed.

The sun shone brightly lighting up the gorse flower on the trail with the Galtees now in sight.

Some unusual fencing made the section of road walking to Galbally more interesting.

After over 30km it was good to get to Moor Abbey our campsite for the night on the banks of the river Aherlow. The abbey had a troubled history, taking 300 years to complete and being burnt 4 times. Legend has it that 3 Friars beheaded by Cromwells men shed no blood.

The next morning started with a 2km walk along the riverside and another km up hill across open grassland and fields to the track that traverses Slievenamuck with views across to the 3000ft peaks of the Galtees.

There had been a fire in the forest the previous weekend that came perilously close to the houses there.

Not long after I got lost trying to take a “short cut” to avoid a bit of road walking. Not having my GPS on me I couldn’t work out where I was and ended up on a looped trail to the top of the ridge.

Seeing Tipperary laid out below me I made the brave but foolish decision to head straight down to a road leading there which involved a lot a clambering through nearly impenetreble thickets and forest.

We made it , just, and a 4km road walk took us into Tipp where we took a taxi in half an hour the 3 day route back.

NORTH KERRY WAY: Kerry Head to Tralee 13/14th April

20/24km

The North Kerry Way starts in Tralee and goes north up the coast to Ballyheigue before doing a loop around Kerry Head. I left my van in Ballyheigue ,did the loop on the first day, slept in the van,continued to Tralee the next day and then got a cab with the dogs back.

An old narrow boreen lead us out of Ballyheigue

climbing up to higher ground passing the ancient earthwork of An Clai Rua [track of the red ditch] a 6 foot wide bank that runs intermittently from Kerry Head all the way to Co. Limerick.

A much quieter way than it’s neighbour the Dingle Way through a landscape dotted with many signs of abandonment both ancient and modern.

I took a detour of a couple of kms down towards the sea to visit the well of St Dahalin

known as Tobar na Sul [The spring of the eyes] which is reputed to heal blindness and still visited by people who come to bath their eyes in the holy waters. We picked up a huge greyhound there who was determined to follow us

and it took an hour to find the owner and move on up the gorse lined bog road to Maulin mountain.

Good boots were needed on a long wet stretch of sunken path that must be a river in the rain.

Towards the top the track became wide and open again and the views opened out to take in the mouth of the Shannon all the way down to Limerick and across to the south Clare coast and Loop Head lighthouse.

A tiny path lined with newly and optimistically planted trees took us over Triskmore Mountain and down to a track leading west, passed more hounds and dumped rubbish to the end of Kerry Head where the farm would not win any prizes for eco awareness.

Turning south the expanse of Tralee Bay lay before us from the Slieve Mish range all the way west to Mount Brandon at the end of the Dingle Peninsular.The fine grassy fields were in south facing strips down to the sea from the road we followed past more old cottages back to Ballyheigue Bay.

Next morning we headed off down about 8km of wide empty beach going inland briefly on a sluice bridge over the Tyse river

and across the flat heath Cul Tra “the back strand”, the dogs excited by the rabbits and skylarks.

Back to the beach above Banna where the view was distracting enough for me to miss my path

off the beach which meant i had to cross the luckily low tide sands of Carrahane Strand to get back to the road.

The road was fairly narrow and fairly busy with no verges or easy escape from the traffic with the dogs so i was glad when we crossed the old Tralee to Fenit railway line and came down to Spa harbour.

In the 18th century this was a popular and fashionable location when many of the large local English population came to take the mineral waters there. I don’t know if the sea wall i now followed was part of the relief scheme work carried out during the famine but half way along is a small bridge called Meal Bridge and was where the workers collected their Indian Meal payment.

A deep narrow channel through the shallow water of the bay leads to “The Point” where the Tralee shipping canal brought freighters safely up the 2 1/2 kms to the city for 100 years.

