Category: Ireland
Three days of discovery from Cork City: Excursions to West Cork, South Tipperary and Waterford
26th December 2024 After Killarney had given so much, Cork had a hard act to follow. My reasoning for splitting my August 2022 between two places was to curtail accommodation costs; even in the midst of a tourism recovery, Killarney still got busy and very expensive at the weekends. The scheme also allowed me to see parts of Ireland beyond Kerry.
The contrasts between Cork and Killarney were more than apparent on this trip. Now that I have a place in the former, they resonate more intensely. Killarney has mountains and lakes on its doorstep, while Cork feels a bit further away from such delights. It is true that it has some coastline in its favour and greenways that follow that around Cork Harbour, as industrialised as that can feel in places. In summary, added effort is needed to get going to other spaces, especially when you have to travel from the suburbs to the city centre first.
With a city centre hotel base, that was less of an issue, so I got going to numerous places away from Cork city during my August 2022 sojourn. Such was the lure out from the city that even nearby Blarney Castle had to await a trip to Cork during February of this year before I ventured there. Cobh and Kinsale did better than this, and Bantry and Whiddy Island became the representatives of West Cork, a place of which I saw more during last summer. Venturing even further afield, I got as far as Clogheen and the Knockmealdown Mountains in south Tipperary.
Much like my treatment of the Killarney portion of this Irish escapade, I have given each full day its own trip report. That means that there is one each for the day around Bantry and Whiddy Island, another for the hike around Clogheen and the Knockmealdown Mountains, and the last full day spent traipsing around the Corkonian hinterland. Only recently did I get to realise that all this rambling in 2024 set the scene for much of what I had savoured in Ireland.
Once any gaps were filled this year, it let to a kind of inactive funk from which I am starting to emerge. Further Irish explorations could need new ideas. Meanwhile, a spot of brain hacking is in order to set me going again. Ironically, a few disappointing days could be what it takes to reignite motivation for me. We human beings can work in some very odd ways.
Travel Arrangements
Starting from Killarney, the Expressway service 40 conveyed me to Cork, from where I could embark on other day trips. Return journeys on Bus Éireann services 236, 245 and 226 facilitated trips to Bantry, Clogheen and Kinsale, respectively. A local passenger ferry got me between Bantry and Whiddy island, while a return journey on an Irish Rail commuter service got me to Cobh for a brief evening visit.
The return to Macclesfield from Cork used a few modes of travel and an overnight stay in Manchester city centre; the latter avoided some of the heat that was building and helped when a flight got delayed. A rail journey got me from Cork to Heuston Station in Dublin, from where a journey on a Dublin Express coach carried me to Dublin Airport for a Ryanair flight to Manchester. The latter was heavily delayed yet a train journey got me from Manchester airport to Manchester Piccadilly station. After spending the night in Manchester (finding the hotel took a little time, even if it were near to the train station), rail services conveyed me to Macclesfield to finish what I had made into a two-day journey.
Adding ideas from The Hike Life books
23rd December 2024 It happens in the last quarter of every year: a whole slew of appealing books with appealing presentation and photography appears in bookshops in the run-up to Christmas. Last year, this included one called The Hike Life by Rozanna Purcell, and a copy found its way into my possession. As award-winning as it is, that needs to be consulted for hiking ideas around Ireland, now that I need them.
The story has not ended there, for another one appeared this year with a similar title: The Hike Life: 50 More to Explore. Now that I have somewhere to base myself in the country that easier to reach without a car and perhaps easier to maintain too, my brother got the idea of sending a copy of this year's book among other things.
Apparently, there is an outdoor enthusiast community underneath this effort too, yet it is the combination of appealing photography and route descriptions that closes the sale for this package. If there is any criticism about the format, it might be the lack of maps and any advice regarding the use of public transport. The latter is tricky in a book anyway, since the details change all the while, so it works best with a magazine setting. The former still would make route appraisals a lot easier.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of useful advice at the start of the book that gets repeated from last year's volume; these books clearly do not depend on each other. Maybe that is just as well, since the target audience may be those who normally do not frequent Ireland's wilder places. Nevertheless, the second book does refer to walks in the first where appropriate.
