Crawfords bridge to Ballygawley

On the minor road to the north west of Slievemores summit, at Sl'Mor (H586 618), a track leaves the road and starts to climb up the hill, at the first fork keep left. At around A (H592 618), the map shows the track ending, there is however a faint continuing track that leads to the summit track, coming in from the east. Or you could just walk up hill through some minor peat cuttings, directly to the summit. Either way it doesn't take long to attain the summit, the actual spot height lys a few metres from the concrete blocks, mentioned in the previous comments.

Whilst climbing Slievemore, I met a large group who had run over the hill, from the Ballygawley direction. So I decided to descend that way, in the hope of pint before the journey home. I walked across the summit area in a south west direction and picked up a track at B (H591 612), following this down hill, past a car wreck, to a forest edge, turning left here along an overgrown track, after several minutes pushing past some undergrowth to arrive at a good lane beside a deserted farm house, C (H593 610). This leads down hill and joins a road at D (H596 603). From here minor roads lead to the A5 (E (H605 588)), and unless you have the time to take a very circuitous route, a short stretch along the A5 is unavoidable, luckily, there is a wide grass verge to walk along till the access road to Ballygawley at F (H618 580).

If climbing this hill via public transport (Ulsterbus Belfast - Omagh service passes right by it), beware the Goldline express only stops in Ballygawley and Crawfords bridge (G (H514 645)), giving a 18.9 km walk from one stop to the other, over the hill. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/940/comment/5890/

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Slievemore - a small hill with big views

Slievemore is the highest top of the low sandstone ridges that dominate the landscape of south east Tyrone.
Our approach was to the north of the hill, parking at H (H589 623) where a minor road crosses the upland. A windfarm dominates the hillside, and there are considerable turf-cuttings in the area.
Getting up was not too arduous, but there were some awkward patches of high heather. A small turfy knoll at the summit is crowned, not by the usual cairn or pile of stones, but by three concrete blocks, one on top of the other. Diminutive it may be, but the views, especially to the north, are wide-ranging, from Cuilcagh and the Dartrys to the south and west, to the Sperrins northwards.
Our descent was via a rubbish tip where a grassy track brought us back to the tarred road. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/940/comment/4746/

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Taste of the Sahara in Tyrone!

It was a very murky day as I returned to Tyrone from working in Belfast, with a thick haze obscuring everything, but I took a chance and decided to visit Slievemore anyway. I left the A5, taking the Garvaghy Bridge Road briefly, before turning off on to the Shantavny Road, then the Fallaghearn Raod, where I parked near the windfarm. The summit was Southeast of here, only twenty minutes or so away across admittedly very boggy ground. The summit itself is near a small mound which can be seen in the bottom right of the photograph. The haze was presumably caused by the fine sand and dust particles from the Sahara Desert, borne by the wind to our shores, The gloom was beginning to clear a little by the time I reached the top, although only enough to reveal the closer views.

I know from driving round this area in the past, that on a nice day there are magnificent views to be had over the undulating countryside, with rolling fields and hedgerows spread over the attractive drumlin landscape. I have photos from a nearby spot on a clear day where the Mournes can plainly be seen on the horizon. Today, thanks to the Sahara, anything beyond a few hundred metres was lost in the haze. Everything looked bleak, and from the summit, the immediate landscape did not look attractive, seeming to be dominated by quarries and wasteland. Maybe on a better day the hill would reveal its charms. Perhaps I should have waited, as by the time I was back in west Tyrone, an hour later, it was a beautiful sunny day. The concrete blocks marking the top seem to be scattered now, by someone offended by their lack of asthetics maybe? If you are visiting, be careful where you put your feet, as I almost walked into a 4 or 5 feet deep ditch. It was only about a foot and half wide, and was almost hidden by the heather. You could easily end up with a broken leg - and at the bottom of a ditch! Its also a very short walk, so I put on the wellies rather than the boots, and was glad I did - very wet. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/940/comment/15962/

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themattarchist on Slievemore

I climbed this mountain/hill a few years ago, I started the walk from the village of Beragh, although a few roads are quite close to the summit so you could make it to the top quite easily in 30mins.
Its a gentle slope and quite an easy climb for most hill walkers however it is over bog land so as usual be careful in this terrian. The views from the top are absolutely amazing, west Tyrone, Monaghan, Fermanagh, are all spread out below you, as well as this you can see the Sperrins clearly, the Bluestack mountains, and the mountain of Leitrim and Sligo, you can also even see as far as the Mournes on a clear day.
A lower peak on the mountain also now has a windfarm Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/940/comment/3817/

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