It passes the windmill that was restored by local people and continues to grind grain and now also holds a museum of famine emigration in ships like the Jennie Johnston whose replica was built here recently.

The Ireland of today is in a very different place toothed and all the talk of austerity and the hardships of water charges are bought into perspective when you walk, blissfully, on “amenity areas” overlaid onto the spine of a desperate past. The landscape is/was beautiful, I only hope it gave some succour to the sufferers of the past.

ROYAL CANAL: Ballymahon to Longford 8th April

22kms

Clear skies again with the promise of another hot day once the most had been burned off.

Our last day on the walk and we had decided we would walk up the canal branch to Longford and try to get us and the dogs on the train back to the car at Maynooth.

At the next lock the keeper told us that there were lots of leaks and it was a bit of a struggle keeping water in some sections. Sure enough later on we noticed that the level was down at least a foot between a couple of locks.

There is currently a lot of work being done on the towpaths creating the walk/ cycle way and dredging and clearing the canal itself. We came upon one of the diggers with a massive arms for scrapping the opposite bank.

After a longer than planned breakfast stop at Foigha bridge waiting for the shop to open it was out onto the Corlea bog where the visitor centre that displays the Neolithic timber trackway has been making a path out to the canal.

It was a lovely peaceful stetch of wildness through the land that time forgot. We passed another little canal house slowly disappearing into the bog.

It was sad to think of all the work and effort that had gone be into the 30 years of building the canal only really funcioning for another 30 before the railways signalled the end to the endeavour apart from a few years over WW2 when fuel shortages encouraged horsedrawn barge transport.

The massive clearance task taken on by the voluntary Ammenity groups over decades was really brought home to us when we got to the Longford branch and saw it was blocked off and unrestored.

Time for a rest with just 8kms to go.

On the outskirts of Longford a roadbridge over the top of the canal shows what little regard the planners of the seventies and eighties had for the amazing structure we had followed across the country for 125kms.

All of Ireland’s inland waterways are a beatiful way to explore what is still”real Ireland”. I hope that the creation of the new walk/cycle tracks and greenways encourage more people out there to enjoy the sadly under-utilised resource.

Mission accomplished.

ROYAL CANAL: Coolnahay to Ballymahon 7th April

28kms

Another cold clear night under a micron of nylon and a frosty start to the day. There was a skin of ice over everything and no camp fire to dry/warm things over so we put the tents away wet hoping to dry it all out at camp that night.

After reclaiming my battery pack that had been charging in the tea room all night and a chat with the friendly lock keeper, who we have awarded best of 2015, we headed off down past his canal side gardens and tree planting on a newly laid walking / cycling track. There was a rash of bridges and locks over the next few kms some sporting interesting graffiti and some with neatly kept flowerbeds.

Then quite a long straight section across empty flat land on the approach to Ballynacarrigy.

The lock keeper of the year had given us fresh scones for breakfast but we needed more so we stopped at the impressive harbour there for coffee and chocolate and marvelled at the unknown or celebrated attractive villages we were discovering on the canal. 150 years ago this backwater was a important trading centre and had in the early seventies formed the first Royal Canal Ammenity Group which kick started the whole restoration process. By 1990 the canal had been, bit by bit, cleared and rewatered from Dublin to Mullingar but it took another 20 years to complete all the way to the upper Shannon at Tarmonbarry.

We carried on towards the bog at Ballymaglavy passing an abandoned canal house that would have made a fine home for the night.

We went over the beginnings of the river Blackwater

and across a vast expanse of bog where the turf was being harvested in a way we hadn’t seen before.

There was yet another of the meloncoly bridges to nowhere

and a derelict lock house with an interior that needed a severe makeover.

We crossed over the river Inny and past an airfield on the outskirts of Abbeyshrule where we had soup and sandwich to get us through the heat of the afternoon for another 12kms. This section of the canal is very twisty turns with a series of curves and bends following the river valley and is also the most level with 11kms between locks.