What needs to happen next is to make a list of the hikes and get out maps or a mapping app (more likely web based for this, though I am a heavy user of mobile apps too) and get pencilling in some ideas. Given the attractive package of the source material at a time when there is no Irish walking magazine, it is a pleasure to have something like this to hand. The first book is not to hand right now because it does not live where I am writing these words, yet that needs to be plundered too.
Expansion
21st December 2024 One activity that I have ongoing at the moment is an expansion of what has been the Cork city album in my online photo gallery. The cause of this is the increase in time around the place since 2022. Then, I spent part of an Irish break based in the city, though, in reality, I was travelling around back then. That took me to nearby Kinsale and Cobh as part of a single day's explorations.
2024 has seen a major upsurge in the amount of time that I spent in the place. Thus, it is now time to include nearby spots like Blarney, Fota, Cobh and Crosshaven. Ballincollig Regional Park could cause that area to get represented, too. Thus far, the scenes do not look so dramatic, but there are more to come, so things could build out from where they are at the time of writing.
The West Cork album is another that could grow after the visits there during the last few years. Each of the main Atlantic peninsulas have seen my footfall this year, and there are reasons to return, like following the Beara Way from Castletownbere as far as Adrigole. The scenery has the drama to draw me back after a muddy, soggy hike from Adrigole to Glengarriff. Staying overnight in the latter when there is a glorious summer evening could be a special experience that cannot be overlooked. Other places like Kinsale or Drimoleague could lure me their way just yet. There are new photos to be added, and more may come for future escapades in the area.
While the Kerry album is large as things stand, there are more vistas to add to it. Repeat visits to Killarney increase the supply, as does explorations of the Dingle Peninsula in May and June 2022. Such is the quality of the county's scenery, that it is virtually impossible not to get something from a visit to the place, especially when the weather is on your side.
The counties of Clare, Tipperary and Waterford could feature in a new and single album. The photos are there, and they show often overlooked gems in the Irish landscape, like what lies around Lough Derg and the Knockmealdown Mountains. All this is a far cry from things were when I began this online enterprise. For a long time, the Irish albums were the poor relation of their Scottish, English and even Welsh counterparts. That appears to be changing, so long as time is found to make the required additions.
An Impromptu Venture: Going through the Gap of Dunloe and around by the Black Valley
20th December 2024 After the energetic tramping of the preceding days, my mind was fixed on an easier day. Though the morning began with cloudy skies, I was determined to make something of the day. My choice became the Gap of Dunloe, somewhere that I only glimpsed from a passing car thirty years before. One particular vista from the narrow valley was immortalised by John Hinde in a jigsaw puzzle that I completed when I was younger. The colours may have been embellished by hand, yet the scene centred on a bridge surrounded by steep slopes, and perhaps with a jaunting car in there as well, comes to my mind's eye as I write these words.
While much of my traipsing around Killarney in 2022 linked me to family outings from thirty years before, the day around the Gap of Dunloe and beyond was where this meme particularly took hold. It echoed a similar meme that took me back twenty years in Scotland. In the main, the latter linked solitary experiences, while the former supplanted communal ones with solitary counterparts. There are times when it is easier to imbibe your surroundings with no one else to distract you. At least, that is how it appears to work for me, anyway.
Again, being a year too early for improved bus services again comes to mind. The last bus of the day between Beaufort Bridge and Killarney did not leave so much of the day for being around the Gap of Dunloe given the time of my outbound journey. Services between Killorglin and Killarney cover more of the day these times, especially since route 279 complements Expressway route 40 by going via Killorglin between Tralee and Killarney. The limitation of a bus timetable played on my mind at the head of the gap, even if I could have made the return leg of my walk in the available time.
Between all that, I gained much from clouds breaking in the sky over my head. Quiet lanes led me from the bus stop past Beaufort and some ogham stones to reach Kate Kearney's Cottage, where horse and carriage tour providers had a terminus. My rambling involved sharing with others using various forms of transport: walking, cycling, motoring and equine. Even so, the unpeopled scenes that you see above were as they came out of the camera, something worth saying in an era when distraction removal has been made so much easier by the advent of Generative AI.
