En-route from Strabane to Stranorlar for some walking in the Bluestacks we thought we would visit Mongorry Hill, a "small prominent" hill reached by way of a detour via Raphoe.
That prominence would ensure good views of a feast of ranges including the Derryveaghs, Sperrins and the Bluestacks as well as Lough Swilly. There is a road marked on the OS as running over Mongorry Hill right past the trig pillar. What could go wrong?
Well from the west side the road does indeed leave the main road however it stops after about 300m at a steel gate on the good forest track NW of summit which is correctly marked on the map. The marked road to the summit DOESN'T EXIST. Your best bet for reaching the top from the west is to walk along the forest track around 130m from the steel gate and then head more or less due east towards the summit. It's around 460m of often extremely rough terrain with stumps, briars, boggy bits and deep drains.
Is it worth it? Well, the evening we were there the weather was misty-murky. We could just about see Lough Swilly and some other vague summits lost in the blue scatter. However judging by the view from nearby Dooish Mountain (another small prominent top) the view should be huge on a good day - but not attractive on a dull one. The promised trig pillar? Couldn't find it. The top is a little steep sided knoll with some probably significant stones concealed by a few trees.
As with so many of the small prominent summits there is a small communications tower on the east side (as well as a large set to the west). Presumably there IS a road up to this which might therefore mean that a better way to reach to top of Mongorry is from the east.
So all in all probably not a great place for a quick pleasant stroll and views from nearby Dooish very similar.
The picture shows the not very steep side of Mongorry towards the west. There are communications towers on this side also.
Since writing the above I came across this reference in a book, published 1860, courtesy Google Books about one Wray, which may explain the woefully incorrect map.
"A second road he constructed over Mongorry Mountain between Letterkenny and Raphoe with incredible trouble and cost. No hard Whinstone rock no shaking bog no hill side torrent ever could turn our rectilinear road maker one foot from his straightforward course He would blast the first pave the second and bridge the third and on the map of the recent Ordnance Survey the engineer's rule could never draw a straighter line than the delineation of this long road presents It is now quite forsaken only cattle drivers make use of ould Willie W ray's road the present generation having discovered that it is wiser if not shorter to skirt the base of a hill than to scale the summit a process endangering the breaking of your horse's wind in the going up and the breaking of his knees or your own neck in the coming down Mr Wray was a great loyalist and zealous for king and constitution and on one occasion [A second series of Vicissitudes of families By John Bernard Burke]
More recent news includes that someone attempted to blow up the RTE mast on Mongorry Hill in 1970 and just this year (2008) the BBC reported:
Bomb-making items found in wood
The bomb-making equipment was found in a wooded area. Police investigating dissident republican activity in County Donegal have discovered bomb-making equipment in a wooded area.
It was found at Mongorry Wood, an isolated area near Raphoe on Thursday. Searches in the area are continuing.
No, I wouldn't touch anything suspicious around Mongorry.
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