Iron, water and ....more water.

Summer walking with the Voortrekker can be a nightmare, a childhood spent chasing wildebeest across the veldt means that he can stride around our hills without breaking a sweat. To try and slow him down, I decided on a route that would negate his natural affinity for solid and arid ground. Yes, the Breifne mountains with their trackless boggy summits would be the choice for the day. The Met. Eireann lady had assured me of only light showers to 10.30am followed by sunshine. So, with rain jackets on, we left the car at the forestry entrance (Point D) and walked 100m up the road to the famine memorial chair (Point A), and thence followed the waymarkers through forest, on a good track. 10.30am arrived, the rain did not leave. Leaving the forest, we reached the new concrete “Tracey’s” bridge (Point B) and followed the waymarkers up towards the cliffs. A short but slippery clamber saw us reach the mass rock and the damp grotto (Point C). This would be a highlight of the day.
Pushing onwards, a short climb took us onto the broad grassy slopes of the southern ridge leading up to the summit of Slieve Anieirin. The summit, marked by a platform, seemed a couple of metres below a point to the South according to our 2 GPS units, but it was ticked anyway. The rain continued and we had visions of the Met. Eireann forecasters laughing that they’d fooled us once again.
Our route was to continue over trackless bog directly towards Knockacullion. This certainly slowed the Voortrekker, as we both ended up knee-deep in bog and with soaked boots. We cut our losses and worked our way east to the two bumps above the cliffs. Here I took out my Brady Ham sandwiches and a flask of tea. The Voortrekker ate his Springbok biltong and some fortifying Witblits. Our route would eventually take us on to Bencroy and as the sun finally came out, we were treated to fine views of Cuilcagh. We then retraced our steps to the small lochan at Bencroy’s Southern saddle. From here we cut South-East to descend to below the cliffs (tricky in mist I’d imagine), and followed a Southerly bearing across heather and bog attempting to link sheep trails, back to Tracey’s concrete bridge and thence the car. All in all less than 15km, yet energy sapping enough for the Voortrekker to say “That was a bit tougher than I expected”. On the journey back I phoned the Grumbler- “Ah yes, that’s a wet one alright” he said knowingly, laughing almost as loudly as the Met. Eireann forecasters. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/305/comment/23576/

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Seeking the elusive Trig Pillar

Commentators have mentioned the difficulty in finding the concrete plinth that houses an Ordnance survey disc marking the summit of Slieve Anierin.
The summit area is relatively flat, with a large area of feet-sucking wet black bog. This danger zone is interspersed with patches of heathery peat, rising from the muck and inviting the explorer to jump from peat hag to peat hag like something out of an Indiana Jones film!

The Holy Grail trig plinth that the intrepid explorer seeks is lying on one of the low peat hags towards the centre of a considerable mess. It would be easy to miss and may take just a little perseverance to find. But knowing that it lies on a largish peat hag island should help you to get there! It is almost pointless to expect to see it until you are quite close as it is only a couple of inches high! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/305/comment/6158/

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eflanaga on Slieve Anierin

Climbed yesterday. A 06.00 start and a two hour drive brought me to the starting point of this walk at C (H032 147) (Mullaghgarve). Start can be accessed from Ballinamore by taking road signposted for Aughnasheelan/Aghacashel at the crossroads in the town centre. An approximate 10K drive on a pleasant, winding and well sign-posted country road will bring you to Aghacashel P.O. Just around the bend above the PO take right turn and follow narrow road up towards mountain. Eventually reach junction with road coming from left (plantation in clear view down this road). I parked to the right of the gate (marking start of track) on the junction corner. Started walk at 08.15 with temperature at -3 and heavy mist shrouding Aneirin’s summit. Cross gate and follow track, crossing two further gates as you climb towards mountain. Take left at makeshift plywood bridge over stream which runs parallel with track and make for point where plantation meets cliffs (D (H025 149)). Here a climbable narrow ridge provides possibility of a shortcut to top of cliffs. Less adventurous may wish to carry on for another 300 metres so as to avoid cliff completely. Given the conditions (visibility 10 metres), once I gained the top, I thought it prudent to proceed for another 100 metres so as to create safe distance from cliff edge. From here it’s a long dreary trudge over marshy ground and peat hags to the summit. I was fortunate in that much of the soft ground was frozen over allowing me to walk gingerly where on a warmer day I might have sunk to my knees. At the top the heavy mist persisted hampering my efforts to find the base of the Trig point which must have been hidden by grass or heather! In any case after spending some time crossing backwards & forwards over the highest ground I gave up trying to find it, satisfied that at some point I must have thread across Aneirin’s highest point. I decided to make for Knockabell in the hope that the mist would lift at some point or the walk was going to prove extremely disappointing. Photography on top of Aneirin was pointless in the prevailing conditions, hence the photograph is taken from Knockacullion. Needless to say the mist had lifted from Aneirin by the time I reached Knockacullion! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/305/comment/2192/

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eflanaga on Slieve Anierin

It was a case of third time lucky following an ascent to the summit of Aneirin, along with Ronnie Irvine & John Moore (from Scotland), last Wednesday.I finally managed to find the base of the summit Trig Point after failing to do so in the mist-enshrouded conditions prevailing on my previous two visits. Our approach on this occasion was roughly the same as described by Gerrym (below) i.e. starting at Bencroy I Tl'Iska (H05731 19503) and taking in Knockacullion on the way to Aneirin. The Trig base lies atop of one of the numerous peat-hags that litter the top of the mountain (Bencroy was worse). Conditions throughout the walk were wet underfoot, not surprising given all the recent rainfall, and interspersed with a good deal of trudging through deep heather. However, a great part of the walk was completed in relatively clear and warm weather. Views from the escarpment were wonderful. This is the same escarpment upon which legend tells us Gráinne & Diarmuid were pursued in their flight from the jilted Fionn McCumhail. 'Leaba Ghráinne' or Gráinne's Bed is supposed to be up on the mountain somewhere. Anyone any ideas where that may be? Return to starting point was via the wide expanse of bogland below the escarpment. The going was tough in the long heather/grass and became doubly so as we laboured through a 40 minute deluge, which only relented as we approached the car. An enjoyable five-hour trek despite the underfot conditions and deluge. Thanks to Ronnie for the photograph. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/305/comment/2787/

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My MV`s 900th Feature.

Eaten alive by midges, a Mountain Hare for company, a hidden Altar discovered and happily found a low down Trig, a pleasant 10km walk in the Briefne Mountains in very unusual weather. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/305/comment/19935/

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