What’s intriguing about Coolcortoga is that when gazed up at from the main Cork-Killarney road it appears to have two trig stones, about 100 metres apart, in the summit area.
Pepé stepped out of his car in Glenflesk and engaged in a bout of head-scratching, wondering where to start from. A helpful local advised him not to go up from there: “Too much heather. Go east the main Cork road from the village for maybe less than a kilometre. There’s a boreen on your left. Park at the roadside and go up from there.”
Sure enough there’s room at the head of that boreen for several cars to park. From there walk the single-track road (complete with a strip of grass in the middle of it) for a few hundred metres to the old narrow concrete bridge over the River Flesk. A hundred metres or so later cross another, smaller, old stone bridge over a stream (possibly the stream mentioned in the summary. Then it’s up through the trees and onto the eastern slopes for an hour of sheer torture. That’s how long it took Pepé to bate his way up through clinging heather, dangerous rocks and lurking ankle-traps of which there are many hiking poles essential for sussing out solidity beneath the heather and long grass.
Up top, the two so-called trigs turn out to be trig-shaped piles of stones. The views are great, but there’s an even more treacherous descent to follow: concentration on full blast and muscles tensed all the way. Pepé was so knackered by it all he abandoned another walk planned for later that day. But, by embarking on this energy-sapping, leg-cramping adventure, he discovered where Purgatory is. And if anyone tells you Purgatory no longer exists, consider this: it does exist but goes under a different name now – Coolcurtoga. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/719/comment/23230/

Climbed this today, it looks awful from the road, but once you're on the slope it's not that bad. There is the odd ankle twisting hole, but it's fairly easy to navigate the shelves to the top. About 90 mins round trip. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/719/comment/14986/

I decided to take a new route up to Coolcurtoga from the Paps Trailhead as I had a few fellow hikers with me and wanted to make a longer hike. Terrain was fine apart from the usual boggy bits and one barbed wire fence. Track no. 5197 Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/719/comment/24335/