The Maumturks

Friday 28th March 2008

This was the last walk of my week's holiday in Ireland and although I had planned on having easier an walk than the day before it proved to be really challenging in exceptionally difficult weather conditions. I parked in the valley beside the Maumturks (a mountain range next to the Twelve Bens) and walked up to the Maumeen Chapel and Holy Well, in the col between Binn Mhór and Binn Chaonaigh. This was an awesome place that filled me with many thoughts: I’m not Catholic, in fact I’m resolutely Protestant brought up to distrust anything Catholic, but there was so much obvious reverence about the site that even I was overcome. The Holy Well itself was an eerie place where a number of trinkets had been left by pilgrims, which reflected their sincere devotion and added an aura to the place that was enough to make even the fiercest Protestant such as myself cross himself in respect. Silly really as it’s only a tiny well. There are also 14 crosses arranged around the place all facing the chapel and each representing one of the Stations of the Cross, which I thought were quite good and even as a Protestant I could see real value in them. One can go from station to station thinking upon the events depicted from the crucifixion story and remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us all, and worship God through it; it's just a pity they missed out the last and most important part of the story: the Resurrection.

Tearing myself away I climbed the hillside towards Binn Chaonaigh following a fence on a faint path. This was an enjoyable ascent as it combined grass and rock with a lot of variations that reminded me of the climb over Grey Knotts from Honister Hause in the Lakes. Eventually the gradient levelled off and I was confronted by a series of bogs and snow as it started snowing heavily while approaching the summit and the snow would continue for the next couple of hours, fortunately it wasn't settling too much. Once at the summit of Ben Chaonaigh I proceeded to negotiate the route down to the col and up to the long ridge on Barrslievenaroy with its many false tops all in very cold driving snow and hail. Before starting this walk I noticed a comment in the guide book that it would not be advisable to do this walk in mist because of the complex terrain. How about mist, snow and strong winds? With my GPS in hand all the way I negotiated the complex terrain and successfully arrived at the summit of Barrslievenaroy (the highest point in the Maumturks) and with the snow continuing to fall heavily I had my lunch.

As I left the summit the snow finally stopped and I was rewarded with some views of the hills I had just walked over, so now I knew what they looked like! Coming down from the top I had immense difficulty finding my way even though the weather was now clearing. It is funny how I had more problems once the weather cleared than when it was terrible. I was making a direct course for the col and, of course, ended up at the top of a cliff face. Now it wasn’t a high cliff and I could have easily climbed down it if I had a better head for heights, but after throwing my walking pole down to the bottom I suddenly thought, no, there has to be an easier way down, so I climbed back up to the top and started looking for a better route down, but I couldn’t find one. As I was being buffeted by the strong wind, at one point actually being blown over, I slammed my hand down on the rocks repeatedly crying out, “You bastard, let me off this mountain.” Apologies to God or whoever I thought I was crying out to, but I was soon thanking God for as soon as I looked up I saw a faint path that led all the way down to the bottom.

Unfortunately my walking pole was still near the top underneath the cliff so I had to climb all the way up to the top of a huge bank of scree to look for it and was soon beginning to wonder whether my walking pole was worth all that effort to retrieve it. On a number of occasions during the week I had become frustrated with it as it was often getting in my way. I had brought it with me to help while going across boggy ground, and it was certainly a handy third leg in those situations, but when I needed my hands, which was frequently necessary on the rocky ground, it just got in the way. Instead of giving me an extra leg it removed one of my hands, so I would often in those situation let the pole hang from my wrist or even throw it down ahead of me as I did while climbing down the gully on Ben Gower a couple of days earlier. Unfortunately on this walk I did the same thing, which required an exhausting climb to retrieve it; I was really annoyed with myself for throwing the pole down and strongly tempted to abandon it after all the trouble it had given me.

Eventually I managed to locate my pole with the help of my GPS device and made my way down to the col, Maumahoge, where I said goodbye to the mountains even as the sun came out to reveal the stunning spectacle all around me. Descending steeply over grass I dropped down into the valley and traversed the water-logged grass plain as I made my way to the road. It was astonishing just how much rain had fallen during the week and how soaked was the ground as a result. In places you couldn't keep a grip because there was so much water in it, so that even though it may look stable it was quickly revealed to be anything but and I would almost fall over. The walk was completed by an easy and relaxing stroll along the road, and so that completed my week in Ireland, which I had enjoyed but it had been a very challenging and tiring week. These are all great mountains that even in the best of conditions are tricky, but I did not have good weather. I wonder what the week would have been like with better conditions. Would I have got to do more? One can only wonder.