Trip Thru Tipp 2021 After two years promising myself I’d take part in this great yearly event in aid of South Tipperary Hospice, I finally got to experience it, firsthand. Not on my own bike, as I felt I still wasn’t confident enough on it, but,instead, as pillion on ‘himself’s” bike. We had the bike…
Day 7 Bweeng to Boggeragh Wind Farm Length: 22km Time: 5 hours, 39 minutes including lunch and breaks The last time we were in Bweeng, we had left the car parked at the church yard which was about a kilometre away from where the Blackwater Way finishes up. No longer rookies, this time we parked…
Day 6 Killavullen to Bweeng Length: 24.57km Time: 5 hours, 52 minutes including lunch break and coffee stops Logistics We started this section of the walk where we left off the last day when we walked from Ballyhooly to Killavullen. That meant we started walking from Glenagear Woods (Coordinates: 52.1186275,-8.5273093) just outside Killavullen as I’d…
Last month, while in Mayo, I had a list of places to see when I arrived in Newport. One of those on the list for the Friday evening I arrived was Burrishoole Abbey, although apparently it’s not an abbey, it’s a friary, as the Dominican order (who it was founded for by Richard de Burgo…
Climbing Slieve Riadh, Glenbrohane Sliabh Riadh (Slievereagh) is a 465m high hill in the Ballyhoura mountains, just outside Glenbrohane. Translated as the “King’s Mountain”, it is believed that a king is buried at the top of it. Unfortunately for the king, nobody seems to know his name. But, a huge mast crowns the site where…
I couldn’t let today go without posting this picture of Blacksod lighthouse and coastguard station that I took while I was in Mayo. Today, Maureen Sweeney, a 98 year old woman living in Mayo, received a special US House of Representatives honour for her role in changing the course of the second world war while…
St. Deirbhile’s Church, Aughleam, Belmullet, Mayo We were blessed with the most glorious weather on the Sunday of the June bank holiday weekend while we were in Mayo. Driving around the coast, out past Mullet and towards a place called Faulmore, we spotted the ruins of St. Deirbhile’s church. St. Deirbhile’s church (with at least…
Grace Kelly family ancestral home About six kilometres from Newport in the townland of Drumilra, Mayo, and overlooking the ‘Leg of Mutton’ lake, lie the crumbling remains of a three roomed cottage that actress and princess, Grace Kelly, purchased in June of 1976. Grace Kelly’s grandfather, John Peter Kelly had been born and reared in…
Distance: 26km Time: 11 hours When I originally signed up for this guided hike, I didn’t really believe that it would take ten to twelve hours to walk it. Sure, the guide posted enough advance warning on Facebook about the distance, and relayed, repeatedly, the fact that the trail was quite wet. But I thought…
I found myself with a couple of hours to spare last week and decided to go and explore the Ballard waterfall trail near Mountain Barrack in Cork. We had seen the signs for the waterfall when we were walking the Blackwater Way from Mountain Barrack to Fermoy and I’d seen pictures of the waterfall on…