The Mountains Of Mourne

Hello to whoever actually reads this besides myself, many things are different since the last time I wrote; I've spent the last 11 months in Carlingford, Ireland, new job, new people, new places, new relationships. After a difficult winter period I wanted a fresh start, it was definitely not a "New Year, New Me" cry out but I needed to blow away the cob webs of my old life and shake things up again.

The actual subject of my writing today is our recent trip to the Mourne Mountains which lie North east of us here in Carlingford, well more east than north; they are the fantastic setting for much of the Game off Thrones filming and are rooted in many Irish tales. They are also pretty fantastic to go walking in. So of course that's what we did after several months of work, a break was well needed.
We got to Newcastle (the Irish Newcastle, confusing I know) by bus and wandered up the main path cutting up through the valley that most people use to transport themselves away from the hustle and bustle below. This led up to a saddle between Slieve Donard and Slieve Commedagh where we met the infamous Mourne Wall. The wall was originally built to mark the catchment area for the two reservoirs built in the Silent Valley somewhere below us. Why they felt the need to built a 22 mile wall in the mountains to mark this area I'm not entirely sure but it makes an interesting guide through the peaks. This wall was due to be our friend for the next few days as we were due to mosy along it up and down the various peaks squeezed into the 1,300 acres of land that are the Mournes. So off we went again, buffeted by the wind up Slieve Commedagh and over where we began to spy out a camping place.
Wild camping have many benefits; freedom, solitude, a cracking view. Downsides; on the side of a mountain, wet, boggy and most of all- WINDY! The wind kept gusting all night keeping us up, it was so incredibly windy even when we moved at 1am to try and squeeze a bit more protection from the wall, the wind blew round in every direction harassing our tent all night. It's safe to say we did not really sleep.



Morning time!
The area we were in was a little plateau and the first section of the day was to head to a cutely named Hare's Gap, now it was so steep and so slippy that we might have well have just sat down and slid down if it wasn't for the rocks popping up everywhere and the drop off at the bottom which we didn't see until further down. We approached and thought that looks a little steep. It was. Traversing around that we got down to the gap and there was an almost immediate uphill struggle, the first of many for the day.

Now after having walked around in the Mournes I found they have a very definite character in that they may not be the tallest or covering the biggest area but they have massive personality. To make up for lack of height whatever geological forces created them made them as unpleasantly steep as you can imagine, this is emphasised by the fact that the wall follows the ridges which undulate up and down. Steeply up and steeply down. Another defining character of the Mournes is their stunning atmospheric scenery for example Slieve Binnian has these incredible 'back castles' which are pretty much what they sound like. Huge towering stacks of rock that are lumped down its ridge, Slieve Bearnagh also had some fantastic ones.

Anyway after Hare's Gap, up, up, up we went to Slieve Bearnagh then down, down, down and up, up, up again to Meelmore, Slieve Meelbeg, Slieve Loughshannagh and then Carn Mountain. Now to the seasoned walker that is a good list of ascents for the day but we were super tired at this point as you have to bear in mind that the ridges went down a lot before going back up again to the tops. So you needed to lose and the regain so much height for each peak you did which for me who tries to be quite efficient with their energy (Aka walking slow most of the time) this constant loss and gain was incredibly exhausting. Not to mention the fact I've never really done a big walk on so little sleep before, it all culminated in us being a little fed up so as we got down into the valley. We decided to break away from the relentless wall for a while as it went up and over another peak at the base of the valley. So we just skirted around that and made our way down into the Silent Valley, where the reservoirs are.
By this point it was late afternoon and we decided on spending a little longer finding a good place to camp. Think smarter, not harder. So along the course of our route for the next day was Moolieve and nicely placed on top of that was a cross intersection of the wall. We knew the wind had been blowing westerly all afternoon and weather forecasts said it was due to stay the same throughout the night. This intersection in the wall would be perfect for creating a bit more cover than the night. So we made the last ascent of the day straight up from the valley floor and climbed up and over the wall and began our search for cover.
Now we wanted to stay in Ben's bivi bag as we thought it was the ridiculous shaking of the tent itself as an effect of the wind that kept us up so we wanted to eliminate that but sadly we didn't both fit in the bag and I didn't like the idea of just lying out in my sleeping just in case it got rainy or really cold throughout the night. In the end we squeezed our tent in a little ditch behind the line of the ridge and behind two walls and settled down. Absolutely pointless. Sleepless night, blustery swirling wind, early morning, but toasty warm though.

Click on me to take you to a collection of photos

Have you had enough yet? No? Good, here's an album of photos to interest you again

For our last day and for the sake of the boredom we decided to sack off the wall altogether as from that point it took a completely pointless route, basically too long and boring for us to be able to catch our afternoon bus. So we planned our own little route which ended up being my favourite day. Off we went up Wee Binian which looked like a wart on the side of Slieve Binnian, the next section up Binnian was almost a scramble, lots of rock steps and climby parts which was good to engage the mind off the fact I have a rather large rugsack and that I hadn't slept for two nights. Up at the top I had a wonderful poo with a view. I know in previous writings I have always detailed my loo with a view which you probably don't like to hear about but it is so freeing to just go where you are and sit and enjoy the view for a few minutes, really take it in. This time I was alongside the back castles I mentioned in front of a huge stone sticking straight up out of the ground, it looked almost like a neolithic monument stone put there on purpose. Expanding out in front of me I could the lowlands that quickly turned into the sea and to to the side of me was the Silent Valley and all the mountains arching round that we had done the day before. Weak autumnal morning sunshine was cast over it all and it just created such a beautiful scene that was I lost for a moment as was Ben who was sat a little distance away waiting for me to finish. We then walked down and around the back castles till we got down to the saddle between Binnian and Slievelamagan. We also avoided this mountain because Ben said it was an absolute slog. We did not fancy that so down we went to Ben Cromm reservoir and traversed the edge of it till the we got to the top. Then we went off road following a little path for most of the way or at least it looked like a little sheep path through the heather and the grass towards a track that cut a straight line across the top of the valley and would lead us back to our starting point. This path was awesome it was really level and cut across the top of one valley and continued along into the next valley then up to the saddle where we had started. Now I was quite paranoid about missing the bus so I took advantage of the flat and got a march on, putting on steam to make up some time.

Then after basically running back down the valley into Newcastle we actually made the bus with minutes to spare; we were so pooped when we got back that we got takeaway and went to bed. We had talked all day about crawling into bed, cuddling up and having the best sleep of our lives but as we woke up in the morning we hadn't even slept that well. How disappointing.


Despite the lack of sleep and the ups and down the Mournes are an incredible challenge for any level of walker, a beautiful place that reminds me slightly of areas of Snowdonia where you can look down from your lofty perch and see the sea spreading out. It might sound strange that our idea of relaxing and recuperating from work was to go on a three day hike but for us being out in the fresh air with just ourselves and the path in front refreshed our minds and reset our hearts to a new rhythm. Walking and being in the mountains is an incredible therapy which I would prescribe for anyone no matter how far you go. The simple pleasure of walking with the people you love is an experience not to be missed.