Ireland day 1496. Sunday 02 November 2025- Annamoe

Today’s summary	Val and I drove down to Laragh to join a Club walk round Trooperstown and Annamoe. Picked up a couple of friends on the way down. After coffee at Lynhams, completed the 11k loop walk in about 4½ hours. Drove our friends home afterwards and on the way back, stopped at a farmers market near Roundwood. Had delicious beef curry for dinner then relaxed in the evening with a glass of Malbec and some Netflix.
Today’s weather	Bright and dry with lots of sun. Light westerly breeze. Appx 11c

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): Trooperstown Annamoe Circuit DWC

Commentary

We’ve been busy socialising and travelling in two or three different countries recently , so haven’t been in the orbit of the Walking Club for a while. So when at last we had a free day today, it felt like now was the right time to reconnect with the group.

Today’s walk was convening at Lynhams pub in Laragh at 11am. As it’s quite a long drive to get there, and as we were picking up a couple of friends on the way to give them a lift, that meant leaving the flat at about 9am. So an early alarm was called for, which is never my favourite thing.

After we’d had cups of tea and breakfast, we set off, collected our friends, and headed south. In the event, we arrived at Lynhams a bit early so treated ourselves to a coffee and a scone in the bar while we waited for the others to arrive.

Once all fourteen of us were assembled, we drove the short way back to the Trooperstown car park and set out on our walk.

It was a beautiful day and the trees were putting on a fine display of autumn colour. After crossing the road on leaving the car park, we made good progress up the hill in the general direction of the Gossan Stones. But when we climbed out of the woods which rise up from the road, we met the Wicklow way and turned right on it before we reached the Stones, following the path round the contour of the hill as far as the Brusher hut.

We sheltered in the hut and stopped there for a while to have our packed lunches (I made ours last night). Then, as it felt a bit chilly up there in the wind and out of the sun, we packed our things and headed back down to Annamoe.

There’s not much to see there except a few houses, an abandoned antique shop, and a rapidly crumbling (hand)ball alley. So we crossed over the Avon More river at the road bridge, and headed downstream through Trooperstown Woods, roughly following its course on the eastern bank.

We were back at the cars just before 4pm by which time evening was already starting to fall. So we had timed our 11k walk perfectly, and made the most of the day. We had all really enjoyed it – especially of course the chat, of which there was more than the usual amount on account of the length of time it had been since we were last all out together.

The drive back was straightforward though we stopped briefly at a farmers’ market near Roundwood on the way. It was closing when we got there, but just caught a local produce stall before it packed up and left. We were able to get some locally-made rose hip syrup and breakfast cereal from the very persuasive stallholder. The cereal had recently been declared the third best muesli in Ireland (though how anyone would know was beyond me) and at €10 a bag, it better be.

We dropped off our friends in Clongriffin and Portmarnock, the eventually made it back to the flat by about 6pm. Just in time for a nice glass of Malbec, and then for dinner we had some of the delicious beef curry which Val made yesterday. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and watching TV. What a great day!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


This new wooden structure has recently appeared in the grounds of the Mountain Rescue headquarters by the Trooperstown car park. Nobody seemed to know what it was – but it was quite big. About seven or eight meters in diameter	Setting off along the Wicklow Way in the direction of the Brusher hut

Access to the Glendalough Estate is just off the road before it reaches Annamoe. There’s a big house in there, which is rarely opened to the public; mainly on occasions when concerts are held in its extensive grounds. It is (or was) owned by the politically prominent Childers family	Pausing for breath in the Trooperstown woods

Nice example of yellow stagshorn fungus (Calocera viscosa) growing on a rotting tree stump. It’s edible but tasteless and small, so not really worth bothering with. The recent rain and absence of frost seems to have brought out fungi in their multitudes	It’s that forest fairy again!

Clouded Agaric fungi (Clitocybe nebularis) growing in woodland debris. It used to be considered edible, but the advice seems to have changed recently as it can cause “severe gastric issues”. Clearly too many people found out the hard way