North Atlantic Skyline » galway walking club

Hiking in Mweelrea

John Smyth — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:37:46 +0000

My fellow walkers pausing before descending “The Ramp” towards Doo Lough, on the northern face of Mweelrea mountain range.

A year ago today, I got married on Inishbofin island. We eschewed a return visit to the island this weekend to do something which, for me, is quite literally rarer than a first wedding anniversary – a full hike of Mweelrea and Ben Bury (Mweelrea’s sister peak in the range) without any cloud whatsoever¹. And from the very top of Mweelrea – the highest point in Connacht – Inishbofin shimmered in the sunshine a few miles offshore. We will visit it soon.

¹As the photo above shows, cloud had begun to appear in the sky overhead as we started our final descent from the mountain. But it was at least another 1000 metres above our heads, and it didn’t look quite so dramatic in the original, colour version of the photograph.

Light on the lakes

John Smyth — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:43:54 +0000

The lakes and pools of Connemara highlighted by the dappled sunlight last month as the Galway Walking club trekked along the ridges of the Maumturk mountain range. This picture was taken near the ’saddle’ between the hills of Mullach Glas and Binn Mhor , looking towards Carraroe and Leitir Mhor and beyond to the Aran Islands.

One Hundred Highways

John Smyth — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:03:06 +0000

On Sunday, a group from the Galway Hillwalking Club climbed Shannavara (Seanadh Bhéara). It took us all day despite the fact it is only 358 metres tall. To be honest, most of us could not have found the hill on a map unless it was pointed out to us. The reason we were there was because of a challenge. The Mountain Views website has a facility where one can enter your home location, and it will produce a list of the 100 closest peaks. The challenge is to climb them all. On Sunday, one of our group had climbed 99 so he was going to finish the year by climbing the last one. Last Sunday, there was a scheduled flat walk (the club alternates between flat and hill walks ever other week) and there is a very bitter friendly rivalry between flat and hill walkers – particularly over the speed of the walks. As it happened, we had to pass the flat walkers on our way out to the start of the Shannavara walk. Because it was the last Sunday of the [walking] year, there was mulled wine and mince pies waiting for returning walkers in Kelehan’s pub back in Galway. And who came back first ?

The flat walkers had been and gone an hour before we arrived back, though they had left a few pies for us. We had been so casual that we could have walked half the Maumturks in the time it took us to walk what was essentially a natural rockery. And to add insult to injury, Shanavarra used to be a flat walk route.

Though it isn’t very high, it does have an unrivaled panoramic view of every single mountain in Connemara [click here to view picture]

Slip Slidin’ Away

John Smyth — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:23:38 +0000

One of the Galway Walking club about to descend the scree path on the side of Benbreen in the Twelve Bens mountain range in Connemara on June 27th. Bengower mountain is in the background.
Most of us in the Galway Walking Club dislike scree – ‘paths’ of loose gravel found in the Maamturks and the Twelve Bens. There is only one way to descend on scree – slowly. With every step, the gravel – and you – begins to slide down the hill. The trick is not to send large rocks rolling down ahead of you (and down on top of walkers below) and to try and stay upright even as your footing is giving way underneath. The scree path on the south face of Benbreen in the Twelve Bens drops about 120 meters at a very steep slope. Sliding down it gingerly -but safely – took only 9 minutes – faster than walking. I set my camera to record as we descended – it is very shaky and, at the very end, you can see where I took a spill. I’ve speeded up the recording just to make it shorter – Youtube only allows 10-minute videos.

Click here for Video.