pkenneally on Shehy Mountain

Two of us did a walk up Shehy on the 15 Nov 08. We started at point A (V895 903) and walked in the path to Tomies Wood took the left fork crossed the stream over the new bridge, 500mts after the bridge veer off the path and head south to the high point 571. This is a steep enough climb over gorse with no defined path. On reaching the high point the view of Lough Leane and Killanney Town is execllent. From here it is a short walk to the summit of Shehy. From here there are two options one is to head for Tomies and keep heading north till you come to a road at point B (V895 897) follow this road for 300mts then turn right on a path at the end of this path turn left and you are back at the starting point. Option two which is what we did was to reverse the walk. This was very steep and wet so we sliped several times on the way down. we then followed the path around and stopped off at O'Sullivans Cascade which is well worth seeing, ( falls are as good as Torc waterfall) we walked bact to our car with a local man who told not many people do Shehy the way we did it and having done it this time I do not think I would do it from Tomies Wood side again. But I would recomend anybody doing Tomies / Purple they should take some time and cross over to Shehy as the view ie worth the effort. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/68/comment/3443/

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Red deer and rhododendrons

I missed out on climbing Shehy Mountain from the Purple/Tomies direction on a few occasions and I really did not want to reclimb them
in order to climb Shehy. This meant approaching Shehy from either the north through Tomies wood - see earlier comments - or from the south-east, the Kenmare road.
I chose the latter as I thought that it would provide the chance of exploration of an unknown/unrecorded ascent.
I'm pretty sure it has been climbed from this direction before now, it's just that I couldn't find any reference.
The ground is certainly boggy until you start to climb out of O'Sullivan's Punch Bowl but no more boggy than a lot of other Irish hills! The climb up through the old (Oak?) wood to the south of the summit is very pleasant and I came across a number of Red deer on the ascent. On the day I was there (Nov 1st, 2015), the weather was fantastic and the views from the summit were superb. I descended the east ridge hoping to pick up the track that goes through Tomies wood to the Kenmare road and this meant descending through a thick rhododendron 'forest', which was extremely hard going. However, after hitting the track, the route out through Tomies wood is one I would recommend to anyone looking for a low level walk, or a short day out. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/68/comment/18387/

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Shehy Mountain from Tomies Wood

The new car park at the start of Tomies Wood allows a route to Shehy Mountain different to the usual approach from Purple Mountain. Tough and steep in parts, this is more than compensated for by the fabulous views on all sides. See track 4655 for the route we took. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/68/comment/23481/

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dbloke on Shehy Mountain

Twice as many people have logged Purple and Tomies as climbed than Shehy. Most probably because like me they couldn't be arsed to make the detour at the time. Which left me having to bag it separately. I decided to follow salee's 'Tomies Purple and Shehy starting at Lake' as described in the Walk section, but was quickly stopped in my tracks. Turning right on the Tomies Wood track at C (V900 892) now brings you face to face with 20ft high wall of gorse bush. As I'd left my machete at home I decided to continue and try to find a way through the woods further along. In the end I ended up doing the walk clockwise. You get to see Shehy's better side from this direction, and the view of all of Killarney's lakes is unobstructed from the 571 high point. Also I wouldn't fancy sliding down the steep heathery slope from there. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/68/comment/3845/

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Tough Descent

As previously described, the view from here is amazing, we walked around from Tomies Mountain and had a beautiful clear day. simple ridge walk but the descent back to Tomies Wood is very tough, no clear path through steep heatherclad slopes. Give plenty of time to get down this way. Our sticks proved invaluable in the fading light. Delighted to see the track at the end of the day. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/68/comment/14901/

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