Summiteering sometimes leaves you with odd challenges in trying to reach places with economy of effort. So it was here. I needed 3 summits: the 2 Knockbrinneas and the Hag's Tooth. Some fellow members were going up the "Hydro" road from the west side for the Coumloughra circuit, so I went with them part way to the col between Stumpa Barr na Abhann and Beenkeragh. There was mist above 600m. It turned out to be easy to contour round the north side of Beenkeragh to the high ridge leading to the Knockbrinneas.
From there things went literally and figuratively downhill. I attempted to approach the Hags Tooth from directly above. This turned out to be a bad mistake because the tooth is part of a sharpish arete with extremely steep land on both sides and of course I couldn't see the way or the target. For the first time I can remember the contour detail on the OS was rendered difficult to read by lettering making it hard to see that an easier way down was to the north of the route I took. You can see the tortuous result on the track which despite going downhill shows pink for slow in parts. The Hag's Tooth itself turned out to be a scramble up a well flagged track.
Returning up slope was hard, though faster than the descent, despite the fact that the mist suddenly lifted to around 800m You can see the zigzag path on the GPS track as the slope reached 60%.
Summit temptation set in before Skregmore and I decided to go for Skregbeg.
Navigation was done using the OS 78 for overview and the GPS with summits installed and contour map and intermediate, on-the-fly waypoints put in as required. Finishing I can say that I was seriously tired and glad to synchronise with my friends at the sharp bend in the Hydro road.