Continuing my quest to climb the 32 county highest points, I travelled the short distance across to the stunning Slieve Bloom Mountains straddling the Laois – Offaly border. One of my favourite mountain ranges, it’s deceptively extensive and has some love Glens for a Sunday hike or drive. At just 527 metres in height it’s a short hike but tricky underfoot conditions make it one to be careful on! The starting point is behind the Laois Offaly border marker, pictured below, located in the Glendine Gap:
It descends steeply on a slippery path, with water flowing down it, into a boggy glen that’s very wet and impossible to cross without getting feet wet! It then ascends steeply for a short distance, again on a slippery soft path that tries to suck your boots off! Thankfully the rain that fell on the way across gave way to a beautiful blue sky on a crisp October afternoon.
The path crosses through a lot of heather and is well worn so it’s easy follow and almost impossible to get lost. It’s a sort distance to the summit from the car park of just about 1km but it takes maybe 20 minutes to climb up to the summit cairn. The summit is very exposed and a cold wind meant I wasn’t lingering too long while I briefly enjoyed the marvellous views of counties Laois, Offaly, Kilkenny, Tipperary and even south Galway.
Mountaineering Ireland have created a list of Irish mountains and summits and called it Arderins. Árderin literally translates as ‘Height of Ireland’, which it clearly isn’t but nonetheless it’s a great climb, one well worth doing on a fine day.
That’s summit 17 and 18 of 32 completed and hopefully I will get a few more done over the winter; not the best time of year for hillwalking but summer is usually for the bike! Had the added bonus of seeing a red squirrel today scampering up a tree nearby! Simple pleasures.
It’s been a while since I’ve update my blog. It was great to get out again today for a good long spin! Greenways do what Greenways do! I took to the Boyne Valley to Lakeland Greenway, which follows the path of a disused railway. Long straight stretches. Nice day out for family cycles and lots of walkers close to the towns. I use Greenways as links to places I want to visit and they provide a great traffic free route. But there’s not a lot to see on these reinvented railways and if your goal is to see the country side and some nice scenery they can be restricted as they are enclosed between hedgerows or embankments. They serve a purpose and they are a great addition to the cycling and walking infrastructure.
This Greenway links Navan, County Meath with Kingscourt in Cavan, a distance of approximately 30kms. It was nice to visit places that I recognise the names of but have never been in such as Nobber and Kilmainham Wood. Before undertaking the route I checked my ordnance survey maps to see where else I might visit while up in these parts and Dún an Rí Forest park is situated just north of Kingscourt. It is a beautiful park with a lovely river walk.
The Park is not too far from the Monaghan border so after exiting on the opposite side (car park side) I pointed the bike in the direction of Magheracloone, a name that I always recall when I think of Monaghan football – Tomás and Damien Freeman are two of their most famous sons and of course the GAA pitch tragically disappeared into a sink hole! I didn’t quite go as far as Magheracloone and I took a shortcut along the edge of Cabra Castle Estate.
The back roads are my favourite cycling routes; lots of interesting things to catch the eye, winding roads, hills, virtually traffic free and it often feels like cycling back in time.
Today I managed to cycle in counties Meath, Cavan and Monaghan – which of course means I cycled in two provinces as well, Leinster and Ulster!
I was surprised at the number of old milestones that I saw along the route back towards Slane. This is just one example of many that I spotted:
I always had the perception that apart from Tara, Hill of Slane and Loughcrew that Meath was flat as a pancake… it isn’t and there was plenty of ups and downs as I made my way south towards Slane through Drumconrath and Syddan. I love to see the GAA pitches dotted all across the country side, Nobber GFC, Kingscourt Stars (Cavan), Syddan GFC, Drunconrath GAA, Meath Hill (Just saw the sign); the strength of the great Meath teams was borne out of these junior and intermediate rural clubs… now a distant memory for Meath folk.
Kingscourt Stars GAA Club .
After reaching the outskirts of Slane I turned towards Navan along the busy main road for a short while but then took a side road that brought me to Broadboyne Bridge and onto the side of the Boyne River for my return into Navan town. Its an historic route with lots of interesting sites, from castles to churches and of course the bradán feasa – the salmon of knowledge, was caught here by the poet Finegas, who had spent many years trying to catch him and gain all his knowledge. The bradán feasa had gained his knowledge by eating nine hazelnuts that had fallen into the Well of Wisdom, this gaining all the knowledge in the world. Finegas left Fionn MacCumhaill to cook it but warned him not to eat any of it until he returned. Fionn was turning the salmon to see if it was cooked and blistered his finger. He immediately put it into his mouth to suck it to ease the pain and he instantly gained all the knowledge! I could do with catching a salmon like that myself!
Video of Navan to Kingscourt Loop cycle
All in all, the route was 83kms long and I really enjoyed visiting a corner of the country, off the beaten track, that I’m not very familiar with. Fills a void!
What a beautiful late August day; one of the few fine days we have had this year. A day for the bike and I headed for the hilly back roads above Old Leighlin, passing out through lovely Milford and Tomard and up by Seskin to the top of the Ridge.
