Ben Nevis

July 31st 2012
Attendance:
Anthony Griffin
Anne Griffin
Orla Griffin
Sorcha Griffin

Ben Nevis

Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Nibheis,  is the highest mountain in the British Isles. Standing at 1,344 metres (4,409 ft) above sea level, it is located at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Lochaber area of the Scottish Highlands, close to the town of Fort William.
The mountain is a popular destination attracting an estimated 100,000 ascents a year, around three-quarters of which use the Pony Path from Glen Nevis.  The 700-metre (2,300 ft) high cliffs of the north face are among the highest cliffs in the United Kingdom, providing classic scrambles and rock climbs of all difficulties for climbers and mountaineers.

We arrived in Fort William on July 30th 2012, having spent a lovely couple of days in Edinburgh. We  had booked hostel accomodation and were pleasently surprised with the Smiddy Bunkhouse at the Snowgoose Mountain Centre located about 5km outside Fort William. Great place.

We started our climb of Ben Nevis on Tuesday July 31st 2012 at approx. 10am. We were advised to park at the Ben Nevis Inn. We got one of the last car parking spaces here and set off on our climb.
The weather was absolutely fantastic. We chose the best day of the week for our climb - a clear blue sky and temperature of approx. 20 deg celsius. In Scotland!!!!!

It took us about one and a half hours to reach the lake. It's really beautiful at this point and we took a nice break here.

The mountain isn't very steep at any point but we found the climb very long. It took us four and a half hours to reach the summit. The last hour of this was fairly difficult because we were getting pretty tired. However, we did it, reaching the summit at around 2pm. The views were really stunning all the way up and were amazing from the top. The temperature dropped at the top and there was unmelted snow in parts!!

We ate most of our food and took a good rest at the summit. It was a bit cold though for hanging around for too long. We started the descent feeling elated and refreshed.

The descent went well at first and we reached the lake fairly easily. After this however, we all seemed to get very tired and our knees were beginning to ache. The large stone steps and loose shale made it difficult on the feet and slowed us down. Breaks became more frequent. We were really glad to see the Ben Nevis Inn three and a half hours later.

 

Orla and Sorcha had gone ahead of us on the descent and held a table at the Ben Nevis Inn. We had some much needed refreshments. Lovely cold beer / local ale and great food. What a great day!!

Mount Brandon

Attendance: Anthony Griffin
Anne Griffin
Cian Griffin
Orla Griffin
Sorcha Griffin

Situated on the northern edge of the Dingle Peninsula, Brandon is the second
highest mountain in Ireland. According to legend St Brendan lived on or near the
summit for a time, and the mountain is named for him. The remains of a sixth
century cell near the summit suggests some truth in the legend. On a
clear day the summit commands spectacular views right across the west coast, but
sitting on the edge of the Atlantic coast, clear days are very few and far
between. There are three summits, the main one at 952m, Coimin na gCnamh at 891,
and Brandon Peak at 840. There are several main routes up the mountain, two of
them very well travelled. The main tourist route would be from the West
from An Baile Breac (Ballybrack). This takes the climber up a gentle slope to
the summit and is little more than a nice walk, although sometimes high wind
coming up off the Atlantic can cause problems.The serious hiker might
approach from the North, leaving the Dingle Way and walking over the full ridge,
starting with Piaras Mor (748m). I have never walked this route so cannot

comment on it.For me the best route is from the East. Beginning inthe
village of Cloghan, or if you prefer there is a car park further up at An
Fhaiche. This route includes quite a steep incline involving some hands and
knees scrambling to reach the top and is not recommended for casual walkers. If
you continue the route to take in Brandon Peak it involves walking along the
knife-edge Ridge, with quite impressive drops away on both sides.

Mount Brandon

Keeper Hill

 

 

 

Attendance:

 

• Anthony Griffin
• Anne Griffin
• Orla Griffin
• Sorcha Griffin

 

Keeper Hill is situated in the Slieve Felim mountain range in North Tipperary and is just 15km east of Limerick City. Keeper Hill is the highest mountain in the Shannon area and the 117th highest in Ireland. The ‘hill’ is wrapped in a forestry area of 3,300 hectares. The 300 hectare summit is designated as a National Heritage Area, considered important for the habitats present or species of plants and animals whose habitat needs protection. This loop overlaps with a short section of the Slieve Felim Way - a 30km waymarked route which travels from Murroe in County Limerick to Silvermines in County Tipperary. En-route it passes through the small but pleasant village of Toor and onward across the shoulder of Keeper Hill. While the loop explores the lower shoulders of Keeper Hill, the ‘hardy’ walker will enjoy incorporating the ‘trek’ to the summit. This loop walk is part of the National Looped Walks and is marked using the standard purple National Looped Walk directional arrows.

