simon3 on Knockpasheemore

This summit is something of an outlier to the NE of the Bens and, like so many outliers, it has excellent views both of its parent group the Bens and also of the Maumturks, the Bens north of Kylemore Lough and further afield.

The photo shows the pass of Mam Turk of the eponymously named Maumturks. Many weary travellers following the Maamturk walk will remember the hard pull up out of this pass all too well.

Beyond is first the darkish horizontal stripe formed by the area of Mám na Lí (SE ridge off Leenane Hill) and then Bunnacunneen in the Joyce Country.

On a good day, tarry a while on this summit to pick out several other interesting features. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/775/comment/3714/

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ahendroff on Knockpasheemore

Binn Charrach is a peach of a 400m+ hill for glorious all-round views of Gleninagh, the Bens, Maumturks and hills farther away in Connemara. Easily summitted from KylmorRv (L800 575), there are spaces for a few cars after the bridge. An interesting horseshoe is also possible, taking in Binn Bhan, Log an Tairbh, Muckanaght (note steep ground descending off it), Binn Bhreac, Binn Bhan and Loughermore. I spent a few hours on Binn Charrach's plateau practicing micro-navigation and walked into the darkness for some night navigation on a glorious midsummer's evening that rewarded me with fantastic light and photo opportunities. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/775/comment/3884/

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A worthy climb

I parked at a lay-by with enough room for three or four cars at Glshmor Br (L81226 56960) on the R334 Recess to Kylemore Lough road. I headed across the road to the fence at the base of Knockpasheemore referred to by murphysw in his comment on Benbaun. I followed the fence a couple of hundred metres to the right until the fence ceased at a stream, which gave an opportunity to get around the fence. I then headed back SSE for about 1km, which gave me a chance to warm up while gaining gradual height. The walk from the fence was dry enough, but there was evidence in places of how difficult and boggy it could be after a spell of bad weather. At about A (L81282 56261) I turned W for a direct 200 metre haul up to the summit cairn at B (L80691 55737).

Besides the mountains visible as mentioned by Simon3 and ahendroff, there were great views all the way over to the Mweelrea’s, the Sheeffry’s, the Ben Gorms and Maumtrasna. However while heading for Benbaun along the Knockpasheemore ridge, the best views are directly across the Gleninagh valley to Bencorrbeg, Binn an tSaighdiùra, Carrot Ridge and Bencollaghduff. Their sheer grey cliffs and massive drops to the valley below left me in awe.

The Knockpasheemore ridge stretches for about 2 kms from Knockpasheemore at the NE end to the start of the climb up to Benbaun at the SW end. The ridge is mostly heathery and boggy, and I saw one place where presumably a sheep farmer had fenced off a nasty looking area of marsh. However with the recent good weather the ridge was quite dry and very little avoiding of wet ground was needed. There are stone cairns at intervals along the centre of the ridge which would be useful navigation aides in poor weather. However the ridge is wide (100 metres at the narrowest) so staying away from the edges shouldn’t be hard). It was interesting to see how suddenly the terrain changed from heather to rock at the start of the climb up to Benbaun. The ground changes literally over the space of about 30 metres, and then it’s a haul of 270 metres ascent over mostly boulders and scree up to Benbaun.

The only other thing I can add for Knockpasheemore is that a local man told me that there is a line of standing stones on the southern side of the ridge, but I didn’t see them on my route.
My photo shows the long Knockpasheemore Ridge, with Knockpasheemore on the right leading to Benbaun on the left Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/775/comment/5859/

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The peat-hag capital of Connemara

The descent from Benbaun to the R344 via Knockpasheemore/Binn Charrach is hard going after a day in the Bens. The Knockpasheemore ridge looks nice and flat from below, but is boggy, undulating and crossed by innumerable peat hags, making straight progress impossible. There are also a number of small summits along the ridge, all of which the anxious peak-bagger will feel compelled to visit lest they suddenly morph into MV-listed peaks at some point in the future. Nice views indeed from Knockpasheemore summit, but they're the same ones you'll have seen from Benbaun.

If descending from Knockpasheemore to the R344, note that a stile has been erected over the fence at around C (L809 571). Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/775/comment/18793/

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aburden on Knockpasheemore

Taken 8th Jan 2009 Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/775/comment/3524/

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