Benbulben.Benwisken.Dartry Mountains.Ireland Part Two.

We were so lucky with the weather over in Ireland. A week before the trip heavy snowfalls had covered most of Ireland and the mountains but by the time we arrived sans ice axes, crampons, and walking poles it had melted again. According to Graeme, Ireland does seem to get a milder winter climate than Scotland whose  high mountains were still blanketed with snow and ice. Worth noting if you are thinking of coming here.

Our second day in Ireland saw us wake early to a beautiful morning and we packed quickly then shot off on good wide roads towards the Dartry Mountains which span the borders of County Lettrim and County Sligo. This was only an hour's car journey away from where we were based in Donegal.
The two photographs above are Graeme and Handsome Bob(not me, sniff sniff) heading up the slopes to one of the most spectacular and eye-catching peaks in the country. Benwisken, with its extraordinary, never forgotten once seen, breaking wave cliffs.

 We went up this by driving up a minor tarmac road leading into the central basin between Benwisken and Benbulben. There is a circular layby just before a small bridge on an upper slope. Do not block the road here as it is used regularly by peat cutters.(turf in Ireland.)
Some of the Dartry Mountains have access problems as most sit on private land and its up to individual farmers and landowners to grant permission. Benwisken in particular  has suffered from this in the past.

Having walked in Scotland and abroad for many years I thought I knew the mountain regions of Europe fairly well but Ireland might as well have a 'Here be dragons' and a blank space drawn over most of it. I vaguely knew the names of the Irish 3000's footers but anything else was a complete mystery to me. I suspect a lot of hill folk outside Ireland are the same. Apart from Paddy Dillon's excellent book there does not seem to be much out there in the way of  mountain guide books.
(There may be more locally but I,m just not aware of it, being a novice to the area.)
The white blob on the pinnacle above is a death defying sheep, of which more later.

This is handsome bob standing dutifully on the very edge of the breaking wave cliffs just below the summit. Extremely exposed on the edge, looking down, as you can imagine. Even the slope behind him in this photo is grass set at a ridiculously steep angle. He is standing out on a narrow rib here. I didn't stay out there long myself. The Dartry Mountains are made up of layers of limestone  on top of mudstones and look pretty friable. Not good for Rock Climbing on this peak anyway.
http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/benbulben/benbulben1.html
This is a cracking link for  great photos, myths and history of the area by folk who know its secrets intimately. Well worth a look. Beautifully created. The 5 min video of the ascent of Ben bulben is brilliant and it features a good looking young man. (Well ,better looking and younger than me anyway. Photos are much better than mine as well. Sniff Sniff. Ah well I suppose he's got more time to pick his viewpoints being a local. Only fair. At the bottom of this  remarkable link's first page is a stunning photo of Benwisken and a gateway portal of a journey into the highest caves in Ireland.
Wonderful images inside a limestone treasure. We had a drive under them but it was almost dark by that time

Looking into the wild interior of the Dartry Mountains. Ireland has been such a joy for me as its like turning back time 40 years to my first sight of Suilven, Stac Polly, An Teallach, Liathach and Slioch in Scotland.
Every new view is a surprising wonder here. Fresh and exciting.

A view of our approach route up Benwisken and the deep layers of peat encountered all along the plateau. Some of these peat beds were ten to fifteen feet deep. Not only Donegal has a thriving industry in turf  for home fires it seems as the entire basin below the mountain had folk busy digging. .

 

 

Not snow but bags of turf bagged and ready for collection. Benwisken was enough for Graeme and Bob but I was fired with excitement for a new area and wanted to carry on to do Benbulben, the bookend companion on the other side of this huge corrie. With the peat bags below looking like tents it reminded me of  the film Zulu Dawn and the horns of the Buffalo surrounding the soldiers as both Benwisken and Benbulben rear up at either end of a curving central basin. Benbulben is Irelands very own Table mountain incidentally so I might have been influenced by that.
Benbulben was reputed to be the home of the Fianna, The half mythical bands of fighting outcasts, inspiration for many plays and stories. This is also Yeats country, as the poet,writer  and Nobel prize winner grew up in Sligo and knew this area well.

I jogged across most of this escarpment edge, something I haven't done for many years, certainly not uphill anyway but I was inspired that day and ran for miles. In places it resembled the Trotternish ridge on Skye. Took just over an hour to reach the summit of Benbulben and the ground in places between the peaks looked as if it had been subjected to battlefield mortar fire. Hundreds of green sink holes where the earth had collapsed inwards dotted the plateau, some of them twenty feet deep and steep sided with snow still in the bottom away from any sunlight.
Benbulben itself was just a flat broad summit but it did have extensive views. You don't tend to meet many hill walkers on the lesser Irish peaks, even one's as noticeable as these. Only a faint path to the summit where a small plaque informed me that someone had died up here recently. Australian guy I think attracted by the pull of walking across mountains on Europe's furthest shoreline. As it faces the full force of the Atlantic storms coming in it can get savage up here in winter I'd imagine.

 

View from the summit over Sligo Bay.

Benbulben summit from the minor road.

I took this close up of the uniform cliffs under the summit but it was only when I uploaded it I saw the sheep grazing halfway up the cliffs. It doesn't look like snow but if you look closely it does appear to be sheep on an almost impossible angle of slope.
Maybe over generations of grazing flocks on this mountain the sheep here have developed mountain goat like characteristics.

This is the roughly same area seen side on during my descent as the light was fading.
Ireland. It is indeed a remarkable place.

Video is another one from the archives. Marsha Hunt singing Dr John's Classic about voodoo,  half seen things creeping through the darkness, and yellow belted joy zombies coming to steal your eyes. Brilliant version.