Ireland

As the seasons turn and autumn arrives, the daylight hours decrease and the weather turns wetter and colder. It’s even more important, therefore, to carry the right kit with us when we are heading to the mountains. Good supportive footwear and effective waterproof clothing are essential, but what else should we pack? Here is my…

Slieve Donard at 850 metres is the highest peak in Northern Ireland and one of the ‘4-Peaks’ (the highest points in each of Irelands four provinces). It’s a very popular mountain and is most often climbed from Newcastle via the Glen River path. This is the shortest and quickest ascent of the mountain and is…

Many hikers use walking poles when out in the hills, and with good reason.  They help maintain balance, reduce the impact on our knees hips and ankles, (particularly in descent and when carrying a heavy pack), and are a useful support on slippery ground and when negotiating a river crossing.Using poles will also give you…

Layering, in a mountaineering or hillwalking context, refers to the principle of wearing layers of clothes to maintain comfort, dryness and warmth when being active outdoors. A good layering system would involve a baselayer, worn next to the skin for comfort, a midlayer to provide insulation, and an outer layer to keep out the wind…

Staying ‘hill-fit’ is a guest blog by Kathryn Fitzpatrick – Freelance Guide. Unless you are lucky enough to live within 5km of the hills, getting out hiking is not an option for the majority of us at the moment, however staying ‘hill-fit’ doesn’t always have to include the hills. Check out a few tips below…

With some snow already present in the Scottish Highlands it looks like winter is about to arrive to our mountains and bring with it the inherent problems of poor visibility, cold weather and challenging terrain. To ensure you don’t get caught out when venturing into the winter hills it’s time to prepare for the harsher…

The Maumturks lie to the east of the 12 Bens, on the far side of Lough Inagh, in Connemara. Like the Bens they are made from tough quartzite rock that weathers to a pale hard gravel and which holds very little vegetation on the upper slopes where soils are very thin or non-existent. Like the…

Glendalough sits in the Wicklow Mountains are a range of granite hills a short drive south of Dublin on the east coast of Ireland. Shaped by the glaciers that covered this land more than 12,000 years ago, they are now a series of rounded mountains and ‘U’ shaped valleys that rise to a high point…

Lugnaquilla is the highest mountain in the Wicklow Mountains National Park, and at 925 metres it is the highest point in Ireland outside of Co. Kerry. It can be a difficult mountain to navigate in poor visibility. Shaped rather like a large upturned Christmas pudding with 3 large bites taken out of it, there are…

Time: 6.5 hours         Distance: 13km        Height gain: 1040 metres Galtymore is the highest inland mountain in Ireland and at 919 metres, is the 14th highest in the country. It sits squarely on the border between Tipperary and Limerick and forms a majestic centre piece for a tough horseshoe hike that takes in three great mountains,…

Time: 6.5 hours         Distance: 13km        Height gain: 900 metres The Mweelrea Massif encompasses five tops, aligned around an imposing horseshoe, and with Mweelrea (814m) at its’ centre. Mweelrea sits in the southwest corner of Co. Mayo, on the northern side of Killary Fjord, where its imposing crags dominate the skyline. It is the highest peak…

As summer advances ticks are becoming more active, and more outdoor enthusiasts are finding these unpleasant critters embedded in their skin. Ticks are arachnids, and related to spiders and scorpions. They have a 3-stage life cycle, larvae, nymph and adult. At each stage they need a blood meal to grow, ticks feed on small mammals,…

It is entirely possible, as you are rushing up the M1 from Dublin towards the Mourne Mountains, to completely miss the magnificent hills of the Cooley peninsula. If you were to look up from the road between Dundalk and Newry you might see the wooded slopes of Black Mountain on your right, but you would miss…

Scarr mountain, (the name derives from ‘Sgurr’ which means a rocky ridge or peak), sits on the eastern edge of the Wicklow Mountains National Park, some 5 kilometres north of the better known and much visited scenic valley of Glendalough. In contrast Scarr offers a much quieter experience. It too has a magnificent glacial ribbon…

Mountaintrails hiking tours are devised to take you off of the normal routes and into the wilder and more rugged parts of the Irish mountains not often visited by other tour companies. They are all fairly demanding and need some thought as to the clothing and equipment required, so what do you need to bring…

Regular mountain hikers and climbers will know that keeping your hands warm in the colder months is essential. Cold hands can lead to pain and discomfort, and leave the fingers numb and without feeling. In this state it is difficult to open zips and buckles, or perform the most basic tasks. This is a potentially…

  What is ‘Wind Chill’?   The core temperature of a human body is around 37C. The air around us is usually cooler than this and so we lose body heat, particularly from exposed skin. Wind chill is the term that describes this heat loss, and the increased effects of low temperatures and wind. When…

The mountains of south Mayo and north Galway straddle the border between the two counties, and here, on the rugged Atlantic coast they meet in the vicinity of Killary Harbour, the only fjord in Ireland. South of the fjord the mountains of the Twelve Bens and the Maumturks dominate, their pale grey quartzite crags a…

Glencorbet, at the northern end of the 12 Bens range in Connemara, Co. Galway, does not immediately inspire like it’s southern counterpart, the Glencoaghan horseshoe. And whilst on a sunny day Glencoaghan will attract many hikers, you can find relative solitude to the north. Glencorbet, like all the glens here, was formed by scouring glacial…

2012 was one of the wettest years on record in Ireland, and particularly so in the west, so this February it seemed like a good idea to head to Connemara and see for ourselves. Not as daft as it sounds, as February can be a cold, dry and sunny month, great for long views and…