An isolated Turk

I was fortunate enough to have a few days in the West and took the opportunity to walk in the Maam Turks. I wanted to bag the summits that the Maam Turks challenge walk misses out on as some are circumnavigated and even Letterbreckaun was missed as the check point was a 100m short of the summit and the conditions this year were so awful at that stage, even an extra 100m had to be avoided. I couldn’t help noticing this summit had no comment yet so I could not resist climbing it so that I could make this my first summit comment. As I do I would like to sincerely thank all the other users who make regular summit comments because they are incredible useful and valuable. I am now delighted to be able to start giving back and adding to the knowledge base.
So Taobh Dubh, I wasn’t sure where I would find access along the R336 but when I was up on Colog I could see a likely good starting point at D (L9019 5492), room for a few cars and a footbridge marked on the map. When I got dropped there next morning however I found the footbridge gone, swept away a few years ago according to a friendly farmer I happened to meet. There was no problem about accessing the hill “but you’ll have to take off your socks and shoes to cross the river” he advised. A few strides in the river got me safely across but the river was low after some dry days, I suspect this river would be impassable on a wet day so be warned. There may be an easier approach somewhere along the R336 . After crossing the river its a straight forward climb up onto the ridge and to the summit. There is nothing to mark the summit and it’s not terrible obvious but if you walk the ridge until you start going downhill again they you’ve obviously done it. I went on then to Lennane Hill and Bucan, a nice linear walk, Wicklow like terrain in contrast to the rest of the Maam Turks. I’m still a map and compass man I’m afraid, so I’ve no GPS track to upload. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/730/comment/15197/

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Low but worthwhile hill

I had been eyeing this one up for a while as it was one of the few left for me in the north Galway, south Mayo area. I headed up on a Sunday morning having endured a noisy night camping at the west end of Lough Nafooey. I parked at the forest entrance at A (L91893 54869) where there is room for one car. I headed along the main forest trail, eschewing the first left marked on the MV map [ there is a trail but it's a bit overgrown. Instead I headed on for about 1 km and turned left at the T. From here I headed to the end of the forest and when I came out into the open I continued west through some cleared forest for about 20 mins. I crossed a fence here and then headed up hill with teh fence on my right. The going was easy and obvious, mainly grassy and not too much in the way of the squelch fest that I expected. Nice views of the Maauturks and of Leenaun hill as well as towards Maumtrasna and the variegated autumnal colouring of Bunnacunneen's lower slopes. Descended the same way...lazy 3 hour up and down but will come back with car and bike someday and combine this with Leenaun Hill and a pint in Hamilton's [and probably Gaynor's!] Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/730/comment/21323/

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