Sunday
Hikes March/April 2005
HIKE PROGRAMME |
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MEET: Burgh Quay
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DEPART: Sundays 10.00 am
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COST: Private bus. €10
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Date |
Route
Description |
Distance |
Leader
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Mar 6th |
Introductory Hike: Circuit of Glenbride Route: Forest Entrance (GR 031 037) – Glenbride Hamlet -
Silsean - Moanbane - Billy Byrnes Gap - Mullaghcleevaun -Glassnagollum Brook
- Glenbride Hamlet |
14km |
Philip Roche |
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Mar 13th
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Route:Track/Road (Grid Ref: 052 858) - Farbrega -
Aghavannagh Mountain - Lybagh - Toorboy Mountain - Road Walk -Carrig Mountain
- Keadeen Mountain -Rostyduff Forest Track - Dwyer McAllister Cottage
Carpark. |
18m/ 850m |
Peter O’Toole |
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Mar 20th |
Route: Troopertown Forest Entrance - Troopertown
Hill - Clara Bridge - |
18m/ 500m |
Frank O’Rourke |
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Mar 24th -28th |
Easter Trip
to recon Beacons |
Various |
Jim
Barry
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Apr 3rd |
Introductory
Hike Route: Barravore - Fraughan Rock Glen -
Lugnaquillia - Corrignasleggaun - Caraway stick – Drumgoff. |
17km/ 800m |
Ita
O’Hanlon
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Apr 10th |
Route: Hell Kettle Bridge - Church mt. – Corriebracks -
Lobawn - Cavanagh’s gap - Wexford gap - Table Mt. Table track - Stranahely
Wood - Knickeen Ford. |
19km/ 850m |
Brendan
Magee
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Apr 17th |
Route: Dwyer McAllister’s Cottage Car park - Rostyduff -
Keadeen Mt. – Ballinabarney Gap - Ballinfoyle - Ballineddan - Sliabh Meain -
Banana Road - Fentons Pub. |
19km/ 710m |
Gerry
Walsh
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HIKE
LEADERS If any member is interested in leading a hike, please contact either:
Tom
Kenny Email: tomk2003@yahoo.ie
Philip Roche
Email: philip.roche@boimail.com
WALKING STICKS In the interest of safety and comfort
please keep the pointed end of your walking stick covered, especially when
travelling on the bus.
General
Hike Notes
PARTICIPATION Mountaineering
is an activity with a danger of personal injury or death. Participants should
be aware of and accept these risks. People who take part in our club activities
do so at their own risk and are responsible for their own actions and
involvement.
SUNDAY HIKES
Participants on Sunday Hikes must be a member of An Óige Hillwalkers Club. If
you are not a member of the Club, but are considering joining, we invite you to
participate on our monthly Introductory Hikes.
INTRODUCTORY
HIKES An Introductory Hike is organised once per month for aspirant members.
Participants on these hikes must be a member of An Óige.
CO-ORDINATION
Tickets are given out on Sundays to ensure that participants reserve a bus
place as they arrive.
LEADER The leader has
the right to refuse anyone who is not adequately equipped (e.g., without appropriate boots, rainwear, food, torch, hat,
gloves, etc). The leader may alter the route from that described in the
program. The leader sets the pace of the hike and walkers are expected to obey
the leader’s instructions at all times.
TORCH During
winter months it is essential to bring a (head) torch on all Sunday hikes.
Check your batteries / bulb.
ENVIRONMENT Try to reduce the erosion and widening
of trails, e.g. do not walk on the edge of worn tracks; walk through the centre
of the original track or go several meters into the scruff where the ground is
untrodden, walking parallel to but not on the track.
LITTER Litter
is unsightly and dangerous to animals. Even bio-degradable items like orange
peels and banana skins take years to disappear. Bring all your litter home and
try to include at least one extra item from each day out. Do not bury litter –
animals will dig it up.
Easter
Weekend in Brecon Beacons
If you haven’t
booked already, hard luck! You’re way too late! Even the waiting list has a
waiting list!
(Just like the
hospitals only healthier!)
If you have booked, remember all outstanding monies €150 must be paid to An Óige Head Office by February 25th!
Weekend Walking Itinerary to include:
Black
Mountains: Bannau Sir Gear(Picws Du), Fan Brycheiniog.
