First Hillwalking of New Year
I got out hillwalking at the weekend for the first time since the holidays. Not 100% successful, I must admit!
Devilsmother from the northern Maumturks
On Saturday, I met up with a mate and we decided to take on the northern end of the Maumturks. Standing watch over Leenane, the Maumturks are nice mountains with great views over Killary Harbour (Ireland’s only true fjord), Mweelrea, Ben Gorm, Devilsmother and other summits all around. They’re not very high by any means, but it just wasn’t going to happen on this occasion. The wind was too strong and I could hardly stand up against it. The fierce wind was rushing up the fjord, coming around the corner of the hills and hitting me on my right hand side. Maybe if I had brought some extra ballast in my pockets or lead in my boots. Having been knocked over one time too many, it was time to admit defeat and descend.
World Wetlands Day 2012
Thursday, February 2nd is World Wetlands Day. Check out its origins here.
World Wetlands Day poster
World Wetlands Day is about appreciating the vital role wetlands play in our ecosystems and protecting them. Here in Mayo, we are blessed with many wetland areas, from our blanket bogs, dotted with small lakes and bogpools, to our ‘great western lakes’, like Conn, Cullin, Carra and Mask, to our coastal sites, like Mulranny saltmarshes and the brackish lake of Furnace. Indeed, we have 3 Ramsar wetlands sites of international importance, in the Sheskin Knockmoyle Bog Complex, the Owenduff Bog Complex and the Blacksod & Broadhaven Bays area.
Welcome to 2012
December saw me take on three good hikes in the off-season.
I had a specific reason for revisiting The Bangor Trail from the Bangor end on Dec 21st, the shortest day of the year. While on ‘The Walk of Hope’ with the fabulous people of Foxford Ramblers Walking Club the previous Saturday, two companions from Bangor had told me of works being carried out on the Trail that they weren’t at all happy with. I just had to investigate, fearful of another example of environmental vandalism by public bodies.
The Hunting Lodge
Mayo, like most of Ireland, still has a number of 19th Century hunting and fishing lodges, built by the then landlord classes for themselves and their guests to enjoy a bit of plunder. Ballycroy National Park visitor centre has a wonderful display of a west Mayo fishing lodge’s records, showing the terrible (my word) catching of big numbers of magnificent Atlantic Salmon in the estate’s river. From Ashford Castle estate records, we can see photographs of outrageous numbers of birds, having been shot by hunting parties, laid out on the ground before them as trophies.
The Western Way in Winter
I love winter.
OK, I prefer the dry, crisp, fresh winter to the sodden, rainy, mucky winter. But since we have far more of the latter than the former, I make do with it.
The Pursuit of International Scale
Back in June of this year, while speaking at a tourism conference, I outlined my dream of a great 100 km long “Nephin Beg Mountains Loop” – a single continuous, entirely off-road track for cycling and walking that would circumnavigate our beautiful and wild west Mayo mountain range. Complimenting this loop would be the already in situ Bangor Trail, for serious walkers only, which would cut the loop in half for choice of route. See my previous post, with map, here.