To Muckalee
The back roads are best, so little traffic, apart from the busy farmers working flat out in this fine weather to save crops and keep us all fed!.
When I got into Muckalee I was pleasantly surprised to see a little coffee shop in the Community Centre. It’s a community initiative and they’ve done a fabulous job providing a great facility for visitors and locals. I sat down outside to have a snack and three cars pulled up, all lost and all asking me where was the hurling field! Sure I had to go down then to have a peep at what was happening.
Muckalee St Martins have a fine facility and it was hosting a Kilkenny IHL game between Danesfort and Lisdowney, which attracted a decent crowd. It was a lovely family atmosphere, kids all arriving with their hurls, cash at the gate and a lovely glossy programme for €2 for spectators. Because I was on the bike, they let me in for a little stay and it was great to see the wizard himself, Richie Hogan togged out for Danesfort. Wasn’t a good day for them however as Lisdowney won 3-13 to 0-14.
With miles to go before home, I had to head back the road I came but took a short cut up hill over by Coolcullen and rejoined the Ridge above Old Leighlin and Ballinabranna for the return journey home. Nice to see a few llamas up win the hill with Mount Leinster in the background, not quite the Andes but very picturesque!
What a glorious day for the bike! We are fortunate to have the network of local roads that we have – I cycled to Rathanna and back today, 73kms of tiny bóithríns devoid of traffic, the sun was shining and Carlow was looking marvellous! My route took me out through Nurney, across by Augha and behind Dunleckney, out to Ballaghmoon Castle in the above photo, situated at the moment in the centre of a lovely wildflower meadow.
It’s a Castle steeped in mystery; no one quite knows it purpose. This 14th century Castle is more like a large compound. It has massive 8 foot thick walls, 20 foot high with a large internal courtyard. There are great views through a broken window towards Mount Leinster.
Not much more than a puck of a ball away is the 13th century Ballyloughan Castle, near Corries Cross. This must have been a very impressive site in its heyday with its entrance flanked by two impressive towers. Only a small part of this structure remains today and unfortunately there is no public access.
Placenames are so important; the original Irish versions tell so much about an area. I still have my Father’s copy of ‘Place Names of County Carlow’ by Edward O Toole and I was always fascinated by the names and the sounds:
Coolnacuppogue = Cúl na g-Cupóg = ‘Back of the Hill of the Dock Leaves’! Civil Parish ‘Sliguff’, Barony ‘Idrone East’. Here’s the signpost I passed today:
It was a lovely spin along tiny winding lanes, free of traffic, sheep munching on the plentiful grass of the ‘Long Mile’, stunning views of Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs as I wove my way past Knocksquire and Rosdellig into one of our best kept secrets, the tiny village of Rathanna, where there was an almighty crowd gathered for the Rathanna Village Day. There was a massive vintage tractor display. fun and games, stalls, music and Wexford Mummers performing. It was my first time to see the Mummers live; it’s an ancient tradition, hanging on in rural Wexford and they put on a great show that captured a lot of interest from young and old alike. Just as I experienced on the Camino del Cid in Spain, it’s so nice and important to see culture promoted, valued and enjoyed. It was great to also see stalls promoting local artists, whether artists, potters, silversmiths or sculptors and promoting Drummin Raised Bog near St Mullins and concerns about commercial developments on the Blackstairs Mountains – critically important areas – both locally and nationally of biodiversity. I was struck by the huge biodiversity I experienced on my recent #CaminodelCid cycle in Spain – we are not doing enough to protect these areas!
Spain is a country that proudly celebrates its cultures and traditions. It’s Easter processions have morphed into major tourist attractions that are so popular that it’s very expensive to book a flight to Spain at that time of year! This celebration of culture takes many forms and there are some really unique expressions of that show the country in its best light.
I’ve seen these floral tributes in the smallest of villages and in big cities while doing the Camino Santiago in the past, but this was the first time I’ve seen how they make the ‘Alfombras florales’ (floral carpets or tapestries). This was in the beautiful historic city of Sigüenza.
The tapestries are quite large and elaborate and they can take up entire streets; first the designs are drawn on the road with chalk or soil. Then thousands of flower petals, that have been meticulously collected, are placed into the designs. Leaves, grass, seeds, soil and other plant based materials are also used to form these incredible vivid and colourful images. Rose petals, irises, pine and sage are commonly used.
Teams of people, young and old, are involved and the creation can take a couple of days to complete. Barriers are erected around the creations to protect them during the process and sometimes plastic tunnels and coverings protect them from the weather. Water is sprinkled on the finished designs to them in place and to kept the flowers fresh and avoid withering in the heat of the day.
The team of alfombristas can work through the night to complete the designs on the morning of Corpus Christi. After Mass in the local Church, the Bishop or Priest leads a long procession through the streets carrying the Eucharist in an elaborate Monstrance. Incredibly the Procession walks over the displays, destroying these beautiful creations and this has its roots in the Bible:
Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit”.
John 12:24
Which basically means that the beautiful floral designs and the dedicated labour of creating them were all in the service of something much greater and the temporal nature of these designs are a large part of what makes them special!
This feast day is widely celebrated across Spain and indeed other countries also practice this beautiful tradition of floral carpets.
