A small hill with a fine panorama

On a journey to the NW I took the opportunity on 18 May 2010 to visit this hill. I turned left off the A6 where it is crossed by the B69 and signed for Claudy. After driving through the village I followed the B49 signed for Donemanna (Cumber Road) and followed it along to a crossroads at A (C53150 04950) where I turned left onto the Sallowilly Road for approx 700m and then right up a tarmac minor road B (C53825 03750). The start of the walk is 700m along this lane where the tarmac gives way to a gravel farm track C (C53366 03310), the same spot located by three5four0. IFrom here I walked up this track to an old farm D (C53033 02825) and then turned left onto a wide hedge lined grassy track up past a small tree plantation. Where the plantation ended E (C52895 02631) I turned left uphill across several fences to the flat summit area. Once again in the Sperrins I was on a hill with no distinguishing feature indicating the high point so I just strolled around to try and decide where it lay. Although it was a hazy day I none the less enjoyed the atmospheric panorama around me of the Sperrins and their layered ridges. I returned by way of ascent . A short walk up and down of 2.5km easily done at strollers pace in 45 minutes and well worth the effort if passing through this area with an hour to spare. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/930/comment/4750/

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three5four0 on Crockdooish

There is just room to park on the minor road at F (C533 033), by a gate & track without blocking access to said gate. From here walk up hill to just before a farm building, where a track branches off left, follow this over grown lane way, crossing a fence, which runs across the lane till the tree plantation (wind break?) ends. From here follow the edge of the trees ( 2 fences to cross close together, over the first one and through the second ) into a field. walk up hill to another fence, crossing this ( or you can go through it, if you take your pack off & walk a short distance along beside it before crossing ). Cross one more fence and walk a short distance to the summit, as it seems to be with all the relative hills in the Sperrins, good views abound around you. Return is by way of ascent , perhaps paying more attention to the amazing bio diversity of plants in the banks of the lanes. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/930/comment/4035/

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A Small Gem In The Sperrins

I was driving round this area of the Sperrins with my young son, looking for smaller hills to tackle as I am trying to pass on the hillwalking bug. We had already walked about halfway up Balix Hill, but the ground was hard going for him, and we gave it up. I stopped beside Farahs pub on the Sallowilly Road as it looked like a good spot to start up Crockdooish from the southern side. I was going to park in a layby a bit beyond the pub, but got chatting to the barman and a couple of customers outside, and they were very friendly, insisting I park in the pub car park, and assuring me it would be OK to go up the hill from there. After chatting for a few minutes, we took our leave, and took the short walk to the top. This was a much easier hill for a child, and a good introduction to hill walking. The views were magnificent, out of all proportion to its height, due to its proximity to the larger Sperrins. The only difficulty we had was the amount of fairly high barbed wire fences to be crossed. Great little hill if you're passing. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/930/comment/17880/

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Barbed wire proliferates

17/05/2019 Several of the barbed wire fences have been (or are still being) replaced with higher, double strand barbed wire tops. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/930/comment/20558/

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