Lonely top well defended by navigationally tricky land & sucking bog.
Short Summary created by simon3 14 Jun 2010
Conavalla has a plain, lonely place at the head of the Glenmalure valley. It can be reached from various points such as from the car park at Boravore T046943 (Point A) from where you proceed NW up forest tracks, reaching and then leaving the forest marked on the OS map. Another route is from the Wicklow Gap O075003 (Point B) , from which you walk up the road to the Turlough Hill power storage system, past Lough Firrib so reaching Conavalla from the NE. This route is notoriously difficult in misty conditions without a GPS. When wet, which is to say often, the flattish region around 350 to 700m to the NE of the summit has perhaps the worst bog in Wicklow. It is also possible to reach Conavalla from the north, for example starting at O 020014 (Point C) which is the end of a rough road, and going to the Art's Plaque at T036994 (Point D) . T 03789 98934 (Point E) on the height above it commemorate Art O'Neill who died in 1592 on his flight from Dublin Castle. There are also the two lakes of "Three Lakes" at 032982 (Point F) .
Point A: T046 943
Point B: O075 003
Point C: O020 014
Point D: T036 994
Point E: T03789 98934
Point F: T032 982
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Picture from padodes : Art's Cross
Picture: Art's Cross
by padodes 13 Feb 2008
Almost 2 km due north of Conavalla, at the edge of the upland plateau rolling wetly down from the top of the hill and about midway between Lough Firrib and Three Lakes, lies Art’s Cross (T 038 991 (Point G) ). In pre-GPS days, when thick fog descended on this broken bogland, it could be quite tricky to find the landmark, since the terrain never allowed the walker to follow anything remotely similar to a direct bearing. As it happens, the Cross doesn’t mark the exact spot where, according to tradition, Art O’Neill died in 1592 on his flight from Dublin Castle to Glenmalure with Red Hugh O’Donnell. That spot lies in the valley, below, close to the foot of the nearby waterfall. The view from the top, looking northwards, takes in a beautiful expanse of mountain scenery from Tonelagee in the NE right across to Mullaghcleevaun in the N, and Moanbane and Silsean in the NW (the latter three, left to right, are visible in the photo).
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Picture from padodes : Art's Memorial
Picture: Art's Memorial
by padodes 17 Feb 2008
Just west of Art’s Cross (T 038 991), a stream tumbles from the plateau to form Gleenreemore Brook in the valley below. Slightly east of the foot of the waterfall can be seen the memorial to Art O’Neill (T 036 994), indicating the spot where, according to tradition, he breathed his last. It’s easily missed, since the grassy ramp that marks the beginning of the ascent (or end of the descent) alongside the waterfall takes you away from it. It’s a granite plaque in Irish set into a striated boulder, with a little cross on top. It was placed there, as a few lines tell us at the bottom, by Cumann Siúlóirí na hÉireann in 1992 - the four hundreth anniversary of Art's death - to replace another that had been there since 1932. Although this is a recent memorial, it is sculpted in the elegant demi-uncial script of earlier years, so my guess would be that it has simply copied the 1932 model. Passing by yesterday, 9 Feb. ’08, I noticed several Christmas wreaths were still lying at the foot of the memorial, so obviously Art is no forgotten figure in our history. The fact that he faced the rigours of these hills in winter gives him a place in walkers' hearts, too.(Comment Rating 4.00)
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by Tom Milligan 19 Jun 2005
Traversing the boggy area between Lough Firrib and Conavalla can be a source of some nervousness for many, especially in wet conditions, but there is a way to this summit from Turlough Hill which bypasses Lough Firrib and provides a relatively pleasant and bog-free experience. Heading along the traditional route over the disused quarry towards Lough Firrib on 296 degrees, stop at the rocks (T:06045 98347 (Point H) ) which precede the descent into the Turlough-Firrib boggy arena. From here head resolutely on 246 degrees downwards, then over a shoulder and down to the Glenealo river, and then upwards to Conavalla. You'll be asking yourself "Why don't we do this all the time?".
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Picture from csd
by csd 14 Sep 2003
Surrounded by sucking bogs, Conavalla can take quite an effort to get to if it's been wet. Beware, the nice fat forest track on the southern side of Conavalla, shown on the Harvey and Hely maps, doesn't extend as far as shown. If you're thinking of using it to head for Lugduff I'd think again! Picture shows Conavalla taken from the top of the Table Track, with Tonlagee in the background on the left.(Comment Rating 3.00)
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by campbellu 13 Jun 2005
For years now our small group has toyed with the idea of walking from Camaderry to Lug and on a fine Sunday recently 3 of us decided to give it a go. We left a car at baravore with the intention of descending Lug by Art's Lough back down to the Ford. The day started great with 2 hours of good sunshine which saw us at Lough Firrib for our lunch (early). This is when the trouble started, firstly a hail shower and a severe drop in temperature, followed by the immediate discovery that one person had forgotten her jacket(unforgiveable). Rather than go back the way we came we reckoned we'd continue on and instead of going up Lug by Table we'd descend off Conavalla down into baravore. Did someone say it is a "sucking" bog, if they did they should have used a different consonant. We literally sank our way across trying all the time to figure out could we have gone to the Three lakes and found a firmer ground, we laughed till we wet ourselves (though we were already wet enough), it would have made a very good cartoon sequence of hopping ballet dancers up to their knees in mud. We made it down by a break in the forest during serious hail to find at the trail a clear view of Table and lug and the sun re-appearing. We will try again no doubt but what I want to know is is there any way over from Lough Firrib to Table that is not "bog" , we may leave it until Sep/Oct and try again.
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(End of comment section for Conavalla.)
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