Such is the list of lakes passed on my way that the words "Pater Noster" come to mind in their geographical sense; the string of lakes are akin to beads on the string of a set of rosary beads, thus gaining the Latin words for Our Father, a pivotal prayer in Christianity. Going south, the list builds like this: Coosaun Lough, Cushnavally Lake, Augur Lake and Black Lough, each a "bead" on the "string" of the River Loe. All added interest as I went on my way, as much as the steep slopes rising around me.
Some were walls of rock, offering a sound mirror for passing tourists and their guides. While the delight of hearing echoes may marvel some, the pursuit runs counter to my desire for quietude. Thankfully, I only witnessed this happening lower down the valley and relinquished that experience to encounter the actual delights that sated me.
Inasmuch as it appeared that the sunshine would carry on for the rest of the day, that was not to be. It was as I neared the head of the gap that a passing rain shower caught me; it was as if it were trying to steer me into sticking with my original plan. However, the sight of a sign welcoming visitors to the Black Valley sunk my adhesion to that idea. Though Killarney was around twenty kilometres away on foot and I had only trail shoes rather than hiking boots, the prospect was one that I was not to surrender. Travelling under one's own power adds a certain amount of security anyway; all is under your control as far as your physical condition allows.
As the shower faded, I descended into a valley where I had not passed for around thirty years. This time, I was on foot and could soak in my surroundings, scenery, ambience and all else while following another section of the Kerry Way. It is challenging to do that so completely while travelling in a motor vehicle, as I was on the previous occasion in the area. The locality's church got a visit when I stopped a while on the way to Lord Brandon's Cottage. Cars were about as well horse and carriage tours, and I marvelled at where the former came from, especially when surprised by one that was behind me. It was not as if I expected a small convoy to pass me.
Though the boreen was not without its attendant delights, I was happy to leave all encounters with other traffic after me, at least for a while. Sadly, the sun ducked behind clouds around Lord Brandon's Cottage to foil attempts at photographic capture of the bridge across the Gearhameen River. In time, amends were made as I approached and passed Upper Lake on the way to Derrycunihy and Galway's Bridge. Though others were about, much was quiet too, and all was relished.
Crossing the N72 got me onto a track leading towards where I had been the previous day. Going straight ahead instead of turning left for Esknamucky Glen would have landed me back in Kenmare again. Since Killarney was where I was headed, turning left and retracing eastbound steps was my lot. If I had wondered about my trail shoes dealing with a rough path, I need not have worried. Merrell build their wares well, as I had plenty of cause to discover during 2022.
That small cascade where I could not linger the previous day became a lunching stop for me. Humanity and civilisation felt very far away in the blissful spot. Though overcast skies lay over me, that did nothing to take from the respite offered by this uncelebrated and unpeopled spot. Once I got going again, I was not minded to once more climb Torc Mountain after what the previous evening brought me while I was up there. Sticking to the trail sufficed, and I descended by a busy Torc Waterfall. If I was hoping for the place to be quiet and unfrequented at the time of day that I was passing, it was not to be.
Another crossing of the N72 ensued, this time for a passage by Muckross House and Muckross Friary that had me being more present with the exercise. It offered a chance to make amends for any self-perceived slight at how I passed through the place the previous evening. There was a chance to pause at the ruined friary too, so there was no rushing. Savouring the delights of a summer evening was what it was all about, particularly when the clouds again parted to release more invigorating sunshine.
That approach pervaded the rest of the way, too. Going via Maurice O'Donoghue Park adjusted my course, so I ventured through Knockreer for what I though might be the last time. As I was moving with less fatigue than 24 hours previously, I wondered if impromptu long distance walking with lighter footwear was paying its dividends. An impulsive decision had granted me more than I would have dared to seek; the length of the route seemed overly ambitious during a spell of planning. This was a day that was memorable in so many good ways.
Kerry Way and Torc Mountain: A Highland Trek from Kenmare to Killarney
19th December 2024 In one respect, my longer stay in Killarney was a year too early. 2023 brought an enhanced bus service between Killarney and Kenmare. That would have made for an earlier start along the main hike of my second full day in Kerry: the section of the Kerry Way between Kenmare and Killarney. The later start may have meant that I had longer around Killarney before setting off, yet the long Irish summer evenings meant that there was no major impact in the end.
