Peakeen, Derrygarriff, Foardal

Left car at Gowlane where the old Kenmare Killarney road meets a council road (v Gowlane School Ruin (V917 751)). Walked about 2 km north along the old road, to the highest point, and turned west towards Peaken. From there continued to Peakeen West, and across a number of summits just marked by their heights 525 and 526 on the Harveys Superwalker map, before descending to the wouth west tip of Erik Lough - peculiar name, can't help but wonder if this is a misspelling on the maps as Eirk (not Erik) is a towland around here. This is about 2 hours from the car, but perhaps could be made shorter by skirting all the peaks. From there climbed Derrygarriff to the west. Reasonablt straightforward, bit of a scramble for about 20 minutes. The views are lovely. Walked west along the summit, the maps show two distinct peaks of similar height, the ground is quite level along this stretch, maybe a descent and ascent of 20/30 yards. There is a fence which divides the summit, there are no signs but think it might be wise to stay to the south of the fence as know there are signs warning trespassers near the car park at Molls Gap on the other side of the land. One can continue along the fence and come back to a public road at vA (V863 770), or retrace ones steps. I pressed on to Foardal and back down to the old Kenmare Killarney road. Again, if one takes this route you should go back around the south and east of the Lake rather than trying to cross the fenced off farmland. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/481/comment/3597/

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Free as a bird

We were lucky to see a white tailed eagle gliding gracefully over Eirk Lough before before coming to rest on a rock, which provided the opportunity to capture a pic of the rarely seen bird of prey (at least for a city slicker!) Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/481/comment/19804/

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Eirk Lough

Since writing the comments on Derrygarriff I have read Paul Tempan's article on Maps for the Hill-Walking in the Reeks, in which he specifically notes the error in the Harvey map when it refers to Erik Lough instead of Eirk Lough. He notes a few errors on this otherwise most useful map. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/481/comment/5825/

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Killarney Outback

Based on aggressive 'No Hillwalking' signs at Moll's Gap, as of 2015 the only access to this rather wonderful little summit remains via a trudge across the three Peakeens from the Old Kenmare Road as well described by Conor74. Wonderful country so no great sacrifice. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/481/comment/18290/

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Breathe in the Derry air...

This summit was the 5th stop on a six summit linear walk starting at Gowlane School Ruin (V917 752) and taking in Peakeen, Peakeen West Top, North West Top, Far North West Top, then Derrygarriff and finishing on Foardal before descending to L LsCuna W (V882 790), where there is a car park. See entries for other summits for precise route. The descent to the north west from Peakeen Far North West Top was actually one of the toughest bits of the walk, requiring careful negotiation around multiple sharp drops, and some boggy conditions in the col. You actually lose over 200m in elevation and then have to climb about the same to reach Derrygarriff summit. It's about 2km between the two tops. However the climb isn't terribly steep and the going ok. It's a fine, well-defined summit with spectacular views, particularly towards Eirk Lough to the east and Looscaunagh Lough to the NE. The walk to this point took about 4.5 hours. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/481/comment/19802/

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