After a relatively early hearty breakfast, the girls and I got out for a quick loop of the forest.
It was a brisk morning but most of the ice had burned off in the wintry sunshine by the time we got up to the top. There is still quite a bit in the more shaded parts of forest though.
Further on at one of the wall crossings, a rotten branch with rather fabulous bracket fungii had come down in the last few days. I guess Thursday’s storm must have weakened it somewhat.
We had a grand walk with relatively little moaning. All-in-all not a bad weekend’s walking for everybody although I will need to pick up the pace a little bit next weekend if I am to make my 85 km target for the month.
We needed to all get out for a family walk with the days and rather than doing the forest loop, we set off for Bog Bridge from Abbeyshrule. I’ve written about this place a couple of times before as it is a very strange and imposing structure in the middle of nowhere.
Once we got past the airfield we pretty much had the place to ourselves so we let the older of our dogs off for a run. The ground was pretty frozen and everyone had a great time crashing through frozen puddles.
We had a grand brisk walk in the cold and managed to reach our objective. Not a bad little walk at 6km.
Since the previous walk, we had a thaw, a storm and then more snow to replace the previous lot. Although there wasn’t much, we have a forecast for cold weather and more snow over the next couple of days. So it was a nice crisp day for a walk.
I was on my own and ended up taking the shorter of the two routes due to being a bit lazy. Still I got out for the third time this week which isn’t too bad.
We actually got some decent levels of snow overnight and it held out until lunchtime. By decent levels, I mean about 3 cm but it was enough to make for a very different walk.
It was quite refreshing to see the place under a blanket of white and very unusual. I think that this is the heaviest covering of snow I’ve ever walked through up the mountain.
Everything looks very different. The wind was beginning to pick up for the approaching storm Rachel which is shaping up to be a good blow. So it made for quite a severe wind-chill factor.
The poor old gorse bushes got a bit of a shock.
It was quite bleak up the top but not half as bleak as it will be tonight I should think. There is more snow expected over the next few days so I might get some better shots then.
Despite the state of the weather, I decided to go out at lunchtime today. It was pretty horrible out there but my gear was dry starting out so it wasn’t too bad. I barely managed to take any photographs as it was too wet for the camera.
I made the short loop in good time but didn’t really stop for a look around. Still, it is good to get out despite the conditions.
I got a very early start from the N55 at Barry in the half-light just before 8 on a winter morning. To say the conditions weren’t promising is a bit of an understatement – it was absolutely pouring with rain, but the forecast was for it to clear by around 10 so I decided to get started.
There was barely any light at the very start so I didn’t take any pictures until I came across the Inny about a mile into the walk. The canal follows the Inny for a few kilometres before crossing it at Abbeyshrule. I also didn’t take my camera out as it was just too wet to use it.
I quickly left Abbeyshrule behind and headed across the Whitworth aqueduct and on to Bog Bridge where I took a short break. By now the rain had turned to drizzle and the sky was brightening.
Bog bridge really is a strange structure. It is in middle of nowhere and isn’t on my survey map although it is on older maps. There is no clue whatsoever as to why it has been built as there is nothing but bog around.
Anyway, after a quick snack of coffee and Fruit & Nut bar, I was on my way again with a minimum of fuss. The rain finally stopped and it suddenly cleared to a fabulous winter morning. It was just a pity I was quite wet from the earlier downpour.
The stretch from Bog Bridge towards Ballynacarrigy must be about the most isolated place you can get to in the midlands. At this stage, I still hadn’t met anybody and it wasn’t looking likely I would.
The landscape around here seems to be quite historic according to the survey map and there are a lot of mounds and ringforts about. This one looks quite substantial.
Away in the distance there was a rather eye-catching stand of trees on a hill-top.
Anyway, I wasn’t long getting to Ballynacarrigy and it really was lovely weather by now. Although it was only 6 km since my previous brief stop, I decided to take advantage of the park bench and have a sup more coffee and some chocolate.
After that stop, I set out to push on towards Coolnahay where I was planning my lunch stop. However, the lock immediately after Ballynacarrigy had its sluices open and the next section was drained and accompanies with Canal Bank Closed signs. After a quick look at the map, I decided to push on as there wasn’t really an alternative route aside from the busy R393 road and there was no info as to whether the bank was closed 1 km or 10 km up the line and it was mostly public road.
So I pushed on for about 2 km until I came to a blockage. However since there was no work going on and there was ample evidence of dog-walkers, cyclists and even horse-riders having ignored the signs, I bypassed the fence and trudged through a few hundred metres of mud until I got to the next lock.
I’ve had this same experience last year near Kenagh and that time it was quite unnecessary really. It wouldn’t exactly be difficult for Waterways Ireland to post a diversion route for walkers and cyclists or to leave one bank open.
Anyway, rant over and back to the walking. There were more interesting views to the south over the Hill of Laragh and the Deerpark.
From here on it was a relatively uneventful few kilometres to Coolnahay where I could stop for lunch safe in the knowledge that the bulk of the walk was behind me. Coolnahay is a very active little spot with a tea-shop and it represents the western end of the Westmeath greenway which stretches from here all the way to the eastern border. It is a nice little spot for lunch.
