Ireland: Carrauntoohil (3/28)

After an early start on the ferry from Cairnryan (Scotland) to Larne (Northern Ireland) we started our scenic drive along the Causeway Coast route.

We had two days to explore Northern Ireland before heading to Dublin to meet up with our friend Matt, who has recently moved there. After a little research I worked out it would be best to visit the Giant’s Causeway after the visitor centre closed to avoid the crowds. So in the meantime we explored the coastline and visited a famous line of beech trees known as “The Dark Hedges”. These are quite pretty but really rose to fame after being featured in season 2, episode 1 of Game of Thrones. People really seem to have got “Throne’s fever” as we saw a couple on horse back being led through the trees in some particularly poor Game of Thrones costumes.

It was now late enough to head to the Giant’s Causeway. To avoid paying the extortionate £12 per person National Trust parking fee we parked 3 miles down the coast and had a pleasant evening walk along the headlands. We arrived just as the crowds began to stream back to the car park and managed to take a few photos and explore the geological phenomenon. 

The Giant’s Causeway is actually a 50-60 million year old basalt (lava) plateau which intruded into chalk. As the basalt cooled it contracted to form hexagonal fractures producing the 40,000 interlocking basalt columns. 

That evening we headed to Castlerock which I had read was a good place to park up for the night and were treated with a fantastic sunset before we turned in for the night.

In the morning the glorious weather continued and we went for a short walk to Downhill. Here a Bishop built Downhill house in 1775 and a little later commissioned the Mussenden Temple near the cliff edge which was his library. This is the fanciest cliff top library I have ever seen and I expect its and old version of a modern day man shed or Shepard’s hut. When it was built one could drive around it in a horse and carriage, however now it is teetering on the cliff edge and the National Trust has to keep a close eye on the cliff erosion. 

In the afternoon we headed to Derry, the extent of my Irish history knowledge is obtained from obsessively watching Michael Flatly productions as a child, so it is severely lacking. We visited the Museum of Free Derry which outlines the history leading up to and the events of Bloody Sunday. The museum was very good and I would recommend visiting it if you are in the area. 

We next headed south to meet Matt in Dublin, after some dinner we went out for a few drinks in some great pubs selected by Veronika, one of Matt’s new Dublin caving friends. We enjoyed a few pints of Guinness, which definitely does taste different in Ireland, over some traditional live Irish music. 

The following morning we headed to the South West which is where Ireland’s highest peak Carruntoonhil is located. We found a campground for two nights and had a delicious millennial-style BBQ of asparagus, Halloumi and smoked mackerel. We even got to use the hand made citronella candles which Thirza had given us. 

The next morning, with an OK weather forecast, we went to start our route. Instead of climbing the standard tourist route, “The Devil’s Staircase”—which is actually quite dangerous due to path erosion and falling rocks, we chose the Coomloughra Horseshoe Loop walk. This route also included four of the top five highest peaks in Ireland. We had a steep climb to the first peak Cnoc Lochtair (747m) by which we were already in low cloud. The temperature seemed to be at exactly the dew point and we all had a fine mist in our hair. The next peaks were Skregmore (848m) and Beenkeragh (1010m) before we had to traverse the Beenkeragh ridge to the Carrantoonhil summit (1039m) which involved some scrambling.

Here we suddenly had a gap in the mist and had the feeling of walking on top of the clouds as the ridge line hovered in the mist. We were even luckier as when we got to the summit the mist cleared long enough for us to enjoy the view in the sunshine whilst eating our lunch. 

We then continued to follow the ridge to the summit of Caher (1001m) and Caher West (975m) before bumbling back down to the car. This was a great route but actually quite strenuous as there was quite a lot of descent and ascent between each of the summits.

We also spotted some great wildlife along the way including a hare and some map lichen. Map lichen only grows in mountainous areas with clean air. Climatologist utilise the growing rate of the lichen to determine the age of deposits such as moraines to track glacial advances. This process is called lichenometry (for more info see https://www.kerryclimbing.ie/plants-and-lichens-of-the-irish-uplands/).

Matt also spotted a rare Kerry slug, these are protected and are only found in West Cork, Kerry and some parts of Northern Spain and Portugal, living in warm humid environments and feeding on lichen. Attempts were made to breed the slug in captivity in order to secure the population of the species, however these were not too successful, which is the opposite to my experience of keeping slugs and snails as a child.

As we were back to the car by 3pm we headed to Ross Castle. The castle was closed but we had a lovely walk around the grounds the beautifully still lake.

The following morning Matt and Veronika had to head back to Dublin but first we went for a short stroll around the Glenbeigh Fairy Forest. Here kids have built little fairy houses which have been arranged in the woods. At the end of the trail we climbed up through the woods and found a great view of the peninsula. This is part of the Ring of Kerry which is a scenic route around the county taking in lots of the beautiful coastline. After a lunch stop at Rossbeigh beach we said goodbye to Matt and Veronika and carried on around the coastline. 

We stopped at lots of pretty beaches with castles, and even spotted a Garden Tiger Moth caterpillar, eventually winding our way to Lough Hyne in county Cork. This is a sheltered marine lake, which was Ireland’s first marine reserve. The structure of the lake means the shallow neck joining the sea has fast-flowing, warm, oxygenated water. This creates an environment for a number of marine species only found in this location in Ireland. 

My main reason for visiting this lake was the reports of bio-luminescent plankton here. So after arriving at 6pm we camped out until sunset. There is a moonlit kayak tour which runs every evening and as the sun set we watched the kayakers launch onto the smooth lake. We spent the next hour sitting on the sea wall staring into the depths, when I spotted the first little twinkle of bio-luminescent plankton, at first Olly didn’t believe me but soon we saw quite a few. We also saw a pair of seals — well we think they were seals, but it was dark so hard to tell. This was far more successful than our last attempt at bio-luminescent plankton watching in Anglesey but it was sill not bright enough for a long exposure photo. I think we will have to visit the Maldives for that! 

That evening Olly had luckily realised that our ferry was a day earlier than we’d thought and in the morning we set off in the direction of Rosslare. We had a nice lunch stop at Dungarven facing the sea.

It turns out that paying for showers at leisure centres in Ireland isn’t a thing and we were turned away. We spotted a campsite near Rosslare and stopped in to ask, they said they wouldn’t usually let people not staying use the facilities but would let us this time for €2 each. ‘Yes!’ we thought; we can be clean before the long ferry crossing, and a 10 minute shower, what a luxury. This jubilation was rapidly cut short when we realised there was no hot water but feeling revitalised and marginally cleaner we headed to the ferry port and our next stop Cherbourg.