Not an easy bag!

So you've done the "Pocket", and found it pretty tough, big climbs but big rewards, Fine, Good for you!
Want a touch more challenge?
Ever wondered what those little 'uns in the middle of the Dunkerrons might be like?
What about doing a horseshoe from the other side and in an clockwise direction instead?

Cloon Horseshoe is the one for you, however be ready for a finale like no other...

Park beside the Lough, Cloon that is (See the Mullaghanattin Short Summary for access details, I won't repeat them here)

Climb for what seems an eternity up to Beann NE (fantastic airy scramble to finish out on a gorgeous summit), make sure you've had your Weetabix, you'll need it.

Then the F A B U L O U S and unforgettable (especially if you get a super June day like we did) hop, skip and jump, along the ridge from one Beann to another, NE, then main top, then SW, then Far SW Top, just one beauty after another...

Then soak up the Sallagh's, but keep your energy, you've only warmed up! Technically there are no more summits to cross on this walk but there's Purgatory ahead. We took tea on Sallagh SW and I had to take the opportunity of being the first to comment. anyway back to our jaunt...

A twisting, turning mayhem of navigation through the Glacial lakes to the NW as you make for the SW ridge of Coomura to get yourself and your now screaming muscles up and over it's seemingly endless plateau (and it's summit if not ticked off, we had done it before so we left it out)

Over the hump of Coomura and head down it's NNE ridge. It's here that life, the universe and everything comes into play, you will question your ever taking up such a dumb recreation as hill-walking, rambling, mountaineering, ticking off VL's or whatever the hell it was got you here. You may cry, You may scream with rage and hatred for this god-forsaken land, and you may live to see the end of it...

At the col when all hope is lost you turn NE to continue to slither down and get your sorry butt to the south west of the lakeside and the track you have seen but can't bloody find, through a hell of bracken and overgrowth, why don't those bloody sheep eat it all to ground level?

Hope has been lost, but redemption is at hand, all of a sudden a man made stony track materialises out of the wilderness and gets you along the lake, & the weary and brave soldier you are gets a second wind as you see your auto awaiting you, and the promise of a pint later or a cooling bathe for your aches or both, and suddenly a whole day of ups and downs are worth it.

You'll be unlikely to meet anyone else up there, maybe a small chance on the high Beann's, and the Sallagh's are a place you'll have solitude but for the rocks.

Fin Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/1449/comment/19954/

Read Less