from Faha Car Park to top and back

Getting there: From Tralee, follow the N86 road, follow signposts for Cloghan and just beyond the village (past the post office) take the first turn on the left which will lead you up to the Faha (An Fhaiche) car park.
The route is marked by an arrow through a gate onto the open mountainside. There are some white poles and other yellow arrow signs that indicate the route. The route first going gently along a slope then it reaches large glaciated valley full of towering cliffs, giant slabs of rocks and boulders. The valley floor consists of a series of small punchbowl corrie lakes. Then, a short scramble takes us out onto the Col on the side of Brandon and finally a short easy walk to the summit.
If the day is clear, the view must be magnificent but unfortunately when I was there the clouds covered the summit for whole day. At least I could observe the Brocken Spectre.
time: about 5 hours Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/9/comment/5889/

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liam on Brandon

Rather than bring two cars or face the long walk back to Faha, we decided to approach Brandon via the paternoster lakes starting at A (Q491 083), two miles SW of Cloghane. The lane beside the bridge leads to a gate warning of dangerous cliffs on Brandon, some of which close the vista ahead. Two gates later we crossed over to the Owenmore River and followed it to Loch Cruite where we forded the river and passed along the east side of the lake. The waterfall ahead looked intimidating at first but proved quite manageable close up. Crossing the river about two thirds of the way up brought us to the west side of Loch na Lice with a more serious clamber ahead. Keeping to the grassy slopes on the far left we arrived at lake no.3 with superb views back down the valley towards Slievanea in the distance. Up ahead the remaining steps looked and proved a lot easier but the head of the valley and Brandon had vanished in the descending cloud. Fortunately, near the sixth lake we picked up the Pilgrims' Path markers and followed them up to the ridge near Brandon, arriving three and a half hours after leaving the car. While longer than the Faha approach, the beauty of the lakes with the cliffs towering over them and the variety of the terrain made this an unmissable experience. Given the poor visibility on the top, the highlight there was probably the narrow ridge between Brandon Peak and Gearhane before we descended on the new road at Folach na Marbh to Mullach Bhéal leaving a mile's walk back to the car. Nearly eight hours for the round trip - a bit less if conditions, physiological and climatic were better. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/9/comment/2639/

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View to Connemara and Mayo

I just thought I'd share this photo I took of the Connemara mountains from Brandon in brilliant conditions last week. The large detached landmass to the west must be Achill, almost 200km away! Its pretty rare to get any view from the top of Brandon let alone with visibility this great, other views extended up the Clare coast from the mouth of the Shannon to Black Head in the Burren, down the coast from the Blaskets, past the Skelligs, to Dursey at the end of Beara, all the way along the Iveragh mountains out into Cork, as far as the Nagles beyond Mallow, east to the Galtees (just about), not to mention the views closer at hand of Corca Duibhne and the corries and ridges of Brandon itself. I suppose it makes up for all the times the mist has been down and you couldn't even see 2 feet in front of you. Fantastic! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/9/comment/4622/

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Redtop on Brandon

My name is David and I am aged 8. I climbed Brandon with my family on a beautiful warm sunny day, starting at Faha Grotto and heading West towards the summit. As I have short legs and walked slowly, it took us nearly 7 hours round-trip. The hardest part was from the last lake scrambling up to the summit but we made it to the top. We saw people swimming in the lakes. I came down much faster and especially liked sliding down the steep bit just below the summit. My Dad had to hold on to me. I like to bring a rock from every climb home with me. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/9/comment/4099/

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Brocken Spectre

Brocken Spectre image from Brandon summit. Benagh and Brandon Bay in view. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/9/comment/20000/

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