from Carlingford

Walk Date: 05 Aug 2016. Being in Belfast for other business Dillon(dillonkdy) and myself took a detour on the way home and parked in Carlingford just before six on a beautiful summers afternoon. Carlingford is a lovely coastal town and the famous Carlingford Oyster Festival was on at the time so the town was buzzing. We walked through the tiny streets and left all the noise behind following the straightforward route to the top of Slieve Foye. We noticed we were climbing right from the start as we set off from sea level. Views on the climb were fantastic as were the views back towards Carlingford. We recorded a climb of 564m to the top returning to the car after 2.5 hrs covering almost 8Km. A road race was just finishing in the town as we returned, it felt like we were passing the finishing line too! See Dillon’s (dillonkdy) full story of his County High Point Challenge at https://dillons32chpchallenge.github.io/progress/index.html We also found Kieron Gribbon's High Point Ireland website (www.highpointireland.com) to be a useful source of information for our 32 County High Points challenge. Definitely worth checking out if you're planning to do any of the High Point challenges. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/298/comment/18828/

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pdtempan on Slieve Foye

(Continued from Ravens Rock) As I approached Slieve Foye I encountered other walkers again. On the summit a woman in her fifties asked me the name of the mountain we were. She wanted to be able to tell her husband which peak she had climbed. "Slieve Foye? Is that how you say it?" I presume she had followed the crowds from Carlingford. I descended to the Golyin Pass and then left behind the crowds heading back to Carlingford by turning E along the Tain Way towards Glenmore. I was behind schedule, so once I reached the road, I started thumbing and almost immediately got a lift back to the Long Woman's Grave from a local. "I thought you were out for a walk!" was his opening shot. When I explained that had done the whole ridge from the Windy Gap to Slieve Foye and that I was taking advantage of his generosity because I still had plans to bag a few of Clermont Carn's satellites, he said "Well, maybe you've done enough then." Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/298/comment/3805/

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Something for everyone

Fast becoming my old reliable, I've seen Foye in all weathers and it never fails to lift the mood. If you're planning on climbing the mountain, be sure to also take in some of the ridge as the rock-strewn landscape offers so much to explore. Every walk or run on the mountain reveals something new. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/298/comment/6846/

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mcrtchly on Slieve Foye

We climbed Slieve Foye on Saturday 13th February 2010 having decided to follow the new Slieve Foye looped walk as found on the Louth Co. Co. website. Unfortunately the walk is not yet fully developed and descent from the gap below the Eagles Rock could be dangerous for inexperienced walkers due to the lack of a defined path, sudden cessation of signs and on-going clear felling of the Slieve Foye forest. The route from the centre of Carlingford follows the Tain Way for about 500m up a steep road to a cross roads where the Tain way turns off to the right. At the cross roads continue uphill along a path sign posted Barnavave then a short turn to the left and over a new metal stile to where the path meets another part of the Tain Way. Follow the Tain Way to Barnavave gap and then turn right up the ridge towards Slieve Foye where there are signs for the Foye looped walk. A short scramble leads to the summit (there are harder scrambles on the rocks if you want). It was quite icy on top.

The views from Slieve Foye across Carlingford Lough to the Mournes were fantastic and a rocky ridge leads NW from the summit towards The Eagles Rock. Just below the Eagles Rock signs for the Foye looped walk lead off to the right (NNE) down a steep valley towards Slieve Foye forest. Then the signs stop and here the problems arose. We tried to make our own way down towards the car park shown on the map and avoiding the steep cut of the river in the valley. But there was no track and even worse, no gate or stile into the forest (which is now no longer a forest due to on-going clear felling). Eventually we managed to cross the fence and struggled over the remains of fallen trees and through deep sticky mud to reach the Tain Way which we followed back SE to our start in Carlingford.

Slieve Foye has much to recommend it, especially the craggy ridge walk NW from the summit but the route down to Slieve Foye forest is not to be recommended at the moment; at least until the route is signed and access through the forest/clear fell is sorted out. I contacted Louth Co. Co. on my return and they are aware of the problem and have said that they will put up temporary signs on the Slieve Foye walk alerting walkers. They are also talking with Coillte about the best way to cross the forest once the clear felling is completed. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/298/comment/4422/

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tsunami on Slieve Foye

A fabulous mountain. Superior in so many ways to many others up to twice its size. It's mix of location, sense of exposure and also the challenge it can present having to climb from sea level put it up with the best of them. With the development and sign posting of the Tain Way, it has however become a lot more popular and some routes to the summit tend to be a little overcrowded in good weather for my liking, my favorite route being from the car park in Carlingford straight up onto the shoulder between Foye and Barnavave, around the back of the mountain towards the white bog until you are level with the trig point, and then simply scramble to the top. The views are excellent for the effort (which is really only the last couple of hundred yards straight up to the summit). For lovers of the Mournes, if you haven't been on the summit of Foye you are missing possibly one of the best opportunities to really appreciate the "Kingdom"! The picture shows part of this view over to Binnian, with it's head in the cloud. A panoramic lens is a must to really capture the breathtaking view over Carlingford Lough. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/298/comment/1208/

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