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Seefin Mountain Ballyhoura

On Sunday 1st. October the club outing was to the Ballyhoura mountains. We set off at 8.30 and headed to the start near Ardpatrick in Co. Limerick. Here there is a secure monitored car park. Toilets showers changing room tea and coffee are also available. This is also a major mountain biking area the largest in Ireland with 98 klms of trails.
After a quick coffee we took the purple trail which would lead us to Seefin mountain summit at 528 meters. This walk is varied and has some farm tracks, wood land and open mountain. The weather wasn't great and there was some mist and fog. Rain gear was put on and taken off a few times. Towards the top on open mountain is was very windy. We took shelter at the foot of the trig point and had refreshments. Is is said that on a clear day you can see the six counties of Munster from here, but for us it was not to be as a fog brought visibility down to about a hundred meters. While we were sheltering in the lee of the rock a hardy soul sped by in shorts and singlet.
Refreshed we made our way down hill. After some time we entered forestry and here we had another pit stop. We had a group photo taken here. On again we went until we finally arrived back to the starting point. Here we availed of the changing room to change out of our sodden boots and gear.
This was a very enjoyable walk and would be even better without the fog.

After we made our way to the Gallery in Mallow for the customary refreshments and chat which is an
important part of the day out. There were some ambitious suggestions for next year discussed.



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