Ballinacor Mt.-Winter(ish) Decisions

Decades ago, I learned winter hiking was about being fit, early starts, short routes & flexible plans. I had spent 2020 lockdown with a keen regimen of Zoom meetings, I was 10kg heavier. None of the Grumblers were available, so I summoned three youngsters- the oldest of whom was 15 years my junior, what could go wrong? I was collected by Voortrekker, a natural outdoorsman who had honed his craft herding Giraffes across the veldt. He arrived not in a Land Rover with Zebra camouflage, but a silver Corolla. We sped to Glenmalure to assemble the party. We were joined 45mins late by Mr. and Mrs. Fuzz, who had spent the early years of the century covered in fluorescent paint at 72h dance marathons in Ibiza. Eric Shipton never had these problems. We did the mask thing and left a car at a forestry entrance (Point E) before returning to the military Rd ( MlRd Fan (T1019 8927)). By now it was nearly noon, two poor decisions in one morning. The third was the route: Fananieran ridge, Croaghanmoira, Ballinacor, back over to Carrickashane and down to car#2. We set off over the little bridge, and began up the rough trail to the ridge. Voortrekker sped off like a speeding bullet, with the stride of a man who could worry a warthog at 30 paces. Mr Fuzz was in hot pursuit. Mrs Fuzz, a yoga teacher, walked with me until she too wafted up the short climb. I could hear a sort of hissing sound -my breathing. With a heavy gait I reached the ridge. The youngsters looked they’d been discussing whether to put me out of my misery.
Rain and wind were in our faces now. We crested the North top, and made for Croaghanmoira proper, a glance at Carrickashane suggested a dull bogtrot. We fought the wind and pressed on. As the rain stopped, we decided on a late lunch below the summit on the North side, wonderfully sheltered. We were horribly late. Voortrekker offered me some Biltong that looked like Wildebeest droppings, I declined. Mr & Mrs Fuzz offered me their spicy homemade cake, I declined (last time I ate this I was found communing with mystical Celtic songlines-first good decisions today). As I drank my hot soup, I decided I wouldn’t collect four bad decisions. We decided to go to Ballinacor and find a route to the road. In low sun, we wandered faint trails to the NNE of Ballinacor and then a final 30m pull to the summit cairn. All was well, our next goal was the Ballycreen bridge. We should have taken a direct line (suggested elsewhere), but the siren call of a track in the valley saw us deviate to the W of the Ballycreen brook. Unfortunately, near the bridge, we met a deep transverse gully with slippery walls blocking our way, so we returned to the E bank and the semblance of a trail. At sunset we reached the road a mere 5.2km from our car. The sun set, a bright crescent moon, lit the road. It was a magical evening walk, we swapped tales to speed the journey, as I considered never walking with anyone under 40 again, to get fit and start early. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/393/comment/21845/

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padodes on Ballinacor Mountain

This may not seem a very pre-possessing mountain, but once one get to know its history, it begins to grow in stature. The stronghold of the O'Byrnes of Gabhal Raghnaill, a junior branch of the clan, was on the northern slope of Ballinacor (‘Baile na Corra’: the homestead of the slope). It was especially during the time of Fiach McHugh O’Byrne, in the latter part of the 16th century, that Gaelic resistance to the English invader was at its height – and its most successful – in this mountainous area around Glenmalure. Fiach won a resounding victory over Lord Grey in Glenmalure in 1580, although it is here, too, that he was finally defeated and slain by Lord Russell in 1597. If you wish to learn more about the O’Byrnes of Ballinacor, I would suggest a very informative article by Dr Harry Long of Trinity College, which you will find reproduced on http://homepage.eircom.net/~nobyrne/Settlement_in_Feagh_OByrne_Ballinacor.htm

It seems that the word ‘baile’ in Ballinacor refers, not to a village in our modern understanding, but to a ‘rath’ kind of settlement of wooden structures surrounded by protected earthen ramparts. What remains of two of the original three enclosures can be seen today, not far from the Georgian residence known as Ballinacor House. From here the O’Byrnes could control the entrance to Glenmalure and the Avonbeg River valley down to Greenan and beyond.

As far as the summit of this flat mountain is concerned, there is a small cairn that it is easy to miss at A (T1170 8648) (see photo, with Croaghanmoira rising in the background). My own best guess before I stumbled over this, however, was a point at B (T1173 8653). Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/393/comment/3530/

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padodes on Ballinacor Mountain

This is not the summit cairn on Ballinacor, although it has far more the appearance of that than the modest pile of stones that purports to mark the top, a short distance above it to the north. It can be found at C (T1172 8636). I have no idea what its significance may be. A boundary marker, perhaps, or the whim of idle hands?

In the ‘Leabhar Branach’, the late medieval work of bardic verse that sings the praises of the O’Byrnes, Ballinacor is called a “hunter’s haven”, and even today wildlife abounds on and around this mountain. I don’t think I have ever seen in one place such numbers of pheasant lower down or of grouse above. Here too, one warm day, I approached what I thought was an old branch sticking up out of the heather, when all of a sudden it became the antlers of a big stag that rose up from a hollow a few metres in front of me where he had been sunning himself. A look of surprise and disdain, and he was gone! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/393/comment/3531/

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sbarany on Ballinacor Mountain

Unfortunatelly, I have not read milo's comment before the walk and thus I visited Ballinacor (from Croaghanmoira). There were nothing (signpost, fence, warning) to indicate that walkers should keep off this top (or the area around it). There were no animals either, only walkers (one of them a local). Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/393/comment/1703/

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Jaak on Ballinacor Mountain

Climbed this recently from the Aughavannagh to Greenane road. Initially the views along this road are of Croaghanmoira, but after you round that mountain Ballinacor comes into view on your left. I travelled to the point where the road was closest to the mountain - at a bridge beside an acute bend. A gate leads from the road to the mountainside and the summit is an easy 20-30 minute walk from there. The gate was unlocked and there were no signs suggesting there were any restrictions on climbing from this point. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/393/comment/2026/

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