Ireland day 0480. Saturday 21 January 2023- Sugarloaves2 *

Ireland day 0480. Saturday 21 January 2023- Sugarloaves2

Today’s summary	Got a lift from a walking club friend and with the rest of the Saturday Club we climbed the Little and Great Sugarloaves and ended up with a drink in Plucks to finish with. A great day out though sadly Val was at work so had to miss it
Today’s weather	Overcast with no sun and occasional drizzle. Strong south westerly wind, almost gale force at height. Appx 7C

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Little and Great Sugarloaf loop walk

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Today I managed to get a lift from a walking club friend and we drove down together to Kilmacanogue to pay a return visit to the Sugarloaf mountains with the rest of the DWC.

The route took us on a loop first up the Little Sugarloaf then back to Kilmacanogue and round the Great Sugarloaf. Although we summited the Little hill, we gave the very top of its Great cousin a miss, as we had all been to the summit individually in recent months, and as it’s always cold and busy on the top itself we decided that discretion would be the better part of valour today.

Similarly, in view of the lengthy road walk needed to access it, we also bypassed the third possible summit -Carrigoona. But we made up with it with a pleasant visit Plucks for refreshments (and chips!) at the end. Another very nice day out, especially so as I wasn’t driving.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Approaching the summit of the Little Sugarloaf. A mini-Alp on the outskirts of Dublin and it’s one of my favourites – especially as it’s always much less busy than its larger cousin. Very windy today, though	Looking into the Glen of the Downs – scene of last Wednesday’s explorations. The Glenview Hotel where we started out is on the right hand slope, but most of our walk, including the Octagon, is on the left.

Summit of the great Sugarloaf, drifting in and out of the cloudbase all day. The path skirts the flanks of the summit, and it’s only a quick dash up to the top itself. But we decided to give it a miss today, as the conditions weren’t perfect and I for one have already done it twice in the last twelve months	Looking down to the coast near Bray from the descent of the Great Sugarloaf

Still lots of ice on the path on the sunless northern flanks of the mountain. Making the going a bit hazardous, though with today’s warmer temperatures, it was melting quite fast	Final descent to Kilmacanogue. There’s a deceptive turn just down from here. The main path heads to the right, straight back (apparently) to Kilmacanogue. But actually it just wanders off into nothingness and to descend safely you counterintuitively have to take the smaller path to the left, seemingly taking you away from Kilmacanogue, in the very opposite direction to the way you think you want to go

This stunning heather just by the footbridge over the dual carriageway at Kilmacanogue, always seems to burst into flower right in the middle of winter. It’s a curious floral phenomenon