By the time we got to Ballybrannigan harbour I was ready to join the swimmers

but we needed to go on a bit further to get supplies and camp. Sally headed into Ballymahon, celebrating its massive investment by Centre Parcs, to get dinner while I took all the kit on to Archie’s bridge and set up camp.

A nice sheltered spot by old derelict canal warehouses kept us warmer than previous nights but it had been a long hot day and my track buddies feet were suffering.

ROYAL CANAL: Killucan to Coolnahay 6th April

26km

A quick posting so as not to get too far behind real life events but with dwindling battery and meagre coverage and dogs and track buddy keen to get going.

A lovely misty start after a cold clear night. There was a hard frost and our bags had done well to keep us cosy. The problem with the cheap one skin tents is the condensation on nights like that so we spent a while drying gear before heading off.

There had been a run of 6 locks in quick succession and we headed past the charming 7th to bring us up to the summit level which was to then run flat for 24kms.

Before long we had got to the (closed) pub at the road bridge replacing the old Neads bridge which had very nearly been built too low to allow any canal traffic before it had been restored.

We’ve been past a few of these “accommodation ” bridges built to facilitate farmers and raised by hand.

For a long stretch towards Mullingar the engineers had chosen a route which involved a lot of deep cutting though rock which pretty much bankrupted the company again.

The outskirts of Mullingar were pretty grim with terraces of boarded up housing and swans swimming amongst filth.

The railway line to Athlone was abandoned and one particular spot was bush drinking central station.

There had been a lot of restored and gravelled or tarmaced tow path in Westmeath for walkers and cyclists and a lot of it was part of the Dublin to Galway greenway being got together. It looked like they were getting this deserted line done as part of it.

After Mullingar the way was really lovely and the swans had a nicer time of it. Nice harbour at Ballinea with picnic tables and grassy bits etc but we decided to carry on to Coolnahay, recommended by the lads on the barge.

We were glad we did. It was a beatiful walk in the sun to get there and we had tea and scones in the little old lock keepers cottage and camped on the grass surrounded by flower beds and benches. There was a water tap and toilet but we were a bit dissapointed to discover no pub.

ROYAL CANAL: Enfield to Killucan 5th April

24kms

A disappointingly cloudy start to a disappointingly cloudy day and by the time we had faffed around packing up etc it was 10,30 before we got going.

There were more people out and about running and walking down the tow path. Easter Sunday strolling.

Before long we got to the Meath/Kildare county boundary and the river Blackwater aqueduct.

The aqueducts are very hard to photograph Lord knows how hard to construct. My admiration for the engineers and labourers of the time grows with every passing km.

After Kilmore bridge

the canal went through a lovely wooded stretch awns the towpath became narrow and lined with primroses.

The next bridge Moyvalley, had a nicelooking canal side pub/restaurant but unfortunately we were too early, or maybe it was just as well. There was a big fishing competition going on with a long line of guys and a mass of gear strung out down the towpath.

The line ended at the Ribbontail lifting bridge, built to facilitate people going to the nearby church but ironically a favorite hang out of the Ribbon Men, naughty men who back in the day would make holes in the canal bank to cause big breaches which would create loads of work to repair.

Good rich land surrounded us. Big fields. Big trees. Soon we crossed high above the river Boyne on another aqueduct.

A very cheery lady called Sadie passed us going the other way and a few kms later caught up with us from behind. I fell into step with her for a chat for awhile but her 76 year old pace was a bit too much for my track buddy who has been suffering badly from cold/flu and it was as a relief to e able to slow down again when she peeled off.

An inspiration. That gives us another 15 years anyway.

A nice length of wilder path got us to the pub at the Hill of Down where we had been hoping for lunch.

No luck beyond Guiness ,lager and crisps which kept us going another 8 kms to the great pub restaurant Nanny Quinns at Thomastown harbour where we had a slap up.

Near here were moored up the last two working barges on the canal but it must have been awhile ago.

