Kanturk Hillwalkers and Mountain Climbers | Blog

On Sunday 25 March the club outing was to Killarney. Our intention was to do Mangerton / Stoompa loop. We set off from town at 09.00 everyone had remembered to put their clocks forward. We arrived at Tooreencormick and parked up. It was a beautiful sunny day and there were a good number of hill walkers about. It’s good to see so many people heading for the hills. Safety being paramount in the club, we had dispatched a member to scout out the terrain earlier in the morning. Due to the previous heavy rain and melting snow, there was a possibility that the Owgarriff river which would have to be crossed after Stoompa might be in flood. The scout was to do the route in reverse and meet us on top of Mangerton. The clubs two way radios were put into action. Leaving the car park we headed off through Cormacks Haggard resplendend in our new snoods courtesy of Flahavan’s. “The perfect food for hillwalkers”. Conditions underfoot were muddy for the first couple hundred meters. We made stead...

In our constant search for new routes and mountains to climb, our outing on Sunday 18/03 took us to east Clare. Moylussa the highest point in County Clare at 532 meters part of the Sliabh Bearnagh range was our destination. After turning off the motorway at Killaloe exit we stopped for some tea / coffee. While we were here the weather took a turn for the worst and there was a snow shower. We considered our options and decided to press on. Passing over the 300 year old bridge we crossed the Shannon and entered Killaloe,birth place of Brian Boru. We took the Scarriff road and parked up at a car park near the entrance to Ballycuggaran wood. Ballycuggaran is named after the O Cuggarans who were an important clan in the court of Brian Boru. Initially this walk is on forest paths and it follows the East Clare way for some time. It’s a fairly steep walk and with the snow fall getting heavier as we gained altitude, we assessed the situation and decided to carry on. After some time the fo...