[RWD version 1 ] MV seems to have loads of Tracks for the Glenmalure area but I'm not sure if this particular route has been presented just yet. I can't imagine that anyone would want to replicate it, unless, like me, they had left out Mullacor in their youth and now must single it out in order to complete the "set". I generally approach "left overs" in the opposite way to "long route" preparation: no planning at all instead of painstaking and elaborate investigation and reflection. My 22 year old son joined me, having spent the day languishing in recovery after final exam success. I had thought of driving down Glenmalure and heading up the shortest but steepist route from just southwest of Mullacor. Knowing the pace that David would manage I switched, at the last moment, to the long gradual ascent from near the Shay Elliot Forest Car Park. We began our walk about 8.30pm on a gloomy early May evening and took an hour to get to the summit along clear tracks at a cracking pace. A phone call about an urgent work issue delayed us a while en route. The way back involved the change from twilight to night. We agreed that there was something very pleasant about the dark even though it meant intense concentration on foot placing. I was thankful for the company during the eerie passage through the conifers at the end. What primeval anxiety is stirred by a forest at night?
Perhaps one of you might build this track into a longer, more sensible, day out? In the meantime I will cherish the memory of David's exam success, and associate it in a special way with humble Mullacor. But above all I will cherish the simple pleasure of spending some time with my one of my wonderful sons on the hills, and the incomparable post walk glass of Guinness together in The Glenmalure Lodge.