Catherine, I, Conor and Donal went for a walk up Lugnaquilla recently on a fairly damp, gloomy day.
We took a fairly unconventional route – again thanks to Lonely Planet’s Walking in Ireland – starting at the footbridge in Glenmalure, up the road to the bigger car park and the youth hostel, up through Fraughan Rock Glen onto the eastern spur of Lug, to the summit and back to the start via Clohernagh.
Looking Back Down To Fraughan Rock Glen and Glenmalure
Once we climbed up out of the boggy Fraughan Rock Glen, I really enjoyed getting up onto the spur and finding the summit in the dense mist. Lug is a bizarre place in low visibility; a flat grassy summit with serious drops on either side – the North and South Prisons – and lots of people milling about, having their lunch on the cairn marking the summit.
The sun made an appearance as we started down from Clohernagh which is probably what made us go a bit wrong. Rather than taking a northern spur down to Art’s Lough, we went down the eastern spur and ended up at the opposite side of the forest from where the zig-zag path to footbridge begins. Full of beans, we started ploughing through the dense forest thinking it wouldn’t be long before we came upon the path. A good 45 minutes later, we finally made it through, scratched to pieces and with a nice collection of pine needles in our clothes.
Unlike the rest of us, Donal – the one who wanted to turn back half way up – seemed to love this part. The quote of the day was definitely his “every day should have a moment when you feel like Rambo” …
Filed under: hiking, mountaineering |
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