Ireland day 1015. Tuesday 09 July 2024- Galtymore

Today’s summary	Drove about 30 mins southwest from Cashel to complete a circular walk in the Galty Hills including the summit of Galtymore itself. A really poor day with heavy rain, low temperatures, gale force wind and zero visibility. Sadly no views at all and although it was satisfying to tick off another “Irish Munro” it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable experience. Back to Baileys again for dinner and to warm up a bit this evening.
Today’s weather	Continuous rain and heavy cloud all day. Gale force northerly wind. Appx 9c on summit, 15c in town. More like a November day than July

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The red line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Galtymore

Commentary

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

There are four groups of Irish mountains with “Munros” (ie higher than 3000ft / 914m) in them. Macgillycuddy’s Reeks, the Wicklow Hills, the Galty hills and Dingle Head. So far I’ve climbed the highest in the first two groups – Carrauntoohil and Lugnaquilla, respectively, and today it was the turn of Galtymore (918m / 3011ft), in the third group (leaving just Mt Brandon in the last).

I had planned a circular loop walk from the north slope of the Galty range today, along the summit ridge and taking in the tops of Cush and Galtybeag before reaching Galtymore itself. It was supposed to afford good views west towards Tipperary and down into the glacial corries below, with loughs Diheen and Corra nestling where the ice used to be.

It was raining a bit when I set off for the 30 min drive south west to the carpark at the start of the walk. But the weather forecast seemed to indicate that it would dry up by mid morning, and being July, I did have a faint hope that the weather might be at least be vaguely decent. (Spoiler alert – it wasn’t).

I was on the trail by 9:30 am and headed off up the access track and within a few moments, I was enveloped in claggy damp mist. Then the wind, which was from the north, picked up to gale force and it started to rain. The promised dry spell never arrived, and in fact it got steadily worse for the next five hours as I was walking.

The going was reasonably easy, though quite steep in places and very muddy. I slogged steadily uphill and reached the first summit, Cush, in about an hour. At this point, I seriously thought about turning round and heading back to the car, as the weather was so poor and deteriorating. But generally I don’t give up on things unless it’s an emergency, so I plodded on. First to Galtybeag, and then, via a spectacularly awful swamp of mud, up the final slog to Galtymore top (appropriately enough, it’s called Dawson’s Table up there).

It was so cold when I reached the top that I just paused to put on my winter gloves and the remaining dry layers from my bag, had a quick swig of coffee, then left straight away.

The remaining part of the loop was reasonably straightforward, provided you took care not to go head over heels on the slippery rain soaked downward slope. I was very relieved though to reach the shelter of the forestry in the Clydagh Valley and actually almost enjoyed the last few km back to the car on a good track.

Given the weather conditions and the fact that I got absolutely soaked and didn’t see anything at all, I have to say this wasn’t a particularly enjoyable walk. The only saving grace was that the wind was on my back for the most exposed section of the route. And of course there was the satisfaction of ticking off another Irish Munro from my list. I only saw three other people on the whole walk, and all of them were in the valley near the car park at the end.

But sadly, overall, I’m afraid that Galtymore must join Kebnekaise in Sweden on that list of mountains that I am glad that I have climbed but would be happy not to set foot on again. Though I have to say that hot shower in the B&B when I got back was fantastic and felt well deserved. So now I’m looking forward to a pint and dinner in Baileys (again) to warm up and recharge the batteries.

(By the way Val is still in London and having a good time with her friend – but it sounds like the weather is just as bad on her side of the Irish Sea as it has been here!)

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Setting out – still dry and happy at this stage!	Entering the fog ten minutes later. I only re-emerged right at the end

Spectacular bog field between Galtybeag and Galtymore	Top of Galtymore with curiously stubby trig point

On the way down – the waymark indicates the summit route via Lough Corra. I descended down the ridge to join this path midway – my option looked somewhat less hazardous, given the conditions	Entering the forestry on the way back to the car – and looking somewhat less happy than at the start

This large metal cross adorns the top of Galtymore – though I’m not sure if this, or the trig point, is the actual highest point