As many before we travelled over to the Island from Burtonport via the Blue Ferry. When we arrived at the port after a very pleasant run from Dungiven, there was a short wait which we used to walk the dogs then the team "packed" all the vehicles themselves so that every inch of space is used. There is a very narrow channel between smaller islands just off Burtenport that the ferry just fits through. Indeed, the company's new ferry is being specially built in Scotland as many other ferries are too wide. The clear blue skies made for amazing colours on the sea as we travelled over. One of the ferrymen kindly pointed out various landmarks on the wee islands and gave us some very unexpected information – all the major roads on the island had just been tarmaced – so all the potholed roads we had expected were not to be!
After following his instructions and getting through some very narrow junctions with the campervan we arrived at the start of the walk up to Cluidaniller West Top (Cnoc an Iolair mullach thiar). Our purpose for climbing Cluidaniller isn’t just to bag the summit but to set up a portable radio station at the summit. We are part of a program called Summits on the Air. Every Marilyn around the world can be climbed for points (10 for the highest, 1 for Arranmore) to be gained by the activators and chasers both. I am sure many of you have seen us on the hills huddled over our radio sets (recurrent theme from hillbaggers is “You won’t catch many fish up here” when they see the roach poles we use to hold the antennas up with.) A few find it interesting enough to question us closely on what we are doing and end up doing the Radio Amateur exams themselves so that they can take part.
We set off in beautiful sunshine but with a strong cool breeze. The main track goes to the East top trig, but the west top is the true summit. (Also for radio hams a dip of more than 25m makes the trig ineligible for SOTA). For half a mile there is a cart track, then head for the summit cairn over patchy heather and rocks. We set up the radio gear for HF (worldwide) and VHF (local) as we had arranged a sked with Minaun Hill on Achill on 2m (nearly 100miles). After a summit to summit with a Welch station on HF we had a chat with Phil on Achill on both VHF and UHF so success! When I finished I had made a total of 30 contacts by voice modes and morse code. We then took time for a snack and photos before heading off the hill.
A small hill with amazing views out over the Atlantic and fantastic take off for radio. 1.6k return with only 36m height to climb (20mins ascent with all our radio gear and my dodgy knees!). That evening as we sat at the monument in Lough Shore drinking a glass of wine watching the sunset there was a very interesting discussion on the SOTA reflectior about the use of EJ prefix for Irish Amateurs on Irish Islands which got very heated- suffice as to say I was just glad we chose the correct option! Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/1023/comment/24002/