Brecon
Beacons:Cribyn, Peny y Fan
Black
Mountains(East Region):Waun Fach,Pen y Gadair Fawr
Brecon
Beacons Waterfall Country
Low
Level walking facilitated at each of the above locations
Social
Events
British
Ordnance Survey Maps: 1:50.000 Landranger Series Sheet 160&161
Bring: Suitable Walking Boots, Winter
Rainwear & Clothing/Towels/Toilet Gear/ Flask/Torch/ First Aid
Kit/Camera/Binoculars/ Valid An Óige Membership Card, English (Not Northern Irish) Sterling for incidental
purchases.
Meeting Place/Time: Stena Line Departure
Terminal, Dunlaoghaire at 10.15am
Departure: Holy
Thursday from Dunlaoghaire at 11am sharp on HSS Stena Line Ferry to Holyhead.
Then onward by bus to South Wales.
Return: Monday
evening from Holyhead on 6.30pm Ferry after bus journey from Brecon area to
arrive back in Dunlaoghaire at 8.20pm approx.
Day Trip
to the Mournes
Keep this date free: Sunday
May 1st!
This will be an extended day trip to the Mourne
Mountains, leaving Dublin at 9.30a.m.
There will be a stop for an evening meal on the
return trip.
Further details in next
programme.
Club
Travel
Welcoming in the New Year - 10 go walking in the Peaks
The post Christmas period can be a bit dull, so what
better way to spend it than go walking? For many years, Sean Dunne and Dave
Rooney led a trip to the UK for the New Year.
I have taken this task on in recent years, visiting either the Lakes or
Peak District. 2003 saw us in the
beautiful surroundings of Hartington Hall YH, in the Peaks. We has a rather surreal experience on New
Year’s Eve, with a snowball fight in a blizzard outside a local pub against
some locals, one of whom was dressed as a bishop!
We visited the Peaks again in 2004, this time staying
in Edale YH for 4 nights and Manchester for 1 night. Myself, Stephen, Alma, Fiona, Liam, Paul and Jenny flew to Manchester
on the early flight on 27 December and took the trans-Pennine train to Edale
village, from where we had a somewhat dodgy journey due to ice on the roads, to
the hostel 1 ½ miles away. We met John
in the train station, he had taken the boat over. Later we picked up Steven and Christina who had taken a later
flight over. We were accompanied on the
journey in the dark by the thundering sound of suitcase wheels on the road. English hostel are excellent bases for
hikes. All meals are provided, dorms
are comfortable and there are good drying and boot washing facilities. In
short, a real home from home. A great
advantage is that walks are literally door-to-door.
The weather proved to be quite varied with high winds,
some snow and rain, but generally, it was excellent for walking. Edale is at the start of the Pennine Way,
which wends its way 268 miles north to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland. The hostel itself is a rambling old manor
house set in the middle of the Countryside built for the Bachelor family in the
19th Century. Walks can be
done in all directions, giving great variety.
I use the OS 1:25,000 series maps, of which there are two for the Peaks,
the Dark and White Peaks. Tracks are
shown as green dotted lines on the maps and these are so well walked on that
they are usually very evident on the ground.
You frequently encounter wooden signposts, which is quite a novelty from
an Irish perspective.
The first day was somewhat wild and stormy, but with
good visibility and bright sunshine most of the day. We headed east and soon found ourselves on a Roman road getting
occasional glimpses of two large reservoirs below us. We reached Win Hill Pike at 462m and headed south-west to the
Hope Valley. We avoided a heavy
downpour by having our lunch in Hope railway station. We then began the long ascent to Lose Hill, 476m and avoided
another downpour by sheltering in a barn, oh for such luxuries in Wicklow! Win and Lose Hill are reputedly named after
the winners and losers in a battle fought long ago who gathered on their
respective hill! We followed the ridge
walk overlooking the hostel to Edale village, where we refreshed ourselves in
the somewhat grandly named Rambler Country House Hotel.
The following day we headed up the ridge overlooking
the hostel and down via very muddy tracks to Castleton, where we indulged in
tea and buns in a café. Hiking can be
so much more civilised in England! We
headed up by some caverns to Mam Tor, 517m.
