It was a quick lunchtime walk with just me and the dogs along. We’ve had a great run of weather since last weekend so it was really pleasant if not absolutely scorching.
As I got further around there were quite a few things coming into flower. The bilberries have just got going with promise of delicious berries later in the year.
I should know what this white flower is but it escapes me at the moment. Anyway, it’s bringing a spot of variety to the greens and browns of the forest.
The last walk of my long weekend was a planned 15 km trip with my son along the canal. We had a fantastic day for it with the sun shining from early in the morning. We got ourselves on the trail by 10:30 on a quiet morning in Ballynacarrigy.
I spotted this interesting thing flowering. I have no idea what it is but it looked quite pretty.
They have been doing more work on resurfacing the trail along this section and it looks almost completed. There was a man attacking some sort of road machine with an unfeasibly large spanner at one point on the trail.
Luckily enough, the new surface runs out around Emper before we got to the really remote bog section. I really hope they leave that part alone as it is such a wild place but I don’t think that is likely.
The incredibly odd bog bridge looms int he distance on this shot. At this point we were about a kilometre from it. We had one of the dogs with us and I decided that as we were some distance from a road, it was safe to let her off the lead. She took full advantage and ran about like some sort of lunatic for this section of the walk.
We took a breather at Bog bridge and we shared a bit of chocolate while I had some coffee. We still had Lily the dog running around and she entirely vanished at this point. We were about to look for here when she returned after having had a nice swim in a bog-hole somewhere.
So we packed ourselves up and left bog bridge behind us.
We headed on to Abbeyshrule where we stopped for another couple of minutes. Abbeyshrule was strangely empty of boats for some reason.
We headed on to the lock beyond Abbeyshrule where we had a quick lunch of tuna rolls and crisps. At this point we were down to about for kilometres left.
We quickly passed Allard’s, Guy’s and Molly Ward’s bridge to arrive at Fowlard’s bridge after about 4 hours total. It was a good weekend’s walking as I managed a total of almost 85 km over the five day break
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.
We got out for a family walk today and it was a really pleasant trip around the forest. The air temperature has really increased over the last few days and there are definite signs of things livening up a bit.
Some of the frogspawn has long since hatched and the eggs are well into tadpole stage. They are all swimming around nicely eating anything in sight.
There are so many varieties of willow catkins about. The detail in them is really pretty if you can be bothered to look in detail.
It was quite a slow walk today for various reasons but in the end we got around. We have this lovely stand of primroses growing in a ditch on the edge of our field
It was a nice trip round the forest in fine dry weather.
It was back to the Miners’ Way for me today and the plan was to get the southern section done. I had a slightly late start at 9AM and the plan was to get the train from Boyle at 6:30. So I started out at the the bottom of the hill from the Mining Experience.
From here, it was a quick climb up to the hills above Arigna and then heading south towards Keadew. The morning was still quite misty so Sliabh Anierin remain elusive as ever.
From here it was a couple of kilometres until the route branches off for the Kilronan mountain loop. I passed this and started heading down towards Keadew after passing the political cairn from my last visit.
I came across this odd little chamber under a communications mast on the way down the hill. I didn’t really have time to go poking around in it so I satisfied myself with a picture.
There is nothing on the map at this location but given the prevalence in the area it must be a sweat house.
After a steep and slippy descent down an old track, I got onto a local road and from here it was an easy walk in Keadew.
Keadew was really only just waking up. There were a couple of shops open and a bus arrived while I was walking through. A runner sneaked up on me and scared the bejesus out of me as I was walking through. I went up past the church and then down to Lough Meelagh.
It was at this point that I made a rather stupid navigation mistake which in fairness I had also planned. Because the walk is on two map sheets and the sheets are offset at this point, stupidly liked up the wrong parts of the walk and so headed off towards Ballyfarnon instead of turning left directly towards Keadew. I think this error ended up adding about 5 km to my route. Anyway, I headed on towards Kilronan Castle and entered through these rather fabulous gates.
I continued on merrily through the forest around the lake completely oblivious to my own stupidity and made good progress towards Ballyfarnon which is a lovely little village. After passing through Ballyfarnon, I headed up a hill and got ready to leave the roads behind me for a bit. It was at this stage that I started getting the niggles that something was wrong with my direction. Sure enough after getting both map sheets out I realised my error and turned around.
