Kanturk Hillwalkers and Mountain Climbers | Blog

On Sunday 8th September the club walk was in Gougane Barra. We left town at 08.30 on a dry autumnal day. Reaching our destination we parked up and had tea / coffee at the restaurant overlooking the tranquil waters of the lake. We made our way by the lake, before turning north along a narrow road to reach a gate that gave access to the mountain. Conditions underfoot were not great, it was wet and boggy as we started our ascent. There is no defined path here and our aim was to make the crest of the ridge. As we progressed, the ground didn’t get any better in fact it got worse. Coarse grass , covering knee jarring holes and slippery rock. Then there was some rain and in the mist visibility was not great. On a clear day the views would have been worth the hard slog, but not today. After some time we rested up and had some refreshments. Continuing through the inhospitable ground conditions , we trudged along. Eventually our progress was brought to an abrupt halt , as we came to a...

On Saturday we went to Gougane Barra and did a big loop on the mountains around the lake and took over 5 hours. This trip could have been fantastic but for the weather. The cloud and the mist stayed right down on top of us all day long. When we started I think everyone had jackets on but not too far out the same jackets were not long coming back off, as even though it was misty and mucky it was still quite warm and the sweat was beginning to flow very early so all the jackets came off. The conditions were very overcast, foggy, misty and a slight drizzle and you could hardly see a 100 yards in front of you for most of the trip and underfoot it was mucky and with all of this the going was slow as at all times getting the right co-ordinates was high on the list.  The climb itself was not that hard, after about an hour long gradual climb up all the rest is quite easy and almost level but wet ground and high grasses in places can make the walk very tough. Lunchtime :) The pict...