Connemara, Kylemore Abbey and Errisbeg – 12/4/2007

Meeting Dave in Galway at one of the pubs we visited Tuesday evening meant I really needed to be heading roughly south for whatever I decided to do. I narrowed my options to the holy walk at Croagh Patrick and a walk above Kylemore Abbey, both in Connemara, aka Joyce’s Country. In the morning, I decided to head for Kylemore Abbey, hike Doughruagh and explore the abbey. The drive there was really misty and made me nervous that I wouldn’t be able to do anything, but the mist parted pretty much as soon as I crossed onto the peninsula.

Kylemore Abbey was a bit of a bust. I was annoyed to pay €12 as an entrance fee only to find the path up to the statue that formed the beginning of the trail to be blocked by a bunch of nasty no entry signs. Grudgingly, I wandered the grounds of the abbey as a tourist but kept an eye out for other paths that might lead me in the same direction. I found one path but it became treacherously overgrown in less than 100m. I took a lunch break at the lough and looked through the book for Plan C options. Two came to mind. One was an easy walk close by overlooking Killary Harbour. I wasn’t super excited. The other was an easy-moderate walk on the south side of Connemara that promised nice views for its mere 300m in vertical ascent. Errisbeg required a bit more driving and the timing would be really close for making it back to Galway on time, but it sounded much nicer for the afternoon.

I abandoned my foray into tourism and continued the drive around the peninsula. Along the way, I found perhaps the most obscure post office on my entire trip. It was convenient for a stop so Sarynna, Chase and Miki’s postcards all got mailed from there. I am interested to know how long they took to arrive.

The main road twisted around the peninsula. North of Roundstone, I jumped off the main road onto a secondary and progress slowed. I arrived in the village of Roundstone with about two and a half hours for the hike. The book called it 2-3 hours. I figured I could do it and wondered how close to the 2 hour mark I could finish it. The book had an interesting warning. “Note that the volcanic gabbro rock that makes up most of Errisbeg has magnetic properties that can affect compass needles, so great care is needed if navigating in mist.” Thankfully, the mist didn’t seem in the right mood to return.

I parked on the outskirts of the village and walked in to the pub where they started the trail description. The path followed a small country road up to a house and through a gate. A couple of cows looked at me funny as I walked past. The trail began cohesively but quickly disintegrated to nothing useful for following. Near the base of the hill, I followed the book’s description around for a wee while until I found a useful way to start upward. A couple of brief stretches of path gave me a good start as I tromped uphill. The peaks of Errisbeg were somewhat crown shaped with a valley in between. As I worked my way up, I found the first summit cairn and used that as a place to start. I worked my way from one summit cairn to the next to find the true summit. As the book said, the views were beautiful. One particular crossing of the valley made for a particularly muddy squelch that went past the top of my boot.

The summit cairn that I found to be the highest point was just barely above the bit with the artificial summit stone. I called that summitted and headed back down. Across from me in the centre of the summit crown’s valley, I saw a nice opening that would save me another ascent. The valley crossing was a bad idea. Squelch. Squelch. Squelch. I survived, though, found a couple of sheep paths, startled a couple of sheep and found my way down. I got a taste of what the book meant by faulty compass readings. North on the way up and south on the way down didn’t quite match where they should have been. Visibility was good enough. I just headed for the cows and the house beside them. They laughed when I managed a face plant trying to take their photograph. I arrived back at the car, cleaned off the squelch as best I could and checked the time. One hour and forty-five minutes. Plenty of time to get back to Galway.