OMG - I forget to check the MV page!

Decided to make a day out of a Dublin-Waterford drive, despite low-hanging cloud. Knockroe wore a misty white cap as I glanced up from the Sculloge Gap carpark. Planning my attack (so I thought), I ascended as per MV instructions and the clouds duly lifted, happy days. Beware though, the heather on Knockroe - mentioned by other posters - is in many places Heather with a capital H. The Boulders on Knockroe are also capitalised. My knees and thighs discovered this as I made my way up, hiking poles gingerly testing spaces between Heather and Boulder for solidity. Probe, probe, test, test like the instruments of a mad mountain diviner - but it was only me hopping and gadding about like a demented flibbertigibbet (is there any other kind of flibbertigibbet?). Once up a bit the going gets easier and normal hillwalking again becomes possible. Great views abound from the summit and there is a nice little pond up top to complement the cairn and other ruins. Once down at the car I gazed back at Knockroe and saw ..... the cross. I'd not set eyes on this mountain in about a year, and not checked the MV Knockroe page since jotting down cursory route notes on a piece of paper months ago. Before setting out that morning something in my head told me Knockroe had a cross (take a look at the photos on this page, for god's sake) but it had been invisible an hour or two previously, wrapped up in cloud, and you can't see it from the summit because it's perched on the southern flank about seven-eights of the way up. Now there it was winking down at me as if to say: "Ha, you missed me." This business of being cross at missing the cross makes me think: have I some kind of secret hankering after crosses? A fetish, perhaps? A kind of condition the opposite of Dracula's? "Bless me Father for I have sinned, I think I have desires for crosses. Would that be a sin, Father?" "Yes, my son, that is a very grave sin." Ah well, that will learn me, as they say, to check features more thoroughly on MV before the next venture - or will it? Answers on a fiver, please. To compensate for missing out on that glaring old cross I drove down the road a few miles and made myself a double for the day by knocking off Knockmore as well. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/376/comment/19521/

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Easy climb for the kids...

Having climbed Mount Leinster, we crossed over from the Nine Stones and waled up to summit of Knockroe. It was very boggy underfoot, not helped in places by evidence of hoof prints - tarmac on Mount Leinster access road was marked with horse dung, so must be stables somewhere nearby!
Quite busy today - even spotted a couple with a toddler taking on the first slope which is very easily accessed from the 9 Stones viewing point. Other kids were using that crest to fly their kites, but no handgliding in the area today.
The cairn at summit is easily reached in about 25 mins ( with kids) and soft ground allows for a bog run on descent. Views are excellent and gives a great perspective across to Mount Leinster. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/376/comment/14705/

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Cross this one off.

Friday 11/4/2014 Started from Shan Ln (S82428 47894), followed good track as far as A (S82507 48808), then went steeply left uphill over many boulders and knee high heather until summit area was reached there is a cairn here plus the remains of a small stone shelter. Mt Leinster looms large to the north, great views in all directions. Headed towards large cross overlooking Sculloge gap nice view to Blackstairs Mt from here. Then rejoined upward route back down to car.Total time taken from car to car 1hr, a distance of approx 4.6km with an elevation gain of 340mts. A tough but rewarding climb. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/376/comment/15985/

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Short hike in the blackstairs

Climbed Knockroe today on a cloudy misty morning.Parking at the sculloge gap I walked along the road for 400 metres before turning right onto Shannon's lane.This lane way services a couple of farms and the locals I met were very friendly and helpful.Following this laneway uphill past forestry on the right I continued on to the end of this track before branching off to the left into a less well defined and sometimes difficult to follow track uphill to the summit.With visabilty down to a couple of feet I located the ruins of what is marked as the Roundhouse on my East West map and then went about locating the holy year cross.After walking around in circles in the thick fog I was about to give up my search when the clouds lifted and there in front of me in all its glory was the cross like an apparition.With the clouds lifting I made my way back down onto the laneway and back the way I came.Time taken one hour fifty minutes with an altitude of 400 metres.An enjoyable walk which in a fine day would give some great views. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/376/comment/17846/

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milo on Knockroe

Stony slopes to the southern face can be particularly treacherous once fern growth is well advanced. If one's only experience of this area is in Spring be cautious on later visits. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/376/comment/55/

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