MatthewBranch on Knocknaskagh

No.2 of 400m+ summits for me since I starting walking in Ireland. I wasn't aware of the parking area SE of the summit and began my walk at 8am from the Bloomfield Crossroads. I intended to join the Blackwater Way at the start and then map my way in a Southerly direction to the summit. Unfortunately, I lost the path for the Blackwater after only 15min of walking - perhaps just a badly maintained section of the trail which had become overgrown with all the recent growth lately. So I resolved to take the forest tracks and then road to quickfoot it toward Castleblagh to begin a more trodden path to the top. I took a standard easterly approach up the forest tracks to the summit and was met by wonderful views the the N and NE. Although I prefer the views from Seefin peak on the Ballyhoura's, this was particularly nice for the colours of the plants all around. Purples and yellows, which when the sun DID decide to show its face, shone in a beautiful, contrasting medley of colours. The wind was quickly in though, and with the threat of rain I began the decent in the direction of Knocknaskagh N Top. Since this was a 407m peak, I thought I'd make it my no.3 as I made my way back to the car. Relatively uneventful, I made the fatal mistake of following a faint path northwards of that peak along the treeline in the hopes of joining up with a marked forest track. It soon petered out into nothing and I took the decision to turn NW toward the path I knew was there just beyond a line of forest. Big mistake. It took a good 30min of forcing my way through undergrowth and brambles to finally meet up with the trail and continue again north. There are no straight routes northward toward Bloomfield Crossroads from this point, however, and the next hour and a half was made up of a frustrating east and west cutbacking, in a painfully slow progress toward the car. Arrived at the car at 1:30, tired but happy. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/702/comment/3267/

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Start of a blitz of climbs for gribboneer-of-the-year

In December of 2016 we heard about gribboneer-of-the-year http://www.highpointireland.com/gribboneer-of-the-year.html and with a good few Gribbons already done as part of the The County High Point Challenge we decided to look at the 186 Gribbons (http://www.highpointireland.com/the-gribbon-list.html) and focus on some of the more local ones to try and be in with a chance in the competition. Knocknaskagh (#Knocknaskagh427m) was one not too far away from us and even though we had never climbed this one before we now set out to have it climbed 4 times (the maximum allowed for gribboneer-of-the-year) before the end of December. We followed the route described by Jackill on here. Please note the location labelled A on the map and referred to as“Castleblagh forestry entrance” does not have any markings or signs and shouldn’t be mixed up with the main forestry entrance just outside Ballyhooly. Dillon(dillonkdy) and myself went to the summit on Dec 9th, 16th, 24th and 30th. It is a short walk considering it is the highest point in the Nagles, just 3.5Km up and back our fastest time of the 4 was just under 45 mins with 144m height climbed. For more pictures and details check out Dillon’s website at https://dillons32chpchallenge.github.io/progress/index.html Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/702/comment/18830/

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A Tale of Two Carparks

Please note - as mentioned by Paddyobpc in another comment (on page 2) - the location labelled A and referred to as "Castleblagh Forestry Entrance" on the map indeed bears no relation to the main forestry entrance outside Ballyhooley. Uncannilly, both entrances referred to in the Knocknaskagh posts have room for about five cars each (as mentioned by others - for both) which only makes it more confusing. To cut a long story short I got there, eventually, but was too whacked battling through trees trying to find my way to even consider the north top - for another day hopefully. The venture was worth it though to see a red squirrel dart across the forest trail about ten yards in front of me. The most bushy-tailed, most gorgeous fiery red you could imagine. That made the day.
To compound the confusion regarding location, the official forestry entrance has a board map, but if you look at it closely you will see that the "You Are Here" arrow points, not to "here", but to "there"! This is because the arrow is pointing, not at the main entrance where you are but to a lesser entrance a kilometre or two back the road towards Ballyhooly - you couldn't make it up. You need your whits about you to tackle this one. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/702/comment/20429/

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jel on Knocknaskagh

This is my second hillwalk with Bishopstown Hillwalking Club, we did the Knocknaskagh Circuit, Nagle Mountains. It was a very enjoyable walk with great views. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/702/comment/2975/

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