If I was too early for making use of better bus services, I was optimally timed for avoiding overtourism. A stroll through Knockreer this past July brought that home to me. While it might have been a later arrival from Cork that put me in the time slot for hotel guests being conveyed on horse and carriage tours by jarveys, I was left with the impression that jarveys owed nothing to passing walkers and cyclists. Convoys of them were going my way, and it did not feel very comfortable at all. The 2022 forays avoided all that in a world only slowly emerging from the pandemic tourism nadir.
Unless I have some business to do, I tend not to loiter around Irish towns if I can avoid doing so. That was how it went for me in Kenmare, so I set to finding the route of the Kerry Way and ascending a back road leading unyieldingly uphill from the town. As it did so, I was treated to ever expanding views of Kenmare River and nearby Beara Peninsula on any rest breaks that were needed. The quietude of my surroundings was a marked counterpoint to extensive commercial business ongoing in the town that I left behind me.
Not many others passed me in the opposite direction as I ventured further into the hills. As I did so, it was what surrounded me took up my attention in place of what lay behind me. Gradients also eased to make for less demanding progress along the boreen. It was as if I were passing through such an emerald idyll past which it was rude to rush. Many photography stops ensued as I closed in on Peakeen Mountain and Knockanaguish.
Leaving tarmacked boreens behind me, I took to the gravelled track leading me between Peakeen Mountain and Knockanaguish. It was hereabouts that the skies clouded to limit photography, and a rain shower overtook me to provide the only wetting of the day. Nevertheless, it soon passed to let me imbibe the delights of the bucolic surroundings. It really was special to have such a place deserted and to allot me one of the best lunching stops that I have ever enjoyed. That Windy Gap was not living up to its name made the experience even better.
After that elevated lunching spot, a descent was in order on a track leading to Galway's Bridge and Derrycunihy. However, that was not the direction to be following for Killarney, so I turned right to ascend to Esknamucky Glen; the name of the glen means place of the pigs in Irish (Eisc na Muicí). Before getting, someone going the other way asked for directions to Lady's View, an inquiry that surprised me. A consultation of the map revealed that they were not so misplaced, though a walk along the N72 did not strike me as anyone's idea of pleasure.
If I was expecting a gravel track all the way through Esknamucky Glen, disappointment would have been my lot. Since the surface of the trail is at times uneven along the lower slopes of Cromaglan Mountain, I was glad to be wearing boots. The aforementioned hill might make for a pleasing outing, especially after I opted not to reach its summit, and it is far from being the highest in the area by a long shot.
Only for someone else already being there, I might have dawdled near a small lake and an attendant waterfall on an off-trail break. It would have been well-placed after all the care with foot placement that preceded it. Instead, I made for the track that brought the idea of following the Old Kenmare Road section of the Kerry Way to my notice in the first place.
That was on a claggy day trip to Killarney from Tralee the previous June. Then, I made my getaway from a human throng that centred on Muckross Road to reach the top of Torc Mountain, despite the lack of any views because of the low cloud base. My passing the same hill in better conditions meant that I could not decide against making another ascent, even after the ups and downs of coming all that way from Kenmare.
The added exertions were amply rewarded. Some Americans making their descent shared their astonishment at what they saw; the word "awesome" got used. As overused as that term might be, the panoramic views that I had missed on the earlier encounter were all there to be savoured. All of Killarney's lakes lay below, from Upper Lake to Muckross Lake to Lough Leane, along with Lough Guitane near Glenflesk and nestled beneath Mangerton and its neighbouring hills. This was a spot on which to linger, yet there was a good distance to walk to get to Killarney, and I needed to get going. That would have put paid to any designs on reaching the lower west top of the hill, should they ever had existed.
Conscious of time, I made my descent over boardwalk and pitched path, hardly a great combination for scurrying downhill when one's fear of tumbling takes control. Once on the track below, I rejected the prospect of a descent by Torc Waterfall for a gentler gravelled, and later tarmacked, one following the course of the Old Kenmare Road before crossing the N72 into Muckross.
By this stage, my recollection is that things had degenerated to a sort of zombie trot. Fatigue was to blame at the time, though I now wonder if time also was of the essence. Whatever was the combination of causes, it felt rude to be scurrying past Muckross Friary in the state of mind that I had entered by then. After travelling several more kilometres, I was back at my accommodation, ready for a good night's rest after an often stunning day.
