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: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/464/comment/3135/