slemish on Skerry Hill

Poor Skerry Hill - the forgotten hill of Antrim, forever upstaged by its 'bigger brothers' Trostan and Slievenanee. Not suprised it has been uncommented until now. However it is a splendid hill in its own right and reaches an impressive 459m - considerably higher than the more well-known Slemish or Carncormick. Skerry Hill is very accessible as two roads lead over its northern and eastern flanks. I parked at a little lay-by on the Old Cushendun Road about 2 miles north of Newtowncrommelin (C (D146 212)). It's less than 100 vertical metres from here to the summit. The climb is quite easy - not too steep but the usual terrain for this part of the world - very boggy and tussocky, peat hags etc. Soon you reach the summit which is marked by a small cairn. Majestic views on a day like this especially westwards over neighbouring Slievenahanaghan with its many wind turbines. The forested Slieveanorra stands proudly to the north with the twin domes of Slievenanee and Trostan dominating the view to the north-east. A very interesting view to the south-east with many Antrim hills visible - Carncormick, Slemish, Agnew's Hill, Carnearny and Divis to name but a few. To the south, Lough Neagh was glistening in the sunshine. The walk could be extended to Slievenahanaghan if desired. I however descended by the same route. Total trip - an easy 40 minutes. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/587/comment/3767/

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Harry Goodman on Skerry Hill

I drove up the Old Cushendun road out of Newtown-Crommelin to where it takes a sharp left turn on to the Altnahinch Road where I parked at a small lay-by D (D14285 21327) on the left side of the road. From here I walked W along the road for 200m to a fence, marked on the Glens of Antrim 1:25,000 scale Activity Map, which initially runs E before turning SW . Once at the fence I kept it to my left and followed it right to the top of the hill which is marked by a small, moss covered, cairn of stones, GPS reading E (D13653 20604). The going was heavy and I had to make my way into or around a number of wet peaty bog holes on the way up.On arrival at the top I had no visibility due to dense mist when suddenly to my great delight it cleared to give me a full panorama of the views already well described in the comments of Slemish. Clearly the way up can simply be reversed by anyone simply wanting to go up and down this hill by the shortest route. However as I also wanted to include Slievenahanaghan in my round I headed NW down the hillside in the direction of a drainage ditch marked on the map and clearly visable on the ground. Progress was slow as I battled through dense clumps of knee high gorse and tussocky grass. The surprise I found at the bottom was a new access road not marked on the map which considerably eased my walk of some 800 metyres out to the road, after I climbed Slievenahanagan. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/587/comment/4129/

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