We camped up on a lovely spot not long after and a new barge came through the lock.

A nice lad had just got himself a 20 grand bargain. New Diesel engine,7 year old steel hull. Him and some mates were taking it down to Dublin to live on. Their first boat trip. It had already involved a trip to hospital for a load of stitches after the lock key had spun on the rachet and cracked yer mans head open. Good luck to them.

So time for gathering firewood and settling in to admire a nice sunset as the clouds had finally gone.

ROYAL CANAL: Maynooth to Enfield 4th April

22km

Back on track. Good to be walking again even if my pack is heavier now I’m carrying two tents ( one for the dogs !) and cooking gear. But now that I’ve lost 10kg off my belly I can afford to put it on my back without fear of overburdening my knees

There may have been some doubts about whether we would make it out to the canal after what I’m told was a fun filled dinner party the night before but luckily Sally wasn’t too hung over and we set off on schedule.

It was alarmingly drizzly on the drive up but by the time we got to Maynooth it had dried and warmed up a bit. We parked in the train station which adjoins the canal and we are planning to come back by train from Longford in 125km and 5 days time. The track runs alongside us for a lot of the way as the land bought for the canal construction was wide enough for both. It wasn’t long after the canal was open that the train took over passenger travel anyway.

In my relaxed state I was intent on starting to walk the wrong way, East rather than west, but luckily I now have a track buddy to put me straight. And I’m still following arrows

We followed this wall, of St Patrick’s college for a good long way, they must have some serious amount of land on campus. We went up through two locks and noticed how short and narrow they appear to be. You’d only get one boat in at a time. But there is almost no boats on the move anyway. This was the only one we saw all day.

After we walked the Grand Canal a few years ago we thought how underused the whole amazing resource was and the Royal seems the same. There’s some fine bridges that have to accommodate the canal, train track, river and one bridge even had a arch just for the towpath.

Before long we were approaching Kilcock

where they were very keen on waterpolo and had numerous goals slung across the water.

The section of the canal beyond Kilcock passes through Cappa bog which caused big problems during construction with sides slipping and bottom swelling up, a bit like ourselves. It looks nice now though.

Irish Waterways hav been cutting the reeds From the canal and shrub from the banks and we came across fine looking little vessels for the job.

Just before Enfield, or Innfield on some maps, we came upon a fine motte and bailey.

Enfield had a lovely canal side amenity area with harbour and slipway and shower and toilet block but we decided to carry on out of town to camp, a little wary of the lads bush drinking antics. So we got some food and drink and headed off into a gorgeous evening a couple of km to a nice wide patch of grass with loads of firewood around.

It was a bit near the motorway that we could hear all night but apart from that….all good. And a huge full moon rising.

WILD NEPHIN AND THE BANGOR TRAIL

I could have been the loneliest man in Ireland.
Camping out on a shoulder of Slieve Carr, facing west across the sea of bog towards the great pyramid of Slievemore on Achill Island,I was truly, deeply alone.
On the Bangor Trail in the Ballycroy National Park , part of the newly designated 22,000 acre wilderness area in the Nephin Beg mountain range, this was as far as it’s possible to get in Ireland from roads, buildings or people.
I had a few sheep for company and midges, countless millions of them swooping and swirling like a murmuration of starlings.
Retreating to my tent after dinner I swear I could hear them buzzing in their multitudes, like a swarm of bees.

Slopping through sucking bog whilst being eaten alive by bloodsucking insects might not appeal to the average sedentary vacationer, but I loved it.

I loved the vastness of nothing. Nothing but mountain sky and bog and a tiny thread of a trail weaving its way north to south from Bangor to Newport in County Mayo. DSCN2487

An old drovers road, a trade route,the way home for the few far-flung home steads that once clung to a precarious living in this wild place.

