Ireland day 1278. Saturday 29 March 2025- Plan C Cooleys

Today’s summary	Drove up to Ballymakellet to lead for the Club a route up Black Mountain from the Lumpers pub. Intended to go along the ridge to Carnavaddy but had to find an alternative way off the mountain when the weather took a turn for the (much) worse. Quick refreshments in the Lumpers afterwards then drove back to Malahide. Lentil curry and “Mad Men” in the evening
Today’s weather	Cool and overcast in Malahide, heavy cold driving rain in the Cooleys. Gale force south westerly wind. Appx 10c

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): Plan C Cooleys

Commentary

The Cooleys are a range of relatively less-visited mountains about 80km north of here. I like walking in them because they feel a lot more “off the beaten track” than the Wicklow hills. But they do have one big drawback – which is the weather. Of the dozen or more times I’ve been walking there, I’d say it has been poor on roughly 75% of occasions. The last time I’d led a Walking Club group on this particular route – up Black Mountain and Canrnavaddy from Ballymakellett – was in May 2022. On that occasion we had enjoyed perfect weather. I’d been reluctant to lead on this route again because I thought it unlikely we could ever repeat the experience with such good conditions.

Anyway, I was eventually persuaded to do it again so a group of six of us duly assembled in the Lumpers pub car park (€10 to park!!) in Ballymakellett this morning, ready to give it a go. At the time we left, around 10:30, the sky was overcast but the cloud level was high and the tops were visible. There were a few drops of rain but nothing serious.

We made it as far as the start of the poc fada course at Annaverna in decent conditions but around here, the Curse of the Cooleys struck again and it turned out that my misgivings were well founded after all. The heavens opened, the clouds descended, and the wind rose to gale force. At this point I began to doubt the wisdom of proceeding any further at all, but after evaluating a couple of options in my mind, I came up with a “Plan C” which I thought would give us a decent walk without excessively exposing ourselves to the elements.

So we plodded up the track from Annaverna to the ridge, then turned north west to reach Clermont Carn on the top of Black Mountain. So we did reach the summit of something – very satisfying – but any shelter we might have found in the lee of the cairn proved to be a figment of my imagination. So we paused briefly to get a coffee and a bite to eat, then hot-footed it back the way we came and then along the ridge as far as Baínseach. From there, we left my planned route and followed a thin track down the western slopes of the mountain, eventually rejoining the path we took on the way up, near the Poc fada course.

Fortunately I had recorded a route when I had gone that way back in 2021, and was able to recover it from my phone, so I knew which way to go. Thank goodness for GPX files.

The rest of the walk back to the cars was uneventful, if wet, and eventually we finished after 5 full hours of walking. In the end, we covered 15km (though it felt like a lot more), which was only 2km less than the original plan (but much lower-level so less miserable).

Once back at the cars, we got changed, went out to inspect the sauna which is opening in the car park on Friday, then headed into the pub for a swift (small!) glass of something before driving off back down the M1. It’s quite a nice pub, but lacks a fire, so it doesn’t feel as warm and welcoming as perhaps it could. Anyway, we were all starting to get cold so we didn’t linger.

Once back in Malahide, Val quickly rustled up some more delicious lentil curry and finally we rounded off the day, as we often do, with an episode of “Mad Men”. What a day! (Again!)

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


On the summit cairn on Black Mountain	If I look soaked through, it’s because I am

Circular enclosure, about 6 or 7 metres across, on the way down. I think I used to know what it was but, annoyingly, I can’t remember!	Bluefaced Leicesters eyeing us up on the way back down

The Lumpers pub – served welcome refreshments at the end, but would be nicer if they had a fire lit	Surprising find in the pub car park. It opens next Friday!

Stone at Annaverna, marking the start of the Poc Fada race. I think the inscription reads “O Eamain maca an cloc seo“, which means “Oh Eamain, this clock is broken.”