So after a rather fast 4 km hike back along through Ballyfarnon and down a road along the western side of Lough Meelagh, I got back on the correct route. This episode added about 6 km to my journey. Once back on the right route, I swapped out my map sheets and set out again.
The route followed minor roads for a couple of kilometres before switching back to muddy tracks and then going across fields for a while. As I was nearing the 20 km mark, I decided to stop for lunch at this stage.
After lunch, I continued across fields and got the first glimpse of Lough Key. Boyle, my destination is on the far side of the lake. I descended towards the lake and joined a busy regional road towards Knockvicar at an interesting crossroads which had two pubs – both closed due to Good Friday.
I made good time along the main road which was a bit unpleasant before I got to Knockvicar which is a nice little village with a rather substantial bridge across the Boyle river.
The route carried along the main road for another few hundred metres before turning off into a nice little amenity walk on a mostly cut-away bog.
There was some interesting fauna in a field along this route. I think these are alpacas which aren’t terribly common in Ireland
The route looped around through bogland, bluebell woods and along the shores of Lough Key and it was a very pleasant section. I stopped for a bit of a chat with a local walker for a couple of minutes.
I was looking out for a spot to sit down and have a coffee as I was starting to get quite tired. I found this nice spot with a view onto the lake so had a quick break.
The route meandered through forestry and we eventually ended up in what would have originally been land belonging to the Rockingham estate judging by the rather substantial walls and the odd castle in the forest.
Not long after this, the route emerged onto a minor road through open farmland that would have once been open parkland belonging to the estate. This was turning into a bit of a slog as I was noticing that I was getting very tight on time for making the 1830 train.
All of the bridges on the old estate have a very distinctive style. Once I was across this, I had a couple more km to go to make it to the forest park. I entered the forest park through a back entrance into the carpark.
After going through the car-park, I got a nice view of the lake and stopped briefly to use the facilities before getting back on the trail. At this point, I was getting extremely tight for time and I didn’t know which route the waymarking would take me through the park.
Needless to say, it sent me on the most roundabout rote possible, and I wasn’t going to take a short-cut in case that ended up being even longer.
This castle in the middle of the lake is actually a folly and is built to about 70% scale of what it would actually be. I went out there on a boat a couple of summers ago and it is in a pretty bad state of repair.
I struggled on, making quite a good pace – I rattle off an 11 minute kilometre at one point but I really was feeling the pain of a long day’s walking and so regretfully had to call a halt to proceedings after passing through the rather dramatic entrance archway to the estate.
I made a total of 38 kilometres for the day, but I had to call a taxi at this stage as I had about 2.5 more kilometres and about 25 minutes to make the last train of the day.
After a really wet couple of days, I was somewhat surprised to see the rain more or less completely stopped when I went to go out at lunchtime. It’s been a few days since I’ve been up the top due to a long walk last weekend but not a lot has changed.
One slight change is that there is something now flowering even if it is a bit drab. I can’t remember what these are but they are pretty abundant through the forest.
It will probably be a while again before I get up there as I have a few long walks planned for the Easter weekend.
I had decided to do yet another trail in the border area but this was to be from the northern side of the border. So I got up early on a Saturday morning and headed once more towards Lough Allen. This time I was heading past Blacklion to park up on the edge of The Cuilcagh Mountain park. I was planning on quite a long loop – the vast majority of which was to be off-road and a lot of it was proper cross-country walk with no real trails.
So after a night of heavy rain and intermittent showers on the way up I arrived just before 9. As is usual for me lately, I had to ignore a trail closed sign as I wasn’t going to turn back after driving 90 kilometres.
The trail started out on hard gravel path good enough to take a jeep and started gently climbing into the hills. The scenery was definitely of the upper moorland variety and the facilities were quite good with benches every kilometer or so and a couple of boardwalk paths out into the bog.
The waymarkers were neat and tidy and in reasonably plentiful supply. After about 3 kilometeres I came to the reason for the path closed sign – Fermanagh County Council were busy putting in about two kilometres of boardwalk that went right up the mountain – including a stairway going up about 100m of very steep climb.
It was all a fine piece of work but not quite finished. The woodwork was done but the anti-slip wire mesh was yet to be put in place. So I was presented with a bit of dilemma but convenience got the better of my sense of right and wrong so I set off along the new boardwalk. It helped that there was nobody around.
