vikinghar on Brown's Hill

Brown’s Hill and Croaghnageer (Cruach na gCaor = 'stack of the berries')

Barnes More Gap is a prominent feature of the road (N15) journey from Letterkenny to Donegal town, and all parts south. Some years ago I had walked the forestry path from the main road (point A) to the old school house closer to Ballybofey town and had marvelled at the beauty of the steep sides of Croaghconnellagh, Croaghnageer and Brown’s Hill, but had never actually got around to climbing them. So, yesterday, 25th May’08 I got out sheet 11 and decided to do a circular walk and climb Brown’s Hill and Croaghnageer.

We started off from the small car park on the N15, just opposite the start of the forestry path at point A. We walked the path passed the Barnes Lough valley, past the bottom of Brown’s Hill until the path runs due east. We turned off the path to follow the river on the eastern side of Brown’s Hill as it offered a gentler ascent. We followed this for a while and decided to go straight up to the plateaux, arriving first at the 451m height. There we found a confusing collection of three small cairns. From the 451m height we walked the short distance along the plateaux to the 498m top.

From the top you can plainly see the three tops of Croaghnageer and climbing Brown’s Hills was a easy ascent on the way. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/464/comment/3135/

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In Praise Of A Minor Hill

I've already commented on Browns Hill so won't go into details of routes etc here. Instead I just wanted to highlight what a great hill this is when weather conditions make getting to larger mountains difficult. During heavy snow in January I was able to access it from the N15 when minor roads would have been impassable. It is small enough to manage in difficult weather, but large enough to make a good walk, with some difficult terrain to get across on the way, and fairly steep sides. On this visit the rest of the Bluestacks looked magnificent in their Winter covering, and all this from a little visited hill in one of the quietest ranges in the country! We're very lucky in Ireland. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/464/comment/17865/

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Back for a second attempt.

The weather forecast was good for Sat 11 Jan 2014, so having been beaten back by Wintery conditions before Christmas, I decided to have another attempt at Brown's Hill and Croaghnageer. I parked at the picnic spot at the Northern end of Barnes Gap, and turning right on to the main road, a walk of a few metres led to a forestry road. A few hundred metres along the track, after emerging from the trees, I struck out across the bog to ascend the hill from the South East. As usual in the Bluestacks, it was difficult walking initially to reach the base of the hill and ascend the lower slopes. Very boggy with high grass and heather. However, it gets easier with height, as the ground levels out and becomes more rocky. The reward was the frozen summit with fantastic views in all directions. Highly recommended, both for its own sake, and as an approach to Croaghnageer, which was my next goal for the day. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/464/comment/15774/

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Bluestacks Circuit

2 metres short of the 500 metre list it maybe, but has more cairns than most hills. An easy walk from Cloghervaddy. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/464/comment/4711/

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