simon3 on Búcán

Búcán is a little treat on the north end of the Maumturks. It can be climbed on its own for its views or perhaps as part of longer ridge walk including Leenane Hill and Meall Cheo (a local name for the last peak of the Maamturks walk).

You can reach it from the Western Way. You can park just inside the forest that fills the valley of the Bunowen river. (The forest at the bottom left of the picture.) The way up is easy which leads to the treat, a great view of the west of the Connemara and South Mayo Highlands. The photo although taken on an overcast day shows some of the extent of the view.

The view is however marred by three recent developments all visible in this small picture and very obvious from Búcán. Two are bungalows (sort of .. one has an extensive set of roof windows) to the bottom left of the picture beside the small road leading into the forest, the other is the back of commercial adventure centre, just to the right of centre (Under "Killary"). It is painted yellow and stands out like a sore thumb from this side. Arguments go back and forth about planning everywhere, but if you go to Búcán I think you will agree that the quality of the landscape is significantly changed by these buildings. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/358/comment/983/

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Leenaun Circuit

Parking in Leenaun I headed west on the N59 and turned onto the western way a little way out of the village. It gradually rises to 100 meters above Killary Harbour on the right. After crossing two stiles and a stream, I left the way and headed up the mountain. The ascent from the western way departure point took an hour and got harder near the top. But it was worth it. Excellent views from Bucan of the bens, turks and killary. No cairn. The ridge walk from here to Leenaun Hill was quite boggy with a good few peat hags and took another hour. At the cairn on Leenaun Hill there was an excellent view to Joyce country where I could make out Lough Nafooey. I turned left from here following the fence almost all the way down to a stream which I splashed across onto a boreen which leads down to the Galway road a few hundred yards east of Leenaun. This took another hour. A steep ascent to Bucan and a steep descent in places from Leenaun Hill. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/358/comment/6564/

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A fine summit with some steep slopes.

Easily accessible from the SE or NW, Bucan gives the impression of a round, grassy summit, but it has steep slopes to the NE and SW (see pic). Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/358/comment/18580/

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More bang for your buck(án)!

A majestic day's walking in the Maamturks, we accessed Bucan from the Western Way at C (L836 612) and began ascending in a SE direction over grassy, fairly gentle slopes that eventually become very steep. This approach which is from sea level requires an almost 600m ascent, so was quite tough, but the scenery on the ascent is simply incredible. Stopped for tea and sambos at the top, with a view that was quite incomparable and made the effort well worthwhile. Save this one for a bright, clear day. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/358/comment/20848/

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pdtempan on Búcán

The painting 'Dawn, Killary Harbour' by landscape artist Paul Henry was probably painted from somewhere on the slopes of Búcán, as the viewer's eye is led straight along the length of the inlet towards the mouth of Killary Harbour at Rosroe. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/358/comment/2455/

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