Probably the simplest approach is via the neighbouring Garraunbaun, parking at the start of a forest road at S 204 942 A. Continue up to the T-junction and just ahead, slightly to the left there is a narrow, grassy, often muddy track through the trees opening onto the moorland at c.500m from the summit. The remaining walk to Garraunbaun is over rough heathery ground with no obvious tracks, and tough going. At the summit there is an old fence-line following the county bounds between Laois/Offaly and a faint track there appears going NE to Farbreague. Follow this one-person track down to the col at S 200 962 B, where the terrain drops sharply, although briefly. Part of this section can be very marshy, especially in winter. From the col the narrow track improves and is marked on occasion by a post stuck in the ground. This will take you all the way to the summit, which is marked by a tall, metal pole. Return by same route. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/687/comment/5446/

I parked at the same spot as peterturner (though my GPS ref is S18327 96964 D), and headed up into the forest. I took the northmost track shown on the OS map, which is more grassed-over than gravel track. It soon peters out into what looks like a scene of a meteorite hit, but if you perservere around the fallen trees, you can pick up the track further into the forest, which takes you up onto open ground without too much difficulty. From there it's 1 km to the summit, and you can use faint tracks in the bog to limit the lifting-legs-over-heather experience. Although not a very high summit, there are good views from the top. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/687/comment/3820/

Wed 4/9/2013. Climbed Farbreague from Garraunbaun, was able to follow a line of old fence posts north down to an obvious col, then spotted an old lens bag attached to a small marker pole, the ground dropped steeply here and where the old fence posts veered left I spotted a white marker pole directly uphill, this marked the start of a small well trodden path I followed all the way to the top of Farbreague. This made for easy going through the knee high heather that abounds here, fine views toward Ard Erin from Farbreague, followed outward route back to Garraunbaun and down to car parked at forest track T junction above S 204 942 A. Total time to climb these two hills 1hr 55mins car to car. So ends my affair with the Slieve Blooms. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/687/comment/15173/

Walked to Farbreague from Arderin. There is a track that some kind soul has marked with sticks and ribbon. When I say track, it is really a worn down trough in the bog.
The multicoloured pipe at the top marked the end of the nice part of the day. Rather than backtracking we wanted to go down to the Glendine gap road so we headed down on a bearing of 23° over tummocky heather to the treeline. We then faffed about a bit trying to find a way through the trees, eventually hitting the forest road at S211988 E. This took us back to the gap road and eventually to the car at S231996 F Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/687/comment/18591/

This picture shows a Google Earth representation of the GPS trace I took. Up and down from the parking spot to the summit takes about 1h20m. It's 4.5km there and back with a total rise of just under 200m. Not very challenging, but Garraun doesn't make an ideal partner to make a circuit out of it either! Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/687/comment/3821/