 

 

 

 

Our experience of Keeper Hill

 

We did the Keeper Hill trek and Ballyhourigan Loop walk in Co. Tipperary on the Saturday of the October bank holiday weekend 2011. The weather was overcast, but not too wet. We parked the car at point A on the looped walk trail in Doonane Woods. This was at about 12.45pm. We followed the red arrows on the trail. This took us up the left side of the loop on a steady incline. The mist got very heavy at about half way up and visibility was extremely poor. It was not possible to see more than 10 feet in front of us. The climb was very enjoyable, despite this. When we reached the summit of Keeper Hill we really couldn’t see anything. It was very cold and wet. We took a couple of rushed photographs and then we started our descent immediately and waited until we found a sheltered spot to have our picnic. We were fairly hungry at this point. The descent was easy apart from the knees hurting a bit. It took four hours to complete the walk and the last leg of it felt pretty long. Great satisfaction though, when we finished it, and caught sight of the car. We drove back towards Limerick and had great seafood chowder, and other refreshments, in Finnegan’s in Annacotty. A great end to a great day!

 

 

Croagh Patrick

Attendance:

• Anthony Griffin
• Anne Griffin
• Cian Griffin
• Orla Griffin
• Sorcha Griffin

Croagh Patrick comes from the Irish Cruach Phádraig meaning "(Saint) Patrick's stack". It is known locally as "the Reek", a Hiberno-English word for a "rick" or "stack".[1] In pagan times it was known as Cruachán Aigle, being mentioned by that name in sources such as Cath Maige Tuired,[2] Buile Shuibhne,[3] The Metrical Dindshenchas,[4] and the Annals of Ulster entry for the year 1113.[5] Cruachán is simply a diminutive of cruach "stack", but it is not certain what Aigle means. It is either from the Latin loan aquila "eagle" (more usually aicile or acaile)[6] or a person's name.[4][7] In addition to its literal meaning, cruach in the pagan name may also have some connection with Crom Cruach.

Our experience of climbing Croagh Partick

As we drove towards the Reek, a collective gasp was heard, in the car, as we caught our first sight of what we were about to attempt to climb. It looked fairly steep. We arrived at the car park at 12.30. We were hungry after a long drive from Barefield and had some of our picnic before starting the climb. It rained heavily as we drove to Westport but it cleared a little when we got there. We set off, with sticks in hand and took it easy enough on the first part of the climb. Many others were climbing the Reek on that day, but it wasn’t too crowded. The going got a bit rough about one third of the way up. A fairly strong wind whipped up and shoved us around at various points. Sometimes we just had to stand still until it passed. As we got to about half way up there was an incredible hurricane blowing. We had to take shelter behind a temporary shelter. We (and many other climbers) had to crouch down behind this shelter to avoid being bombarded with a very high wind and grit blowing into our eyes. A heavy, misty rain was now also falling and it looked like we would have to turn back. We then heard other climbers saying that they were going to go for it and that once we got away from this wind tunnel, things would be better. So, we went for it and headed on up the Reek. The climb got much tougher from here on. The older climbers (me!) were definitely under pressure. At last we reached the summit, had our picnic and at this stage were fairly wet. The mist was too thick at the top to get a good view, but the satisfaction of reaching the summit made up for this. We started our decent and found this pretty hard on the knees. The sticks were invaluable. By the time we were about half way down we were all soaked through and only the Gortex raingear survived the ordeal. The rest of us were being dragged down with very wet clothes and boots. We were very glad to get to the bottom – approximately 4 hours and 15 minutes later. The feet were pretty sore and tired at this point. We, luckily, had brought full changes of clothes and used the ugly, cold toilets to put these on. We had a great meal in Westport as a reward for our achievement and felt very self-satisfied. Climbers whom we spoke to on that day said that it was one of the worst days they had ever witnessed on the Reek. Next time maybe we will aim for a bright dry day to do this. The aches and pains subsided after about two weeks!!