The Greater Luioch Horseshoe

Above: Ascending Eagles Hill with Kenmare Bay below and the Beara Peninsula behind.

For me there is nothing like being on one mountain range, looking across to the next one, spotting the mountain areas I haven’t hiked before and devising a ridiculous route to take it all in. After a day on the outstanding Cummengeera Horseshoe and Hungry Hill on the Beara Peninsula we had retired to the Sailor’s Inn on Kenmare Bay and thoughts had of course turned to the next day. Finding yourself on the western seaboard of Ireland with an anticyclone in place happens at best once a year and more usually only once or twice a decade but a route to match our day on Beara surrounded by oceans, lakes, forests, clean rock, bog and huge open mountain terrain was going to be hard to find.

Above: Loch Luioch from Glanbeg

To make the task harder I was after new terrain but helpfully we had spent the day looking at a part of the Iveragh peninsula I had never walked before and all the other maps bar ‘84’ were buried in the boot of the car. A horseshoe route taking in Coomcallee on Iveragh was therefore roughly agreed upon and at 11.20pm a pub in Sneem sold us Weetabix, bread and ham, Newcastle Brown Ale and enough other fuel to get us started the next day. We camped at the pier on Lamb’s Head where at breakfast I was glad that the sausages took an hour to cook on three different stoves. Across from us were the Dursey, Deenish and Scariff islands and a very fine swathe of the Kerry coastline.

Above: The Iveragh Peninsula, Kerry, Ireland.

We approached our planned horseshoe by driving up the south side of Loch Luioch from Waterville which is the most westerly point on the Ring of Kerry. We started off along the waymarked Kerry Way before getting stuck in to the hot 600 metre climb up Glanbeg. A short ridge finally brought us to the trig point on the unnamed peak. No cooling breeze today, the mountains were dry and we had this part of Ireland to ourselves. I never knew that the Iveragh peninsula had so many fine lakes that we could see now to the North and as we headed in the direction of Coomcallee I started to get an idea of where this route was going to take us. The ridge from Coomcallee to the Windy Gap wasn’t the quick run of a finger that it had been in the pub the night before. It was a rocky 8 kilometre stretch with at least seven substantial rises or pinnacles. There was no clear path between them as these are hills that are seldom travelled and the first section down to Lough Sallagh was tough walking. We were continuously up and down through rocky bluffs and there was no let up in the heat meaning that feet had to be slowly cooled during lunch at the lake. We contemplated staying there for the day or the week even.

Above: Lough Sallagh

The rises passed steadily but I started to wonder if picking up the Kerry Way at the Windy Gap and descending to the car from there might really be the best idea. My back was complaining a bit after Aidan led us over that cliff yesterday. Aidan had the walking poles out for the first time too while I had promised Eoin (recovering from an undiagnosed foot injury) “nothing too mad” this weekend. The greatest climbing, mountaineering and hillwalking routes have all surely been created with the aid of a touch of madness however.

Above: Near Bohacogram...

The last peak overlooking Staigue before the Windy Gap had an atmosphere and views that would keep most Irish hillwalkers happy for a year at least given that the majority of time in the Irish uplands is spent in fog, rain, wind and cold. Was I being greedy then when I found with delight that the Holy Well at the Windy Gap was dry and that a glistening patch halfway up Eagles Hill was surely a stream and therefore an invitation to climb it. Up we went then without debate, the lads either on the verge of madness just like me or not wanting to cut this wild mountain day short to follow yellow men and a well trodden path. Eagles Hill went quickly after the glistening revealed a cool and slow flow of water but it was a long two miles out to the final peak of Mullaghbeg. The day was getting on and the low sun had decided to light up Horse Island and the Ballinskelligs Bay. At our final high point I ran my eyes and mind across the somewhat preposterous route we had taken over the day. We had climbed a lot of hills.

Above: Alien Rock on Eagles Hill

We had to descend to the elaborately named “Inchfarranagleragh Glebe” but we didn’t stay on the spur overlooking the fine Coomrooanig Lough for long enough and we soon found ourselves over difficult steep ground. We hadn’t checked the map but when we did later it didn’t shout about the steep cliffs anyway. Back up and across to the lake so which is never a joy when you have convinced your mind and body that it was “all downhill from here”. We finally hit the valley floor and a quick mile along Isknagahiny Lough brought us pack to our starting point. From the car there wasn’t a single hilltop visible in the huge valley or indeed in any direction that we hadn’t been on that day.

Above: Coomcallee from Mullaghbeg

At the edge of Ballinskelligs Bay in Waterville we toasted the Greater Luioch Horseshoe and announced its birth sometime later on national radio. You won’t find it in any of the walking guidebooks or on any of the websites proving that all you need sometimes is your eyes, your feet, a little reassurance from the map and perhaps a slight touch of madness.

Above: Boulder in the Luioch Valley

The Greater Luioch Horseshoe. First Completion by Colm Ennis, Aidan Ennis and Eoin Kelly – Sunday 11th April 2010 (23k and 1764m).

Above: Sunset over the last reaches of the Iveragh Peninsula from Waterville.

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