This part of the Peaks is famous for its gemstones, in particular, blue
john. We headed west along Rushup Edge
but soon ran into thick fog and so we cut the journey short a little by taking
tracks to Edale where we sampled the delights of the Old Nags Head Inn, the
official start of the Pennine Way. The
hardened drinkers left the pub a little late and headed back to the hostel on a
high level track. We were met by a
ferocious gale and were glad to reach the safety of the hostel in time for
dinner.
Next day there was a split in the group, with some
heading for the delights of retail therapy in Manchester, while the hardier
souls (soles?), headed for the hills, taking the Pennine Way via Jacobs Ladder
as far as Edale Cross, over Kinder Scout.
I was apprehensive about the Jacobs Ladder section, having done it some years
ago when it was just a mud-slide.
However, things had moved on since and it has been tastefully rebuilt in
stone. This is one of the nicest areas
of the Peaks to walk and I regretted having to do it with some speed and not
having more time to linger there.
For New Years Eve we headed by train to Buxton and
headed up the Old Macclesfield Road to the Cat and Fiddle Pub, where we
indulged in mince pies and coffee. We
went down through Wildboar Clough and lunched at Three Shires Bridge, with wild
moorland scenery all round. A taxi to
Buxton enabled us to get the early train back to get ourselves ready for the
big lights that night. We rang in the
New Year to the small hours in a local hostelry and enjoyed the music inside
and the fireworks outside.
All
in all, no better way to spend the post Christmas period. Where to next year, Edinburgh perhaps?
- Garry Byrne
Be
Warned!
There seems to have been a considerable upsurge in
the number of cars being broken into while parked at mountain car parks in
Wicklow, On February 13th at least three cars had been broken into
by 11.30a.m. at the car park at the summit of Wicklow Gap. On Sunday the 20th
a number of cars were broken into at Ballinagee Bridge.
Remember to conceal all tempting items out of sight
before starting on a hike.
Report all suspicious activities around cars to the
Gardaí.
Gone to
the Dogs!
A total of
thirty-four hardy gamblers turned up at Shelbourne Stadium for a night at the
dogs on Thursday, February 3rd. It proved to be a most enjoyable
night with supper and an appetite-whetting bet included in the entrance cost.
Nobody lost his/her shirt. Indeed Mark Campion proved a winner, making a profit
of at least E75!! He could be good for a round or two yet!!
Thanks to Steve
Buckney for organising the event.
See next page for
upcoming social events.
Social
Diary
Bowling
and Quasar
Date: Friday, March 11th, meeting
at 7.45pm
Venue: Stillorgan Bowling Alley
Cost: €8.50 per person
Après bowling in local pub.
If interested
contact Jacinta O’Reilly by email: jacintamoreilly@hotmail.com
Music
Night
Ceol agus
Craic
Le:
An Óige Musicians
and Guests
When: Friday,
April 8th, 9.00p.m.
Where: Westmoreland
Pub, (downstairs), Westmoreland Street.
Musicians and singers welcome.
Interested musicians/ singers please contact Joe
Kavanagh.
All others -
audience just turn up.
Best
Wishes
Best wishes for a
speedy recovery to Kevin McGinley who was injured in the course of a recce
recently.
Competition
Announcement
Hikes Less
Trodden!
Tired of
the same old hike routes in Wicklow????
Then do
something about it!
How?
Suggest a route
for a Sunday Hike in Wicklow. Send it complete with a brief description (start,
finish, length, main points along the route etc.) or Tom Kenny or Philip Roche.
Your entry need
not be a complete route card but only routes that work in practice will be
accepted.
The winner will
be drawn from all acceptable entries.
Entries can be
emailed to Tom or Philip at:
Map
& Compass
This
year's course finished up on the last weekend in January with the Skills
Consolidation Weekend in the Comeraghs. Although we had lower than usual
number registering for the course attendence throughout the
course seemed better than other years demonstrated by the fact
that a total of 19 came on the Comeragh Weekend. This year's
class were definitely an enthusiatic and motivated group and very
rewarding to work with. I'd like to thank all those who help out on the course,
namely, Tom Kenny, Ita O'Hanlon, Philip Roche, Joe Kellegher, Mark Campion,
Ciaran King and any others who helped with the Course.
Jimmy McCullagh
Training Officer
To all
would be Navigators, Map Readers and Compass Bearers
On behalf of all
those who took part in the Map & Compass course I would like to give a
testimonial to the fantastic course that Jimmy and the Leaders started last
October.