The great naturalist Robert Lloyd Prager wrote of this place,

“Where else even in Ireland will you find 200 mi.² which is houseless and roadless. Nothing but Brown Heather spreading as far as the eye can see…I confess I find such a place not lonely or depressing but inspiriting. You are thrown at the same time back upon yourself and forward against the mystery and majesty of nature and you may feel dimly something of your own littleness and your own greatness.”

I had started out from the old bothy at the Letterkeen looped walks trailhead and was very alarmed on my way there above Furnace Lough to see the ominous spread of Rhododendrum Ponticum. In some areas it was already established into dense woodland and was clearly on the march across the hills, thousands of single stems standing sentry in their shiny green foliage.

On a recent hike through Killarney National Park I had witnessed the results of a 30 year war waged against the foreign invader and the news from the front was not good.
What would happen in the wilderness area where the land management policy was going to be hands off I dreaded to think.

This new initiative sees Coillte working with the department of arts, heritage and the gaeltacht, the national park and local landowners to set aside an area to go wild and to go wild in. The first of it’s kind, the plan is to eventually have 1 million hectares across Europe going” back to nature”.

I had decided on a circular route. 30kms on the trail to Bangor, then hitch a spin down the N59 east for about 14kms to where i could join up with the western way. From there it was 25kms back south, mainly through forest, to the Letterkeen bothy.

A few yards from the bothy I crossed the Altaconey River and not long after crossed it again on a new steel footbridge.

This end of the trail was dry and solid underfoot on a well marked stony track.

After about 5kms, at a point where one of the loops veered off to the right I came upon one of the wooden hut shelters erected by the Mountain Meitheal volunteers and had lunch while reading the log book there and soaking up the silence .From a notice on the wall I discovered that there was another hut on the Western Way on the other side of Nephin Beg and decided to stay there the following night.

Shouldering my pack I carried on up the trail and, leaving the forestry behind, headed into the vast open landscape with the brown bulk of the mountains rising from the bog ahead.

The going became harder and the ground became softer as I crossed what is basically a giant sponge. In places sections of boardwalks have been constructed to carry you over the quagmire, but over a 30km trail it could only be a token gesture towards dry boots.It was calm and still and any resting resulted in an attack by the midges which convinced me to head to higher ground to camp in the hope of finding a breeze.

In the morning I headed down to the river valley that cut a meandering course through the boggy wilderness till I reached the broken footbridge across the Tarsaghaunmore River where I managed to scramble across on the wreckage without wetting my socks.

A couple of hours later, as I crossed the purple heather covered hills on the approach to Bangor I spied a lone figure who turned out to be a park ranger, out checking on track work, as surprised as myself to meet anyone else out there . We talked about plans to establish other huts and camping areas, the on going track establishment and the need to balance increased accessibility with an unmanaged “wild” environment.

Another half hour brought me into town where,after a pint and a sandwich, I got a lift. After a day travelling across the landscape at walking pace, the car seemed to hurtle us over the bog at brake neck speed and 10 minutes later I was back to 4kms per hour on the Western Way.

A long boreen led back towards the mountains and an isolated farmhouse on the edge of the forestry .

Entering the plantation took me into a different world. From the wide open spaces of bog and sky and seemingly limitless horizons my world became shrunk and enclosed.

The forestry tracks made for easy hiking and a couple of hours and 10kms later I gratefully came upon a sign that led me up a side trail to the shelter nestling under Nephin Beg. This trail continued up towards Scardaun Lough and the pass through the mountain range.

Reading the hut log book I could see that people used the shelter as a base before tackling the peaks above that rose to 720mts on Slieve Carr.Feeling too weary to contemplate such exertion I cooked up my dehydrated meal, erected my tent inside the shelter to avoid the midges and slept.

In the morning the remaining 10 kms back to the Bothy did not take long. I past areas where Coillte had been doing some selective clearing

and it’s going to be very interesting to see how this exciting experiment in “re-wilding”goes.

Steve Barham

Rambling Man