[RWD version 1 ] I travelled up early on Friday to see if I could get permission to start the walk from the NE side of Slieve Carr. Visited two farm yards but met no one. As I walked away I asked myself 'Why am I bothering these people? Is it just because I want to make life easier on myself? Because if it is, then that's a nonsense. Just let the mountain be the remotest and go at it from the clearly defined trails that surround it. It's 'harder', but so what? There's nothing easy in this game'
I was up around here last September when the weather wasn't so good and knew that, on a clear day, this place would be magical. It's something else. And so we began our walk in Bangor on Saturday morning and we decided to take in any hill that was in our way. Conditions were ideal, a clear day, the wind at our backs and the ground was good. It's 11.7km to the summit of Slieve Carr, on our route, and the height gain is 973m. A good 'A' walk by any club standards, if you did an about face and headed back to Bangor.

The descent from Corslieve was steep and the gradient on the climb up Nephin Beg was tough. I looked up a few times, at the walker ahead of me, and hoped that he'd disappear from view, sooner rather than later, as this would mean the ground was levelling out.
There folowed the steep descent to the Bawnduff River with the intimidating long (very friggin long) climb to Glennamong to savour on the way down. Spectacular distant views all day of Achill, Croagh Partick, Mweelrea, Sheffry's and Maamturks but looking North from the slopes of Glennamong we could see Benbulben and all the way to Donegal.
You're 23.4km into your walk and you've 1,884m of climbing done on Glennamong. When they were dishing out steep ascents and descents, the Nephin Range got the lions share. Another good pull up to Corranabinnia followed by two sharp drops on the way to the foot of Bengorm. I nearly invoked the 'Mountain Mercy' card on this last climb and it was a very slow 230m ascent.

And, of course, it was all worth it in the end. It's 4.5km from Bengorm to walk finish and there's good parking there. You'd want to be in the full of your health for this walk *and* pick a good clear day.