The team of
leaders imparted a knowledge, expertise, patience and good humour to our great
group (and O what a group……weren’t we ??).
The course
started in the class room for 3 nights and after the first night we were let
loose on the mountains.
Every morning we
would start out, we would get the lecture from the General (Jimmy) as to what
we were doing for the day. Each team
went off with the chosen leader and then the most wonderful few hours spent out
in the mountains finding that contour, re-entrant, confluence, spot height,
handrail, saddles, cols, spurs, micro navigation, macro navigation, learning
about risk & consequence …………I could go on…….then when we would find the
chosen location trying to convince the leader that we are where we are supposed
to be…..that was great fun and very challenging.
To any aspiring
navigator if you want to know what all those words mean I would highly
recommend that you do the next course, which starts in October 2005.
You will be glad
to know guys that I have been using all of what I learned. I have taken some of my own friends out on
hikes and I haven’t lost anyone yet and I didn’t get lost! Yet! That has to be
good!!! It has been one of the best
courses that I have ever done.
The only
complaint I have is that they never warn you the first day about the first
night………..!!!!!.........we operate Lambay Rules……what goes on tour stays on
tour!!!!!!!!!! All I will say is that
it is very hard to see contour lines when slightly
hungover.
Many thanks to
Jimmy, Tom, Ita, Philip, Mark, Ciaran and Joe for giving up your time to do
this course. You were all fantastic.
The group really appreciated all you organised and all we learned from
you.
Here’s to
brilliant map reading for 2005.
See you on the
Hills
Enid Gallagher
Hill-walker and
now Map/Compass Reader
Comhghairdeas!
Congratulations
Two Hillwalkers Successful
Ascent of Aconcagua
Congratulations
and well done to two club members Gerry Cooke and John O’Mahony who completed a
successful ascent of Aconcagua in early January. Aconcagua, at 6,962metres, is
not only the highest mountain in the South America but the highest anywhere in
the world outside the Himalayas. It was first summated in 1897 by Matthias
Zurbriggen. Situated at 32°39”south and 70°14”south it can offer a range of
weather challenges.
Climbed by the
non-technical ‘Normal Route’ Aconcagua offers one of the highest treks in the
world.
Gerry and John,
climbing as part of a Pat Falvey expedition, reached the summit by means of the
more technical Polish glacier route.
This involves trekking through the less travelled Vacas Valley plus a high altitude mixed climb of ice and rock
and has been described as an “intermediate/advanced route” and a “classic in
international mountaineering”.
Well done lads!
What a way to work off the old Christmas Christmas turkey and plum pudding, not
to talk of shaking off the winter cobwebs!
Next stop
Everest????
Wicklow
Spring Walking Festival
The Wicklow Spring "Celtic" walking
festival will be taking place this May bank holiday weekend (April 30th - May
2nd) in the magnificent, unspoilt and relatively unexplored are of
ManorKilbride, (near Blessington), West Wicklow. This year we have added a
Celtic theme in order to create something a little bit different to other
walking festivals and I am extremely confident that it will be more popular
than ever before! There will be ceili dancing, live traditional music and
Druids telling stories of folklore! In addition, we have of course, some
outstanding walks, with a variety to cater for all levels of walker.
Furthermore, with the event being based around the magnificent Kippure House
Estate, we will have excellent facilities including self catering
accommodation, restaurant, bar etc. As a result of all of this, I think there
will be a brilliant festival atmosphere which will lead to a memorable event!
Full details of the festival are available on our website, www.wicklow.ie/tourism, including a
downloadable application form.
Alan Shanley,
Wicklow County Tourism
Contributions
Contributions to the Hillwalker are always welcome and should be sent to:
Deirdre McMahon
at mcmahond@eircom.net or by snailmail
to:
11, Aspen Road,
Kinsealy Court, Swords, Co. Dublin
Club
Committee
Club President and Chairperson: Prionnsias
MacAnBheatha
Secretary: Frank Rooney
Treasurer: Jim Barry
Sunday Hikes: Tom Kenny and Philip Roche
Membership Secretary: Anne Russell
Training Officer: Jimmy McCullagh
Editor: Deirdre McMahon
Social Officer: Steven Buckney
In addition, four
club members work behind the scenes as follows:
Distribution: Cyril McFeeney & Pearse Foley
Webmaster: Matt Geraghty
MCI Environmental Officer: Patricia
Goodman