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: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/68/comment/18387/