Great long range views in clear weather

Enjoyed a walk to this summit on a stunningly clear day. The route from the east is a little tedious but is rewarded in clear weather. The "popular" startpoint beside the telecoms antennae can be found on google maps as "Laharn Viewpoint".

I can understand the source of the name of this summit as just to the northwest of the summit proper, at the location of the decaying Iron Man, there's a gap of sorts between tops where wind funnels up from the valley to the south. This valley has some handsome steep-sided cliffs on its western flank.

At this spot B (Q79898 08395) , where a cairn has been assembled, you can enjoy great views both North and South, and ponder how the enterprise that built the Iron Man is somehow able to leave it rotting on this hillside without any obligation to retire its asset. Thankfully more modern legislation on such constructions should require modern telecoms masts to be disassembled at the end of their useful lives, with the ground "made good". Well, we live in hope anyway.

On the day that was in it, I could comfortably make out all the major tops of the Reeks to the south, as far as the Paps to the East, and at times on my route I could see Kells Mountain to the south west. Of course, turning to face northwards I could also benefit from a glorious vista across North Kerry, easily picking out some of the Tralee landmarks such as the Blennerville Windmill and the Tralee Canal, beyond then to Ballyheighue and Kerry Head, as well as the outline of Loop Head in County Clare in the far distance.

Typical of North Kerry, no effort is made by the authorities to promote the Slieve Mish as any sort of tourist attraction, and this hill is less enticing than others, so you'll almost certainly have this place to yourself. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/339/comment/23217/

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simon3 on Barnanageehy

Barnanageehy surely must be near enough for a resident of Tralee, or at least Blennerville, to reach on foot without difficulty. One way of getting there is to walk south of Blennerville towards C (Q816 103) where the tarmac road stops and a dirt track starts. Follow this up to some traditional bog workings which, as of Nov 2005, were in use. Some interesting bog wood has been exposed there incidentally. Looking over Tralee the wind power station on Stack's mountain is very visible. Many of us believe that we need windpower and that this relatively low site is appropriate. However , it also gives an indication of what we may see in future if proposed developments in places such as Meenteog/ Coomacarrea on the Iveragh peninsula are implemented. That ridge is at 700m and is clearly visible from the Slieve Mish area.

Barnanageehy turns out to be just slightly the highest bump on a ridge that extends from East to West eventually joining up with Glanbrack Mountain, a long easterly spur off Baurtregaum and almost a summit in its own right.

The photo shows Barnanageehy's mini cairn with Baurtregaum on the skyline to the right. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/339/comment/2083/

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simon3 on Barnanageehy

Just over 200m to the NW lies the decaying metalwork of a microwave reflector, unfortunately obscuring the otherwise great view towards Fenit. According to Sean O Suilleabhain [Irish Walk Guides South West 1978] the was used to bounce microwave signals from Tralee to LImerick and was locally called the Iron Man. Sean recounts the safety issues encountered by some of the staff: "After the experience of having some men lose their way in fog (they had ascended the north side and descended the south side unintentionally), all staff members now leaving Tralee are provided with a compass and a list of compass bearings between the poles which were erected along the route,..." There's only a few of the poles left and it is interesting to clarify how they got there. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/339/comment/2084/

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The Iron Man

Climbed up there recently some pics I took of the 'Iron Man' and surrounds can be seen here
http://gfmurphy101.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/the-iron-man/ Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/339/comment/15174/

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Unsurprisingly blown down by prevailing southerly winds

Here's a close up of the Iron Man monstrosity.

The metal has obviously rotted but I'd say the fact that it was constructed in a "windy gap" with wind funnelling up the valley from the South had something to do with it falling northwards! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/339/comment/23218/

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