Now I had about 12 more km to go – a quick 5 km stretch to Ballinea and about another 6 or 7 to Mullingar station. It had turned into an idyllic afternoon although it was a little cold and the lingering damp from my earlier soaking wasn’t helping matters.
Still the going was good and I wasn’t long about covering the distance to Ballinea. I hadn’t met anybody at all between Barry and Coolnahay but now I was coming across a cyclist or dog-walker every 5 minutes or so. It is interesting to see the effects of having a well-developed path in place.
Anyway, I arrived at Ballinea where the way changes sides on the canal for a kilometre or so. I stopped again for a quick coffee and nibble of chocolate and set off on the final stretch.
On crossing back over, the clearance work on the old Mullingar-Athlone MGWR railway line is looking good and it doesn’t look as if it will be long before it will be open.
It is a little odd to see the new path running alongside the existing canal greenway – they seem to run in parallel for about 3 km. Anyway, I continued on towards Mullingar. In the town itself, I come across this branch on the canal which isn’t on the map. It just looks to be a little dock area from aerial imagery.
Anyway, that’s about it for my walk. It was another couple of km to Mullingar station alongside the huge abandoned railyards. It is a pity that the greenway doesn’t seem to follow along this route. It would be quite cool to have the deserted Athlone side of the station refurbished as a terminus for the greenway.
The ruins of the old station yard are looking quite spectacular in the early evening light. It was a nice walk at just over 34km.
I didn’t manage to get out on New Year’s day due to the general awfulness of the weather so it was a nice surprise to wake up to a fine morning today and get out for a walk. I’ve decided to to repeat my 100 walks goal this year as it was getting a bit tedious having to walk the same place at weekends. So instead I’m going to go for an even thousand kilometres this year. I reckon I walked about 750 last year so that’s a good improvement if I can manage it.
Anyway, this morning was a very nice way to start and we all went for a family walk to kick the year off. The low winter sun gives long shadows even at 11 o’clock.
There is so little colour in the woods at the moment that even the bit of red in these ivy leaves catches the eye. Of course the gorse is still flowering away and the holly still inexplicably has berries. There must be plenty else for the birds to eat that they are leaving the holly berries alone.
This is the wildest part of the walk and it is looking quite bare at the moment. You can barely see the path at this point in the summer but right now it is getting quite muddy.
We had a grand walk in the forest to try and get rid of a few Christmas calories and I fear there will be quite a few to go yet. So for the first steps on a long road for the year, I reckon on the longer of the loops that we did to day as being about 4.5 km, so that leaves me with 995.5 to for the year.
It was another icy day and I didn’t get out until the afternoon but even then it hadn’t thawed much. It is a nice change to get up the forest in icy conditions but in places the path was very treacherous due to the ice.
It remained fairly frozen on any open ground the whole way round although it was beginning to thaw on the lower part of the forest.
As we trudged down the path through the lower part of the forest, it was lovely to see the white landscape which we get for such a short part of the year.
I had planned on a half-day’s walking over the Christmas break and due to it being a fantastic crisp winter’s morning, I got my act together and set off from Longford towards Clondra along the canal for a distance of almost 18km. As I was leaving the car I realised I’d forgotten my phone but no harm anyway.
It was fairly quiet around Longford, it being 9:45 on a Sunday morning. The icy conditions and low sunshine made for very scenic views but it was somewhat challenging for the camera.
This cat was looking at all the dogs out for a walk with a mixture of pity and disgust I reckon.
As I rounded the first bend, what water there was in the canal was frozen over and the ducks were walking across it. I suppose it’s better than bathing in almost freezing water.
A couple of dog-walkers having a nice little chat on near the first bridge.
At this point I was beginning to settle into the walk as I passed along the back of the various retail units. The path here is newly developed and has a good surface and excellent street-lighting. There area also lots of signs banning alcohol which are probably about as effective as the ones about keeping dogs on a lead and cleaning up after them.
After crossing the Athlone road, the canal gets properly out into the countryside and the frozen landscape looked fabulous. It wasn’t even beginning to thaw.
At this point, I was about half-way to the main-line which itself marks the half-way point of the journey. Despite being out of use for half a century, the remaining canal bridges are holding together pretty well.
The next few kilometers were much of the same really – walking quickly along a frozen path beside a frozen ditch. In some places, there are fairly substantial trees growing out of the canal bed.
Anyway, I got to the junction pretty quickly from here and it was looking fantastic. I stopped here for a bit and had some coffee and chocolate and a 5 minute rest.
Amazingly, the main line itself was frozen over in parts and when I poked it through with my stick, you could see it was 7 or 8 mm thick in places.
As I passed Kilashee I got to a spot where two swans had been overnight, and you could see the track where they been swimming through the ice.
From here on, I just put my head down to make some time and walked the next 4 or 5 k without pausing for much at all. I stopped for another cup of coffee by the lifting bridge a couple of kilometres out of Clondra.
From here on it was only about another 3 km and I quickly put paid to that. It was beginning to thaw a bit but there was still plenty of ice about. There is a lovely view of Sliabh Bán across the bog here.
It is nice to descend into Clondra from the 45th lock.
I ended up making pretty good time with the 18km completed in a little over 3 and a half hours. I didn’t have as big a load as usual which helped matters but it ended up being a morning very well spent.
Walking forests and trails in the midlands of Ireland
