The Hills of Connemara at twilight, seen from across Galway Bay in Co. Clare.
You won’t get much solitude in Connemara this weekend. It was full of runners last weekend for the Connemarathon, and this weekend , there’ll be hikers swarming all over the Maumturks as part of the Maumturks Challenge (can’t find a link to it, but Simon Stewart has some very good info on the route). I did it last year, in near perfect weather – this year, some rain is expected which should make it a real challenge.
I presume the route is the same as last year – show up at the base of Corcog [turn right at Maam Cross and drive a couple of miles until you reach the first hill on your left] to start walking at 6am – in near darkness. If all goes well, you’ll get to watch the sunrise from the top of Corcog on your way to completing every peak in the Maumturk range. Unfortunately, once you’ve completed the ‘Turks, you are still only half way on the challenge, and you have a few more long stretches of ups and downs, including the aptly named Coll of Despondency, before you descend Leenaun Hill to the finish. Might just give it a miss this year.
The starting time has been extended from 5am-7am this year and here are a couple of links for more info on the challenge:
http://www.maamturkswalk.com/
http://walkersassociation.ie/node/41
Now, your new super duper spam filter will probably detect these as such because of the links