eoin on Doughruagh

Located just behind the famous and picturesque Kylemore Abbey, the upper reaches of this mountain look somewhat daunting for ramblers or hillwalkers without a love for scrambling. This is an alternative approach. After paying your 3.50 Euro!! to get into the grounds you follow the path to the large statue 1/2 way up the mountain. Once at the statue head to the right following traces of a path, which stays roughly at the same height until you completely round the east side of the mountain and reach the saddle between it and Garraun. The slope on this side makes the access to the summit and its lakes very easy. An alternative or extension to this walk is to contour around from the saddle to the lake on the north side of Doughruagh. After passing around the lake continue to follow the contours at around 280 - 300m until you arrive back at the statue again. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/400/comment/367/

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Colin Murphy on Doughruagh

Parked on the NE of Kylemore Lough (just where the road around the lake turns sharply south east) where you'll find space enough for about 3/4 cars. About 30 metres back along the road you'll find a wooden pallet doubling as a gate which allows access into a grassy field. From here you've a 1.5k walk to the NW up a gently rising slope until you reach the saddle between Doughruagh and Garraun South Top. From here the gradient steepens sharply, becoming much rockier as you ascend. The top is a broad rocky expanse speckled with pools which could easily double as an alien planet in a sci-fi movie! A cairn marks the highest point at the western end and on the day I stood there the views of the Bens, Maamturks, Atlantic coastline etc etc were indescribably beautiful. Round trip took me 3 hours, though I could easily have lingered over the view for another 12 hours! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/400/comment/3158/

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Parking problem

Please be advised that parking at Kylemore Abbey is now off limits. I was there last Sunday (Nov 6, 2016) with my club and we were informed that we "could not leave the grounds", we "couldn't park there and climb the nearby hills" and "we should park in Leenaun", 10 miles away! I believe the Abbey grounds are under new management and this is their way of a friendly reception. We, the club, have been parking there for over twenty years (taking up a very small part of a very large carpark)... and spending a sizable amount of money in the cafe afterwards. We have never abused the free parking there in any way. After we left last Sunday there were only three cars left in the carpark. And thirty less people to spend money in the coffee shop! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/400/comment/18703/

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simon3 on Doughruagh

This photo taken on a misty day in May shows Doughruagh from the NE. Traversing the top of Doughruagh is an exercise in winding around rocky knolls of sparsely vegetated rock mixed with ponds. Although a short distance, walking from east to west in mist to find the top (which has a collection of rusty metalwork) is a navigation challenge.
The lake below the summit is Knappagh Lough. The three smaller lakes just over the right flank of Doughruagh are in the area of Currywongan, with a highest point of 273m. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/400/comment/777/

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simon3 on Doughruagh

One way up Doughruagh is described by Tony Whilde [Irish Walk Guides: West, Ed J Lynam 1978]. Start north of Kylemore Lough at around B (L766 587). Drivers can park on the road here. The start area is particularly well shown on the Harvey Connemara map. Head NE from the start to gain height and open ground. I found you have to deal with rhodendron, a small stream and some cliffs – nothing too difficult. Once onto the open ground you can make for the pass between Doughruagh and Lemnaheltia where there is a green road and then turn left for Doughruagh.

Tim Robinson [Book of the Irish Countryside, Ed Frank Mitchell 1987] adds to the many paeans to Romanticism that you find in descriptions of the area as follows “..Dúchruach, the ‘black stack’, that lowers over the wooded valley and the lake of Kylemore, in perfect sympathy with the nineteenth-century Gothic fantasy of Kylemore Abbey.”

In contrast, for interesting background, Kevin Corcoran [West of Ireland Walks 1993] describes the lower, SW slopes of Doughruagh. Amongst many other delights of the flora and fauna he mentions that at around the point you emerge on the open ground described above “Around these cliffs you may be lucky enough to hear the haunting scream of Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) ..”

The autumn photo taken from Benbaun, shows the Abbey just right of centre. The route described starts in the bottom right corner. The main bumpy ridge of the mountain is well shown. The dark triangular mountain to the left is Tully Mountain (356m). Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/400/comment/776/

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