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Essential Kit for Hiking in Mountain Terrain.

As the seasons turn and spring arrives, we may get tempted to hike higher and further and explore the wonderful mountains around Ireland. Before we do we need to consider some essential kit to take with us into the higher hills. Here is my take on what we should be carrying in our pack when…

Featured Hike – Slieve Donard and the Mourne Mountains.

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…

5 top hikes in the Wicklow Mountains

See our pick of the five top hills to climb in the Wicklow mountains. They are not the five highest, nor the hardest, but instead they offer a range of scenery, conditions and level of difficulty to have something for everyone.  Lugnaquilla The highest mountain in the Wicklow and the highest point in Leinster, Lugnaquilla…

Hill Skills Series – Top Tips for using Walking Poles

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 for Hillwalkers

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’ during Lockdown

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…

Winter Hiking – The Essentials

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…

Featured Hike – Knocknahillion and Letterbreckaun – Maumturks

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…

Mountaintrails Covid-19 pandemic policy – What you need to know

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Mountaintrails will ensure that all events will be carried out in line with the advice from the Irish Government. This will be reviewed in the light of government policy. We will be taking all possible precautions to keep everyone safe whilst participating in our activities. CANCELLATION – In the event…

Featured Hike – Glendalough (Derrybawn and the Spinc).

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…

5 Top Tips for Climbing Lugnaquilla mountain

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. Shaped rather like a large upturned Christmas pudding with 3 large bites taken out of it, there are a number of ways to climb this mountain, all of which…

Featured hike – Galtymore and the Cushnabinnia Horseshoe

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,…

Featured Hike – Mweelrea via the ‘Ramp’

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…

Top Ten things you should know about Ticks

As summer advances ticks are becoming more active, and more outdoor enthusiasts are finding these unpleasant critters embedded in their skin. To understand the importance of avoiding being bitten, here are our Top Ten things you should know about ticks: 1.  Ticks are arachnids, and related to spiders and scorpions. They have a 3-stage life…

Featured Hike – Carlingford Mountain

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…

Featured hike – Scarr – Wicklow Mountains

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…

What do I need to bring on a Mountaintrails guided hike?

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…

Gloves – how to avoid cold hands in the winter mountains

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…

Wind Chill

  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

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…

The Glencorbet Horseshoe, 12 Bens, Connemara

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…

The Twelve Bens, Connemara, a winter excursion

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…