Sunday, 30 October 2011

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!