Moving house is a major ordeal for most people, but for the MV hillwalker it comes with additional angst. A NEW LOCAL 100 LIST!!! Alas, in moving from Wicklow to Donegal, I now have over 60% of summits to climb in my local area, hence my hike up Gartan Mountain, which is anything but a featureless lump in the bog as expected.

We tackled this from the former (southern) entrance into the Glenveagh Estate. At C05480 18013 B turn right through a gateway sporting deer head. Continue along the road to a small car park serving St Colmcille’s Abbey and graveyard. Through an estate gate, follow the well-maintained track which traverses open moorland with expansive views over the bog sweeping up to Cionn Bheatha and Leahanmore. On a sunny day in late winter, the warm russet of the bog was ablaze and, in the distance, the snowy peaks of Errigal and Dooish soared into a speedwell-blue sky. Alongside the track, occasional thickets of prickly heath dripping with scarlet red berries contrasted with the egg-yolk yellow of the gorse flower.

At the deer fence, pass through the gate and ascend initially handrailing the fence. The terrain is rough with swathes of knee-high dry yellow grass interspersed with spongy moss, heather and sly patches of bog. The terrain improves as the grass gives way to exposed moorstone, wiry heather, bilberry and dwarf juniper. We paused at a small cairn C04644 20296 C to behold the magnificent view of Lough Inshagh, an indigo-blue ribbon of water with a tiny white sand beach at its NNE end. The summit is still several hundred metres away and out of sight. As the slope levels off, a number of eroded peat hags and bog pools appear, and we startled a brace of red grouse in the heather who took to the air nosily. The summit is marked by a substantial cairn of moorstone.

Gartan Mountain punches above its weight in terms of scenery: north, the periwinkle-blue Atlantic, the Urris Hills and the sandy crescent of sand at Downings; NE, gnarly Lough Salt Mountain; south, Gartan Lough and the Bluestacks lined up like soldiers on parade; and to the west, the mysterious inky-blue Lough Veagh beyond which lie Muckish and the Algas.

We returned to the track leading to Glenveagh Castle, but left the fence heading downhill over more benign ground to the left of a prominent boulder at C04096 19820 D. The castle above the shore of the Lough Veagh is little over 3.5km away and shouldn’t be missed. Built between 1867 and 1873 in Scottish baronial style by the infamous Captain John George Adair, it is surrounded by delightfully landscaped gardens. The patches of snowdrops, daffodils, blooming rhododendrons, magnolias and camelias, heralded the first flush of spring. The gardens are free to visit, but a tour through the interior of the castle is worth the entrance fee. After refreshments in the tea shop surrounded by cheeky wild birds, each one an opportunist thief, we returned the 6.5km via the track to the start point. Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/890/comment/24141/