Having spent very little time in the hills over the last few years I was keen to start with something straightforward and simple to plan and navigate. This is one of my Local 100 and also one of the 50 closest for my personal 50for50 Challenge so fitted the bill perfectly.

I'm not a fan of "there and back" routes so plotted a route that started at Sloughan Glen and continued along the Ulster Way route after the summit, effectively combining the two possible approaches outlined by other members. Almost half of the route was on roads but this is a very quiet area and I encountered only one vehicle on the road section and that was the postman!

I ended up taking a bit of a roundabout way to the actual summit having followed the Ulster Way for a few hundred metres before striking up the hill. I should have gone straight up from where the Ulster Way meets the windfarm road. The summit itself isn't much higher than the surrounding heather but clearly visible and easily found.

Looking at the layout of the windfarm it should be possible to loop around the Lough and to the summit via Bin Rocks (from the OS map - possibly just Bin Mountain?) and descending the way I came up to give a shorter looped walk with no roads.

I spent some time exploring Sloughan Glen after finishing and it was more than worth it. There are a lot of steep sections and steps that could challenge achy legs and knees but the waterfalls are beautiful.

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A detailed report and more photos can be found on my personal blog at this link: https://idlecyclist.wordpress.com/2021/10/04/hike-bolaght-mountain/ Linkback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/904/comment/23285/