Tomies Mountain and the Gap of Dunloe

Tuesday 13th September

The weather was the biggest factor on this walk, but you couldn't say that it was really bad as it was just windy! Parking up at Kate Kearney's Cottage again I went back down the road, over a bridge, up a track on the right into a field with horses in it and up onto the open hillside. Ahead of me now was a tough trek through heather, bracken and gorse over an ever steepening, pathless terrain towards the hill above the Tomies Rock. This was a long, hard slog that never seemed to end, but eventually I reached the cairn at the top of a 568m top only to find that the wind had picked up markedly. When I tried to cross to the foot of Tomies Mountain I found that I could barely stand let alone walk up the path. In an attempt to shelter from the wind I moved around to the lee of the mountain, climbing up its northern face to the summit. However, any further progress south from the summit towards Purple Mountain proved to be impossible with a wind that was so strong that I couldn't move an inch from the cairn; any attempt to head into the wind was an exercise in sheer futility. I quickly realised that I would have to abandon the walk and return to the car by the way I had come, so despondently I began to descend, now with the wind behind me, back down the steep hill from Tomies Mountain all the way to Kate Kearney's Cottage.

After lunch in the car I headed up the Gap of Dunloe along the road, walking through stunning mountain scenery and past many lakes, but constantly fighting the wind as I climbed. My main thought as I made my way up the hill was that it was a shame that a road had been built through such stunning scenery. Now any idiot in a car can drive up there. There is a sign near Kate Kearney's Cottage asking people not to drive up, but from what I saw a lot of people just don't take any notice, which is just typical of some people. Despite the cars, this was still a spectacular walk through a great part of Ireland. Once at the top I turned around and walked all the way back down which I didn’t mind in the least as it gave me a chance to enjoy the fabulous scenery again, this time with the wind behind me. As I was driving to the Climber's Inn, where I would be overnighting for the next couple of days, the heavens opened. I don’t mind it raining after a walk, just so long as it’s clear by the following day. The weather conditions I encountered on this walk were rather unique. Despite sunny weather I had to abandon my walk due to the weather, which just goes to show that there’s more to the weather than whether it’s raining or not. In spite of the shortened walk I ended up doing a fabulous walk up the Gap of Dunloe.