Many of the comments I had read about Nephin were to the effect that it was a boring mountain both to look at and to climb. This said it has been on my hit list for a very long time and as I had an opportunity to go and see for myself on Mon 24 May 2010 I decided that now was the time to do so. We parked carefully off road at Prughlish Forest G0871104389 H between two gates, one wooden and locked and a second metal farm gate that was not locked. We went through the metal gate and followed a stoney track NW along the side of the forest up to a farm house where we were met by a howling pack of eight dogs running at us across the field. Fortunately both the sheep farmer and his wife were also in the field and soon had the dogs under control. On asking if we could gain access to the mountain we were told that we were most welcome to do so and the farmer even directed us to a stile he had erected for use by walkers. He also indicated that he had built a number of stiles for this purpose and had even tied plastic sacks around the strand of barred wire to safeguard anyone crossing over. Happy in the knowledge that we were welcome to cross his land we set off in pursuit of Nephin. From the farm house we went to G0915804874 I and our first stile. Once over we headed across the large field to another fence and stile at G0908905643 J. We then followed the line of the fence left to gain the high point and the start of the long ridge up Nephin G0894305418 K. Once there it is more or less a straight climb NE up the ridge to the top. Indeed the steepest and most troublesome part of the climb is in the first few hundred metres along the ridge where the heather is thickest but soon gives way to much shorter undergrowth. For navigation purposes in poor visability I would suggest two intermediate points at G0970906733 L and G0990407210 M before the final walk up to the summit. The climb is steady, long, but not on a difficult gradient. The short heather and grass evenually gives way to a stoney slope which is cairned all the way to the top. Once we had taken in the views from the summit E over Lough Cong, down the impressive NE and SE stoney spurs and then W to the Nephin Beg Range we had our lunch within a stone shelter about 100 metres down the slope. Our descent was by way of ascent. The total distance walked was approx 9.5k, and we were up and down very comfortably in four hours. In my view this is a mountain well worth climbing. By the way, the farmer does not live at the farm and I suspect the dogs would not be left there unattended lest anyone is put off by the possibility of encountering them. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/36/comment/5849/