2013-06-17 11:37:01
Bunclody Hillwalking Day
On the Saturday of Bunclody’s Gathering Week (July27), some walks are being organised in the Blackstairs Mountains, which act as a beautiful backdrop to the town. From these hills on a clear day, you can see half of Ireland!There will be three walks - one fairly strenuous, one medium walk, and a fairly easy walk. The hardest will be about 20 km with ascent of 1100 metres; medium will be about 14 km with 700 metres ascent and the easier one will follow the path of the John Murray Radio walk which attracted a huge crowd to the area last year.
These will be guided walks with experienced leaders from the Tullow Walking Club and the Clody Loafers. Assembling point will be The River’s Edge pub and bistro right at the centre of Bunclody.
Walkers for the harder walk will assemble and register at 8.30 and leave by bus for the start at 9.0; medium walk will assemble at 9.30 and leave at 10.0; easier walk assemble at 10.30 for departure at 11. All walkers will be taken by bus from the finishing point back to Bunclody, where refreshments will be served.
All intending walkers must sign up in advance and indicate which walk they intend doing by contacting Brian Gilsenan at bgilsenan@eircom.net or phone 053 9377828 or 086 8286460. There will be a fee of €15.00 which will cover transport and refreshments. This can be paid at registration on the day of the walks.
There will be limits on the numbers on each walk, so early sign up is advisable. For more information, use contact as above.
Info from Brian Gilsenan
2013-06-14 23:46:21
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| Robert Dowds (Expand pics) |
Access to the Countryside Bill
Take a look at the Bill (or at least the Explanatory Memorandum) athttp://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2013/6013/b6013d.pdf
2013-06-14 14:13:55
Dowds Bill - media interest.
The Irish Times has a report on Robert Dowds Access to the Countryside Bill, 2013.http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/d%C3%A1il-to-debate-plan-to-give-walkers-guaranteed-access-to-land-1.1428743?utm_source=lunchtime-digest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digests
2013-06-13 19:36:41
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YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR TRACK CAN GO
Back through the mists of time, some of us gave one about the construction work inflicted on us by the Mourne so-called Heritage Trust - costly, pointless and insensitive.I and some other stalwarts made our views known.
The Lord Stewart adopted a more mellow and conciliatory tone - and illustrated his view of good and appropriate track work with comments and pics of the old track running SE off Slieve Binnian.
He and we will be interested to know that this particular track is now to be dug up and replaced with well .... you know the thing - steps and dust - the spoor of the MHT.
The word "snook" comes to mind.
2013-06-13 09:16:04
Reviewer wanted, Northern Ireland Walking
Anyone interested in reviewing this ?Descriptions of 34 walking routes across Northern Ireland. From two-hour strolls to eight-hour mountain challenges. Each route has its own sketch map and is lavishly illustrated with colour photographs. By Helen Fairbairn.
contact group@mountainviews.ie if you are interested.
2013-06-13 07:33:26
Lambay Island tour offered.
The following message came in. Is anyone interested in this, perhaps in doing liaison ?I have details of the outfit arranging the tour.
Simon
Good Afternoon,
I was wondering if you have any members that would be interested in the trip below.
Lambay Island Tour
It's €90 Per Person for tour of castle & gardens / walking tour of the island / sea tour transport etc. ( own picnic ) half day trip.
Lord Alexander should be around to give you a tour of the castle and its history.
2013-06-12 20:07:27
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YOU COULD FALL FOR IT
Go bag some wicked traverses. Mourne Mountains Beg/Cove.2013-06-12 14:49:22
Rain down...
The good Capn's lovely post made me recall another instance of the mind associating music with mountains. It's a bit of an anecdote...please forgive the indulgence.Years ago I did charity walks. Not big, organised things, but self-devised-then-soloed routes in the Scottish Highlands. (As my sister put it: 'Mad **** in the mountains? People will sponsor you!'). This tended to focus my attention on a form of hillwalking that had interested me for years; how much can you do in a single day? (I'm sensible and I hate camping, so multi-day trips were a no-no). So in June 2003 I found myself in Glen Carron at Stupid o'Clock, stepping out into the rain.
I felt under pressure at that moment with £1500 of sponsorship to honour, but I also had my own desire to go longer and tougher than I'd previously managed. 33 miles, 4000m of ascent, river crossings, scrambling...on last day of the holiday I'd booked. It had to be today. So, over the railway, over the bridge, up the Allt a'Chonais track, towards the wilderness. Rain persisted and the clouds clamped themselves to the mountains with a limpet's devotion. I was fitter than ever but conditions were making a positive attitude a tough thing to maintain.
Alone with my thoughts (not unusual in the hills when you're from the mountain wasteland of Cambridge) I let my mind wander, and allowed my internal jukebox to settle wherever it felt like settling. It chose to settle upon a Radiohead album track called 'Scatterbrain', a song of golden guitars in minor keys, pitter-pat percussion (just like the rain bouncing off my hood), and sporting a gorgeous, ghostly vocal.
It's also a song where a man goes out in a storm and gets killed by lightning. And as I forged on up the glen, its refrains repeating in my head, I started to let situational realities infect my 'you can do it' internal urgings. After four miles of steady uphill I reached the point where the stream had to be crossed; here the safety of valley would be left and commitment would be absolute. What confronted me was a seething torrent, spanned optimistically by a two strand bridge. I've always been too gangly to deal comfortably with such constructions, and (to borrow a joke) I'm not as good a swimmer as I once was thanks to evolution.
I thought of the knife-edge sections I would have to do, slippery and cloud-blinded. I imagined teetering across those gossamer steel threads, water ravenous beneath me. My internal jukebox cranked itself up to full volume.
"I'm walking out in a force ten gale,
Birds thrown around, bullets for hail...'
I realised I was doing the wrong thing.
So, Radiohead stopped me from basically committing suicide; the opposite of what most folk think their music does. What might have happened if the IJ had selected the other album that I'd had on heavy rotation that week: Fountains of Wayne's 'Welcome Interstate Managers'? Are any insights into survival situations contained within the lyrics of 'Stacy's Mom'?
2013-06-10 22:50:14
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| Life on the edge (Expand pics) |
Via Ferrata Tordini Galligani
A moderately difficult Via Ferrata in the Apuan Alps of northern Tuscany, Italy. For a full description see track 2227 http://mountainviews.ie/track/report/2227/2013-06-10 21:16:04
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| Gap of Dunloe. (Expand pics) |
Memorial to the Unknown Woman.
We descended a steep hillside to the south end of the Gap of Dunloe. While there is a road, it's pretty wild so we were heartened, humbled and surprised to see the Unknown Woman, she of red hair, pushing a buggy.Woman with altitude, we salute you.