Ireland day 1223. Sunday 02 February 2025- Glenbride Recce

Today’s summary	An early start today to drive down to Ranelagh to collect a walking club friend. Together we recce-d a circular route from Glenbride in advance of a club hike in March. A pretty tough route taking in Mullaghcleevaun, Moanbane and Silsean. The last two were new for me. Very wet with rain mist bog and peat hags but no path all the way round. Quite rough underfoot. Back to Malahide via Ranelagh after we’d finished, then a curry, a few videos, and a quick videocall with Val who returned from Zurich today.
Today’s weather	Wet and misty with drizzle and rain most of the day until about 5pm when it cleared up. Light westerly wind. About 8c in Dublin, 5c on the tops.

Today’s overview location (The grey 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): Mullaghcleevaun Moanbane and Silsean recce

Commentary

A long day today, which was quite hard work.

It started with an early alarm, and I was out of the flat and in the Yaris by 8:30. My first destination was Ranelagh (south Dublin), where I was picking up a Walking Club friend. The next destination was Glenbride – a tiny, almost Swiss, hamlet tucked away in the hills high above the Poulaphuca reservoir.

We were parked and ready to start walking by 11 am. Our objective today was to recce a circular loop walk over Mullaghcleevaun, Moanbane and Silsean, in advance of a Club walk following this route in March.

I thoroughly enjoyed the walk though – I have to admit – I found it pretty tough. Apart from the first hundred meters or so, there was no path and the going underfoot was rough. Heather, bog and peat-hags pretty much the whole way round, and absolutely saturated with water after all the rain we’ve had recently. Most of the route was also shrouded in drizzle and thick mist, which meant constant detailed navigation, It’s pretty featureless up there and a moment’s lapse in concentration could see you heading off in completely the wrong direction.

We made it to the top of Mullaghcleevaun (my fourth visit) in about 2 hours but that was only the first of three summits on today’s walk. The other two – Moanbane and Silsean – followed one after the other and it felt pretty relentless uphill interspersed with brief intervals of downhill relief.

None of them are particularly impressive summits – just slightly higher areas of otherwise identical bog. Mullaghcleevaun does at least have the decency to be decorated with a trig point. But I did enjoy visiting Moanbane and Silsean as I hadn’t been to either before and I always enjoy seeing somewhere new.

We eventually made it back to the car – soaked to the skin, but in one piece – at about 4:30pm. A very full day’s walking and we couldn’t really have got back much later as the sun set at 5pm tonight.

I returned to Malahide as I had come – via Ranelagh – and was in the flat again by 7pm. I was ready for a cup of tea and my pop-pop curry when I got in, which I prepared as soon as I had got my wet gear hanging up to dry.

The day was rounded off as so many have been lately – with a couple of travel vlogs on YouTube, a video call with Val (she returned from Zurich today and now has a few days in London), and an early night. A 110% day!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


There were lots of deer about – but this one sadly didn’t make it	On the top of Mullaghcleevaun and wet through already – and still two more summits to go!

I can’t remember exactly where this was taken but it doesn’t really matter as pretty much everywhere looked like this..	..or this

Cladonia (a lichen) aka Devil’s Matchsticks – I’ve seen it before, growing in the upland bogs of Ireland, but it’s not particularly common	Lord Waterford’s Posts. His daughter, Lady Alice Waterford, lives in Glenbride Lodge (close to where we parked the car)

Heading back down to the car – the clouds lifted just as we came to the end of the walk. Well better late than never I guess