Rothar Routes

Cycle routes & pilgrim journeys in Ireland and Europe …..

Posts tagged ‘County High Points’

Sawel Mountain – County High Point Challenge

Saint Brigid gave us another Bank Holiday and I used it to head north to add another mountain top to my goal of completing the 32 Counties high Point Challenge and also to attend great coaching workshop in Coalisland on the way home. Two birds killed with the one stone so to speak!

Sawel, at 665 metres, is the highest point in counties Tyrone and Derry. It’s situated in the heart of the remote and beautiful Sperrin Mountains.

It’s a long long drive from Carlow – 300kms approximately but there was no rush and I enjoyed the drive up, especially driving through the Sperrins to get to the start point, which is on the Sperrin Road; a thin strip of black tarmac splitting the mountain range in two as it winds up and down over rises and falls of the approach. Looking out the window of the car lulled me into a false sense of confidence; all seemed calm, until I pulled into my parking spot near a cattle grid. ‘Twas then I realised the winds outside were blowing up a storm! The car was buffeted from side to side and I decided to face the car head on into the wind to lessen the effect. Wind speeds yesterday were 60kms/h with gusts up to 72km/h!

While it was cloudy overhead, visibility was good and it was mild when starting out. That didn’t last long and mist covered the mountain, turning to rain. Ground conditions were awful and I seriously considered abandoning the walk, but given the distance I had travelled and the fact that I could follow a fence all the way to the summit I decided to go ahead and complete it with caution. I had brought with hiking poles and they were a godsend.

It’s an easy route to navigate and impossible to get lost once you stick to the fence, which has to be crossed a few times over stiles. Underfoot the ground was soaked and at various points I was ankle deep in black treacle, trying to suck the boots off me!

The winds were increasing in speed as I ascended and made it extremely difficult to progress forward in. What looked on paper like an easy one to notch up, it was anything but. As a result it took much longer than it should have and I knew the challenge going down would be worse as the ground was like a bar of soap. Sure enough I had a few tumbles, one was particularly bad in which I hyper extended my knee as my leg went underneath me as I fell backwards. I took a moment to regain my composure but thankfully I was slowly able to pick a path down without any further incidents. No serious damage done.

It was unfortunate how the weather turned out as the views when I started were so nice and I had hoped to take in the panoramic views at the top. Unfortunately it was hard enough to even spot the summit cairn! It’s a boggy route at this time of year and I probably should have left this until summer time but given I was going to Coalisland I decided to bag it right away! As it wasn’t a Bank Holiday up north, there was no one else on the mountain.

That’s High Points 22 and 23 completed. 9 more to do, 2 of them are shared so 8 in effect. Will get a few more during the year but unlikely to complete it all in 2025!

Today showed how dangerous mountain tops can be and the importance of assessing the conditions, proper gear (need new boots) and navigation. 665 metres may not seem very high but weather at this elevation is completely different than when at the base of the climb. The out and back distance is only 5.5kms but even that is a challenge in those conditions.

County High Points & Provincial Finals

The high point for many an ambitious Club footballer is an All Ireland or a Provincial Club medal. Today it was the turn of St Brigid’s, Roscommon and Corofin, Galway to contest the Connacht Final in ‘The Hyde’, a venue I like to visit. First though I had an early start as I wanted to take in the County High Points in counties Longford and Roscommon.

The weather forecast was for frost and ice, but thankfully it was raining at 6.30am this morning when I woke – but the fog was milky thick! Undeterred I headed first for the Longford’s high point, Corn Hill (278 metres) and I was atop that little hill at 9am!

Longford is as flat at a midland accent but it was still a lovely short little ramble. I had just stepped out of the car when the sun burnt off the mist on top of Corn Hill. It’s a pretty little spot, steeped in folklore with its original Irish name Carn Clainne Aodha more revealing about its past. There are two possible passage tombs which have two legends associated with them. One of them is supposedly the burial place of Queen Medbh’s nephew, Forbaide Ferbend. who killed her with his sling loaded with hard cheese while she is bathing in Lough Ree in the Shannon, Co. Roscommon; this avenged Medb’s murder of Clothra, Medb’s sister and Furbaide’s mother! The second legend refers to the Cailleach Béara who dropped stones out of her apron as she flew over the hill. We also bumped into her on Slieve Gullion, County Armagh a few weeks back!

It was a short stop here as I had to make it to the most northerly point of Roscommon, a place wedged in between Sligo and Leitrim for the next County High Point – Seltannasaggart (428 metres), hike it and get back to Dr Hyde Park for the Connacht Final at 1.30pm! The fog was as thick as ever when I came down from Corn Hill and the roads were windy and narrow. At least they were traffic free!

A foggy North Roscommon and Lovely Leitrim is a hard place to eke a living in I’d say! Fields full of rushes, broken stone walls and plenty of rain means only the most resilient of folk can survive winters in these parts! Yet there is something mystical and other worldly about these sodden boggy uplands; ’tis no wonder Oweynagat (Cave of the Cats), Rathcroghan earned the title of the ‘Gate to Hell’ by our Celtic scribes or that tales of Queen Medbh and the epic Táin Bó Cuailnge are set in these eerie West of Ireland landscapes.

There was no break in the fog over in the county of the ‘Sheep Stealers’ and my walk uphill was mostly under a blank white cape of fog. I got the odd glimpse back towards beautiful Lough Allen and Sliabh an Iarainn on the opposite side. I’ve done some great cycling across this area in the past few years; it comes in under the radar for most people, but there are beautiful routes and some outstanding areas of natural beauty and of interest. The Roscommon High Point however is a nondescript pile of rocks, called Seltannasaggart set in the middle of a wind farm, with creepy pylons purring in the foggy dew. It’s only about a 5km out and back walk, though this morning I did little bit more as I couldn’t find the marker for a long time!

It was on to the Connacht Final then and a great win for St Brigid’s, who were by far the better team. I wasn’t surprised, having seen the Galway Final a short while ago – Corofin aren’t the team they were. The tackling by the Brigid’s defenders was really top class – touch tight, got out in front, got a hand in, Contested every high ball – and won them. Allied to that they had pace all over the park and a really good midfield pairing. All in all, another great day of football and hill walking!