Walking Ireland’s Mountains

In Praise of Ireland’s Mountains

In four words they are: beauty, variability, accessibility and remoteness. The first two are so evident that they scarcely need any elaboration, though they should be considered in conjuction with each other. Beauty without variation, no matter how stunning, can ultimately pall and become uninteresting. In many mountain places, each few steps bring another hill into view and open up a vista of a corrie lake or a tumbling stream. Variety is certainly the spice of beauty.

Accessibility and remoteness seem at first glance to be strange bed-fellows. Not really so. Most Irish mountains are close to a motorable road and few are far from good centres. There is no need for long treks and highly organised expeditions. Yet when you get into the mountains, you are very soon in remote areas: no houses or mountain huts, few tracks or other walkers. Remoteness with accessibility – an attractive combination!

This brings us to the eight regions into which I have grouped the Irish moutain ranges.

[The book Walking Ireland’s Mountains contains a table of David Herman’s assessment, along with numerous indispensible maps and walking guides]

Having said so much that is positive, it is only fair to mention an endemic problem, one that I bring up with the utmost regret. If cleanliness is indeed next to godliness, then the Irish are atheists. I can only ask your forbearance when faced by careless littering or even dumping. It is scant compensation to know that most native hill walkers feel just as strongly as I do about this problem and are doing their best to remedy it.

Information extracted from Walking Ireland’s Mountains: a guide to the ranges and the best walking routes by David Herman, published by Appletree Press.