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Was taken aback when I read Mountains of Scotland's report on
MacGillicuddy Reeks I didn't think Ireland had mountains of this grandeur.
I did the horseshoe of Beenkeragh, the ridge to Carrauntoohil and down to Cahir and then from there back down to rejoin the hydro track.
There are several routes which take in Carrauntohil from the other side; I wanted to do Beenkeragh ridge, so this was the one for me.
There's great parking at the start
And what is know as the hydro track, fairly steep to start with, and then easy going takes you up to the dam
This is looking back down the steep part, about 650m, before it turns right and rises for another 1100m.
Then across the dam.
On google earth there are paths, and in hindsight I should have gone further along and joined the path up to the start of Beenkeragh ridge. Instead I slogged up the heather, grass and rock by cutting up early. Though having said all of this I saw no evidence of a good path further along.
No harm investigating though as you are still going to have to gain the height either way.
Got a nice photo of an interesting wee bird on the slog up as well
Then the scrambling starts, but it's pretty tame. Think of a longer, bigger section of
An Caisteal from Twstin Hill to the bealach.
Very quickly at the summit of Beenkeragh
and a great view across to Carrauntoohil. Views all round are worth the effort of getting up this high.
The ridge proper starts
and is a mixture of paths
and scrambling
The end of the ridge with brother o'shea's gulley. It looked very steep and very eroded
As Mountains of Scotland says, if you were to do this in reverse, then the path down to the bealach from Carrauntoohil is likewise very eroded. I and a couple of German holiday makers were going up this section and it was straightforward
it's only the bottom section that is eroded. There is a good path most of the way to the summit.
A view across to Beenkeragh from Carrauntoohil summit
Had lunch at the top.
The other routes I'd considered were brother o'sheas gulley and the heavenly gates and down the zig zags
I was very happy with the horseshoe.
The ridge to Cahil is easy
A good view into what is a very large and impressive corrie
The second part of the walk is very tame. Up to Cahil
with a nice view of the estuary
I did finish a lot earlier than I had thought, and should have gone down and taken a look at the Atlantic and what looks like a fabulous beach at Rossbeigh. Next time.
From Cahil down
and then back to join the hydro track a short distance below the dam.
It was very benign conditions
Virtually no wind at all on the ridge, although there was a cool breeze on Carrantoohil summit. Not a T-shirt day.
I would be less Blasé in a gale, and I wouldn't be doing it in wet or icy conditions. But that's just me.
A grand day out
