Wicklore visited

Emlagh lies at the west end of a small ridge of hills on the southern side of the Dingle Peninsula. This ridge starts with Lack Mountain near Baurtregaum and ends with Emlagh at the village of Inch. I reached Emlagh at the end of a walk of this ridge which comprises of a few other small summits, including two 500m hills. Emlagh commands excellent views north to the high mountains of the Dingle Peninsula, and south across Dingle Bay to the Iveragh peninsula. Arriving from Beenduff to the east was easy as there was not much ascent and it was only a traipse across the bog. The only difficulty was forging a path through this unspoiled area of heather and bog. Arriving at the summit of Emlagh one is presented with two summit cairns a hundred metres apart. Although the map shows the more easterly of the two cairns to be the summit, my gps stubbornly insisted that the more westerly of the cairns was higher by a couple of metres! However I don’t believe gps units to be accurate within 10 metres or so, but curious nonetheless!

The ad on TV used to say ‘where an Inch is a mile’, referring to a signpost indicating the village of Inch being a mile away. Well I can tell you that arriving from Emlagh from the east I was suddenly presented with the village of Inch almost half a kilometre below. (and 1 ½km distance) The steep slopes of Emlagh mean that there are uninterrupted views of all 5 kilometres of Inch Strand, Rosbehy Point and further afield to the McGillicuddy Reeks and Iveragh Mountains. Dingle Bay glistened in the sun and boats could be seen plying their trade in Castlemaine Harbour.

I descended to the west of Emlagh which was tough due to the steep slopes. The west slope was rock strewn in places, and large areas of dense fern made the descent a slow, careful affair. I headed for the bridge over the Emlagh River at B (Q649 025) and had a long tramp back to the car at C (Q716 048), where I had parked at a track for the start of the walk. I did manage to get a lift for a few kilometres but I had to walk the last 3 kilometres which was all uphill, so others might avoid this by planning a bit better than I did! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/506/comment/3919/

Read Less

wicklore on Emlagh

This photo shows Emlagh from the east. It is not as big a walk up as it looks, although there is a 480 metre climb if you approach from the west! There is a natural stone seat just to the north east of the main summit where one can sit and gaze out to the high Dingle mountains such as Benoskee. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/506/comment/3920/

Read Less

Grand Walk - Difficult fording at western end

Parked close to the high point on Bothar na gCloch between Aughils and Camp. Headed west along sodden bohereen at top of road (just to south of Caherconree 'trailhead') towards Knockbrack. Followed ridge west south west over Knockbrack, Moanloar, Beenduff and Emlagh. Nice and dry after initial ascent. Great views as attested by the others. Against better judgement, we descended west off Emlagh (Cnoc na Stuaice), enjoying fantastic views of Inch from its steep dry and stony slopes. The road north from Inch village tantalisingly close. Unfortunately the Emlagh river (note this is not a stream) lay between us and the road. This proved difficult and even a little dangerous to ford. Once across getting out of the gorse covered ravine onto the road proved very difficult and might not be possible for a walker on their own. Although there seems to be an alternative by travelling west north west from Emlagh mountain to avoid fording the river, this involves travelling through fields close to a farmhouse. Based on our experience, I would follow three5four0's advice which is to descent from the saddle before Emlagh towards the transmitter mast in the forest below. Apart from getting onto the road, this is a very pleasant ridge walk and I am surprised that it hasn't been done by more people. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/506/comment/6537/

Read Less

three5four0 on Emlagh

Emlagh, the final hill of the traverse. The fine ridge out to the final summit from Beenduff, is perhaps the best section with the summit crowned with a cairn and a faint, if not shy path, running to its summit.. A fine place to relax for a while.

For the descent return along the ridge over PT471 to roughly D (Q674 035), from here descend carefully to pick up a track at D (Q674 035) (near a small transmitter). Follow the track to the Dingle Way, turning right along the the Dingle Way and following it to back to the car. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/506/comment/4128/

Read Less

Ascending from the west side

I parked my car opposite the B&B at E (Q653 012) and headed up the minor road adjacent to the B&B. After about a kilometre you will see the fence coming down from the summit. Directly opposite the bottom of this fence there is a narrow gap in the ditch. pass through here and descend carefully to the stream. In high water you'll have fun fording but if there hasn't been much rain it's handy enough. Thereafter I found the going steep but the underfoot conditions were excellent with a lot of grassy and rocky ground all the way to the summit. I was up there in April so no ferns to contend with at that stage. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/506/comment/17963/

Read Less