Climbed from the west side.

You can start your walk to the summit at a forest trail which begins at A (H994 171) (the narrow road on the west side of Croslieve). There is room for two or three cars here. Follow the trail for approximately 100 meters until you have the option of either going left or right: GO RIGHT! You will come to a small pilgrimage area, with a cross, which you will see on your right. The trail becomes less obvious after this as you will start walking to your left up through the forest towards the gap between Slievebrack and Croslieve . If done correctly you will come to a style which will bring you out of the forest and into the gap. From here just make your own way up to the top. This route seems to be the most common way up to the summit and really is simple enough to follow; I would recommend it! If you're feeling really energetic you could also walk to the summit of Slievebrack , but the terrain is very deep and difficult to walk across; maybe not a good idea! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/950/comment/20038/

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pdtempan on Croslieve

Croslieve and Tievecrom, the two hills between which the village of Forkill nestles, are like chalk and cheese. They are mentioned as Creshla Mountain and Tiffcrum in Michael J. Murphy's 'Mountain Year' (1964), spellings which probably reflect the authentic local pronunciation of his day. We tackled Croslieve by cycling up the steep road which approaches from the SE. Up and down takes no more than an hour. There is a double gate at approximately B (J000 153) (right on the edge of map sheet 29) where we took the track which climbs towards the summit. We passed in full view of a new house with couple of barking dogs, but we met nobody and had no access problems. After climbing a couple of hundred yards, we reached an open field, where we aimed a bit to our right (E) towards an obvious groove which we had spotted earlier from Tievecrom. When we reached it, we found a good farm track which climbed this groove towards the summit. There were some bullocks in this field, but they were more afraid of us than we were of them, and they scarpered as we approached. We crossed a stile to leave this field, still climbing NNE in a straight line towards the summit. Shortly afterwards, the track makes a right angle to the right and climbs steeply (don't take the fainter track which carries straight on along the edge of the forestry). The track passes through a narrow gap and emerges near a mast, which is on a false summit. Pass to the right of the mast compound and head for the summit which is now obvious and not too difficult to reach, though there is no path through the high heather and bilberry. Croslieve is a magnificent viewpoint, once again offering superb views of Slieve Gullion, the other hills in the Gullion ring-dyke and the Cooley Mountains. We shared the summit with a herd of some 20 goats. From here Tievecrom looks a cinch. Don't be fooled! Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/950/comment/3832/

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Harry Goodman on Croslieve

Let me start with a little piece of advice. If you think you may be in an area and want to climb a hill on the MV list, always refer to the site and take the benefit of any information/comments for the hill in question. When in the area yesterday I decided to climb Croslieve but found difficulty in deciding where best to start. It was only after a number of sorties up and around various roads that, by pure chance, I started at the same point as that already shown on the site by pdtempan C (J00005 15319) at a double gate between two houses. Clearly if I had had pdt's directions with me I would have saved myself a lot of searching around for a suitable starting point. The stile refered to my pdt is at D (J99999 15858). This is a little gem of a hill with magnificent views over the many tops and bumps of the south side of the Ring of Gullion, with Gullion itself very prominent and impressive to the NNE. Do not be put off by the low elevation (308m). You will find the climb more rewarding than many hills twice its size. When there take time to explore the many tops and knolls or simply sit down and relax in splendid surroundings. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/950/comment/4204/

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dr_banuska on Croslieve

I climbed Croslieve and neighbouring Tievecrom on Sat with one of my dogs. Following Harry's advice I tackled the latter first, as it's much trickier despite its lower height. I started at the same set of double gates between two houses as mentioned by others; coming from Forkhill you'll spot a small townland marker stone on the left and the gates are a short distance ahead on the right (I parked a little downhill close to another gate where I wasn't blocking the road, about E (J003 153)). I must admit when crossing the two sets of gates before reaching open hillside I felt a little uneasy, as I was in full view of the kitchen of one of the houses as mentioned by Pdtempan and the obligatory family dog did its best to draw attention to us! This was early evening too, so I may have looked a bit suspect.

The route to the summit via the comms mast is pretty straightforward: I ended up following a fence off to my left before crossing a stile then keeping to the left of another fence where there's a pretty clear track. I passed the mast compound, ascended a little then down again to an obvious groove heading downhill which you can see from Tievecrom. I crossed this and climbed uphill again to one of two rocky 'bumps' visible in the pic to the right of the mast. Not entirely sure which was higher (from the pic it looks like the left one is higher but standing on it the other seemed higher... map suggests the first?), I covered myself by descending a little then climbing the 2nd bump.

It was getting quite dark and I didn't hang about. The view was similar to Tievecrom, with Gullion prominent NW. The best thing was seeing the lights come on in Dundalk (and the motorway ringing it) and I could follow the lights back up to Forkhill and over to Jonesborough etc. As Harry says this is an interesting hill with varied terrain and it's best to allow yourself time to enjoy it. Unfortunately I misjudged and ended up descending almost in pitch darkness, quite an unsettling experience. Especially with this being quite a stony hill (lately Id been used to the much boggier Sperrins) and the recent ice made things quite treacherous. I had a few falls along the way I must admit, so would urge caution. I toyed with coming down an alternative route, but found the going quite steep off the obvious route and not a good idea at this time of evening, so retraced my steps. In fact once I neared the bottom I had difficulty locating the path back to the road with just my mobile phone light, and half the dogs of south Armagh seemed to be barking at us as I stumbled around for ages trying to find my way! Not my most enjoyable expedition as it turned out but lesson learned.

P.S. when in the area you might want to visit Castle Roche, a short distance to the southwest in Co. Louth. I didnt have time but it looks impressive and once marked the northern boundary of the Pale. Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/950/comment/4331/

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Must visit mountain that is off the beaten track

Parked at the Double gates at point B (J000 153), Met the local farmer at the gates when starting to walk. He said he was fine with accessing his land, just make sure that you close all gates, he was able to give a recommend route which was walk to the top of the field until you find another gate, Follow the overgrown track till you meet the forest, (The track was created by the army since the top of the mountain house over 400 British troops at one time), At the forest, cross over the style and then turn right following the fence until you meet the mask, at the mask you'll see the summit which is merely another 10 min walk across some heath and heather.
It’s a mountain that is challenging more than you think and the views from the top are spectacular. Once at the top you know why it was once a British arms observation post looking across all of Co Louth, Co Monaghan and perhaps as far as Dublin airport.
The photo is a view of Forkhill with a large quarry below and Tievecrom in the background, Over all it talk about over 70-80 mins up and down Linkback: mountainviews.ie/summit/950/comment/6392/

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