Ireland day 1054. Saturday 17 August 2024- Camenabologue DWC

Today’s summary	Led a walk from Glenmalure for the DWC today. Only one other walker! Everyone else was on summer holidays. Decided to do the Camenabolgue ridge walk from Baravore, going up via the Fraughan Rock glen and coming back via the Table Track. Very enjoyable with dry weather and good views throughout. Collected Val from the airport in the evening, then pop-pop dinner in the flat
Today’s weather	Bright and dry with high level cloud most of the day. Moderate south westerly wind, especially on the top. Appx 18c in the valley

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The red 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): Hills of Howth walk

Commentary

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

A couple of weeks ago, I recce’d two walks for the Club, setting out from the Baravore car park at the top of Glenmalure. One went up Camenabologue on the south west side of the valley, while the other went up Conavalla to the north east. I would have been happy to lead either, so I thought we could decide on the day which walk the group actually wanted to do.

Well, today the time had come to lead the walk. As it turned out, almost all the regular walkers were away on holiday , so it was just me and one other who met up in the car park this morning and set about deciding which of the two routes to take. In the end, we opted for Camenabologue, as the Club hadn’t been there for a while and my fellow-walker wanted to see somewhere new.

We left it a couple of minutes to see if anyone was going to come along, but then called it a day and set off up the Fraughan Rock glen at about 10:45. It’s quite steep climb – especially near the top – but there weren’t many people about, and the views (including of the fabulous glacial slabs) were excellent.

We made it up to the ridge which leads up to Lugnaquilla in about an hour and a half. But at that point we turned in the opposite direction and descended slightly over the Benleagh plateau, and then resumed our upward trajectory eventually reaching the top of Camenabologue about 1:30. I do like this ridge – it’s wild and remote and bleak, but unlike the superficially similar ridge that runs from the Brockaghs to Tonelagee, there is (mostly) a reasonably distinct path and it’s not too boggy.

We had our lunch in the shelter of the cairn, trying to identify as many of the surrounding summits as we could while we ate. But it was quite windy up there, and not overly warm, so we soon moved on and dropped down to the Stony Top pass below the haggy black morass that is Table Mountain.

From there, it was a straightforward descent down the Table track, and as we weren’t in any hurry, we took our time and then stopped for a brief second lunch halfway down. Eventually, we were back at the cars after about six (very enjoyable) hours on the hill. the drive back to Dublin from Glenmalure was uneventful and quick – none of the usual snarl-ups on the M50 – probably because it’s peak holiday season and everyone is away.

I was back in the flat just long enough to make myself a cup of tea, then it was straight back out again to pick up Val from the airport. So now we are reunited and back on an even keel once more in Malahide, enjoying a beer and watching a bit of TV while the microwave weaves its magic on our Tesco chicken tikka masala ready meal. A great way to finish off a great day!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Setting out from Baravore. The water level in the Avonbeg river was quite low so we were able to walk across the ford, rather than having to use the footbridge a few meters upstream	I don’t think I have even seen quite so many rowan berries on the mountain ash trees as I have this year. Growing conditions must have been especially favourable

Ditto the heather. The Wicklow hillsides were beautifully purple – much more noticeably so than in 2022 or 2023	Huge juicy caterpillar on the ridge leading to the top of Camenabologue. A bit of googling revealed that it was the caterpillar of the small emperor moth, Saturnia pavonia

Both(!) of the Three Lakes	Family enjoying a picnic back on the banks of the Avonbeg at Baravore

On the summit of Camenabologue. Interestingly, there’s no trig point here, whereas there is on the nearby but much lower Table Mountain