I had promised to do Kilronan Mountain again as a recce for a potential group walk so we arranged to do it this morning as a nice second walk of the long weekend. In the end, we had eight people in our little group so it was an unusual experience for me to be walking with so many people. We started out from Keadew again on a foggy morning but there were strong signs of a great day to come.

Anyway, we quickly walked out of the fog as we ascended quickly into the hills above Keadew. There were loads of horsetails about doing their equivalent of flowering.

As we got higher and out of the fog, it quickly got a lot hotter and before long we were shedding coats and fleeces before leaving the road for the steep muddy ascent up Kilronan mountain proper.

From here it was a quick ascent to a bunch of communications antennae and below those there is a very easily accessible sweathouse right on the path. So I took the opportunity to have a quick peek inside.

It was an interesting arrangement – a little over two metres tall to the centre of a vaulted ceiling where there was a small capped chimney. It was a bit over a metre and a half wide at the bottom.

There was a most amazing view across to Sliabh Aneirann where we were looking over the fog that was still lying in the valley. It almost looked like a sea over the land. The lower-level fog took another hour or so to clear after this.

We climbed higher and came to the point where the trail to Arigna splits off from our route. We had a sit down and a snack here and were just about to head when a pair of walkers caught up with us. They were amazed to see such a large group out on the mountain, so we had quite a long chat before heading our separate ways.

We got moving again and headed towards the wind farm on the peak. It was quite slow going as several of our group were wearing runners which were not idea in the rough and wet ground. Still we made it in a reasonable amount of time.

Being so close to the wind-turbines has kind of an unearthly feel about it especially in such bright sunlight when the shadows were sweeping across the ground. We had to walk along about 5 of them before the path returns to the rough heather ground.

The route holds high moorland before descending back a bit and into some forestry.

We then headed into the forestry which was extremely wet and trudged along for a kilometre or so before emerging into an abandoned mineworks.

After a short poke around we had about a kilometre on road before turning to the left along a track. There is a waymarker missing for this turn but it is pretty obvious on the map. After another kilometre or so, the track we are on heads downhill and we leave it – again at a point where there is a missing waymarker. This is where we went wrong the last time.

It is a pity I missed this section the last time as it is quite spectacular especially in the fine weather. There is a very basic track through the heather but this obviously isn’t walked too much. This section passes a saint’s grave where we took another quick break.

From here it is about 500 metres to the track where it regions the Miners’ way properly. This track leads us off the mountain and we begin to pick up the pace a bit. We stopped for lunch at a little bridge after about 15 kilometres.

We haven’t been making great time so far but after a bit of food and a change of socks for those with wet feet, our energy level picks up. We pick up the pace and start making close to 5 km an hour. At this rate, it takes little more than an hour to make Ballyfarnon.

With Ballyfarnon behind us, we have about 6 km to go through the Kilronan castle estate. I didn’t bother too much with the camera in this section as this is my second time here this weekend. I did take another shot of the rather fabulous ruined gatehouse of the estate.

We finally made it into Keadew after almost 8 hours. It had been a grand day out. I’ll mark this one up as 26.5 km as I forgot to start my tacker for a few hundred metres.

411.5 km