I climbed Benbo from Manorhamilton, first for 1.5 km along the N16 (Sligo Road), which doesn't have a hard shoulder for some of the route and is pretty busy, then left after crossing the Bonet River bridge along some very quiet and pleasant rural roads, lined with trees and loud with bird song on a sunny April morning.

My map, OSNI Discoverer 26: Lough Allen, showed a track going up the hill at G861 367 but I missed this (on the way up – I got it on the way down). By the time I hit the forest entrance (not marked on OSNI Discoverer 26) a couple of hundred metres further down the road, I knew I had gone too far but headed up the forest track anyway in the hope of finding a way onto open hillside. The initial ascent was slow going through bits of scraggy plantation and some rocky ground, even a hint of scrambling. It was no hardship in the fine conditions but not the optimum route. As the ground flattened out at spot height 220m, I finally came upon the old track I should have followed up. I followed it a bit but it soon faded out and the ascent was through moderate slopes with no trace of footfall.

The summit is a ridge of sorts, a broad one but compact enough for panoramic views. There is a small lake up there, Black Lough, which is associated with some legend about a cow emerging from the water. There is a big cairn at the summit and a couple of others placed at good viewpoints along the ridge. The view west across Lough Gill and the surrounding hills to Knocknarea and the Atlantic coast was particularly worth seeing.

For the descent I picked up the old track I should have followed up, not sure where it would go but hoping it would deposit me on the road. It went through a nice old wood, the trees were mostly leafless but there seemed to be a lot of oak. There were some small trees across the track, presumably from last winter’s storms, but not enough to block the way. Then it did indeed deposit me on the road at around the spot indicated by the map. It was the barest gap in the trees, marked by a bit of white plastic tied around a trunk. Easily missed but if you hit the forest entrance you’ve gone just too far (but have found the nearest parking space).

I followed the roads back to Manorhamilton, had a good lunch in Ósta W8, went for a look at the castle and got the Local Link bus out of there. 15 km is a long walk for one 400 metres hill but the town centre to summit walk is an underrated genre, especially for the public transport user, and Benbo is a fine hill in its own right.

Unlike many summits around Leitrim, Sligo and Roscommon, there is no trace of mining, quarrying or such activities, though a map on a poster I saw in Manorhamilton suggests much of Benbo, including the summit, is now subject to a prospecting licence. For now, though, it is an unspoiled place, and seemingly little visited, as I saw no one else during a couple of hours wandering around there on a very fine weekend day.