Anyway, the woodwork took care of most of the climbing and left me within a kilometre of the cairn at the peak of Cuilcagh Mountain. Unfortunately, it was pretty misty so there wasn’t a lot to see. Occasionally, the fog cleared enough to allow me to see the next waymarker or the cairn itself.
After visiting the peak, I turned to the north east and started descending almost immediately. Unfortunately, I missed a waymarker in the fog, so ended up going down quite a steep grass slope with a bit of cliff by way of interruption half way down. I slip-slided my way down and made it down in one piece and a bit damp. There were still bits of snow in sheltered spots on the northern sides of the mountain.
After making it down, I spotted the well-made track down the side which would have made for a much easier descent. I guess I’ll know the next time. I stopped for a quick coffee and lump of chocolate in a convenient resting spot before heading on across the moor.
The next few kilometres were a rather damp boring blog-slog across the moor following compass bearings between waymarkers. The track was pretty well set up though and there were neat and strong bridges across most of the streams and rivers that route crossed.
Aside from the odd stream, it continued on without interruption across moorland for about 5 kilometres until the route came to the interesting little valley of Legacurragh. This looks like a glacial feature.
At this point I took a little detour as there appears to have been a new trail added since my edition of the OS map came out so I wandered a few hundred metres off course before I realised what I was doing. I’d say I added about a kilometre to my journey with this episode of stupidity.
Around Legacurragh, there were quite a few odd holes in the landscape. Mostly they seemed to be 40 or 50 metres across and about 10 to 15 metres deepd. There were quite a few smaller holes around as well – you would need to be very careful about straying off the trail as you could quite easily disappear down a hole and do yourself an injury.
As the ground started to descend towards Florencecourt forest park, the odd tree seemed to manage to cling on to side of the mountain. This little stand seemed to be doing so quite heroicly.
As I descended towards lower ground, the day began to brighten up a little and the biting rain and mist that had been blasting away for last hour eased off just as I was entering forestry where it wouldn’t have been as much of a problem.
The route took me onto a forest track and I figured it was getting time to stop for a spot of lunch. I was expecting the abundance of benches I’d seen on the ascent but there wasn’t much in evidence. Eventually after a couple of kilometres I came into the forest park and spotted a convenient stump to rest on and had my lunch.
The 7 or 8 kilometres of bog-slog had taken their toll and my Gore-text boots had decided to let in water for the first time in the two years I’ve owned them. It possibly hadn’t helped that I’d stuck my feet down a couple of holes along the way. I didn’t bother trying to dry myself out though – just left well enough alone. I wasn’t cold anyway.
I had the option of a short-cut or of following the Ulster way through the forest park and as it was still relatively early, I took the longer option. There was a pleasant network of forest tracks but the waymarks had vanished so I’m fairly sure I didn’t follow the official route.
I walked about 4 km through the forest and parkland which was a bit of variety before I started to ascend back towards the mountains to complete the loop walk. I spotted a holly-bush along the way that still had a cluster of red berries so it was’t just ours that got left alone by the birds for some odd reason this winter.
The weather really started to deteriorate as I ascended back towards high ground and I really started to get soaked. I ended up putting the camera away to avoid damage and just slogged on through it.
The route ascended along a forest path which went quite a distance into the hills before terminating in this little saddle between two hills. From here on it was a bit of a slog through moorland. I spotted a group of walkers in the distance and I slowly gained on them.
Somehow I lost them and I ended up joining the road with a bout 1.5 km to go to the car. Along the road, I spotted them again – they had obviously taken a bit of a short-cut. I caught up with them and had a bit of chat. I reached the car without much further ado – quite soaked after my day’s walking. I managed almost 29 km for the day.
We got out for our usual quick lunchtime loop today. Not a lot of interest going on I’m. It was just a quick walk with the dogs.
The trees are still showing very little signs of life considering we are nearly at the end of March. While the willows have catkins, nothing has leaves yet.
Anyway, it was a nice bit of exercise for the day.
After breakfast, we took advantage of the fine weather to sneak in a quick loop of the forest. The weather over the weekend really has been fantastic but this often happens at this time of year.
We weren’t really exerting ourselves as it was just such an enjoyable experience to be up the mountain on such a beautiful day. That being said, it is still quite cold.
We took the longer loop today for a 4.5 km walk.
300km
Walking forests and trails in the midlands of Ireland
