“Now you see them, now you don’t”
Sunday July 2009 02:15 PM
Walk
Report – Sun 28th
Jun
2009.
Commedagh and the Castles
After all the promises of peerless skies, the day, though warm and humid, began with low cloud, shrouding even the forest at Donard Park. I’m always on the lookout when I reach Temple, for there one gets the first glimpse of the Mournes; on this day there was no sign of them!
11 of us gathered at Donard Park to start the ascent to the Saddle through Donard Park along the side of the Glen River. It seemed to take very little time to reach the Saddle through a thick mist with the occasional period of drizzle. Once up at the Saddle, the day started to get brighter, and our lunch break there meant that once we were ready to start walking again, we had made up our minds to take advantage of the improving conditions to do the longer planned walk along the Brandy Pad below the Commedagh Castles to reach the Devil’s Coachroad on Slieve Beg. A debate between David and Ian on whether to descend the Coachroad, ended with a decision not to, wise in view of the slippery conditions.
The conditions were improving all the while; one minute you would see the Castles, the next minute not! The tors on Bearnagh would suddenly appear unexpectantly and just as quickly disappear again.
Soon we were climbing Commedagh to get a view of the Castles from above, having already viewed them from below on our way along the Brandy Pad. This is an easy mountain to climb, a good 400ft lower than Donard with gentler slopes. From the Saddle, it can be climbed within 20 minutes, but we were rather circumnavigating it. Once at the top, some of us went down to the spring just below the summit to refill bottles with clear cold water. After a break, we were off over the wall beside the summit hut to walk the short distance to the real summit, and then down to the carpark, crossing Shanslieve and Slievenmaddy on the way.
Commedagh and the Castles
After all the promises of peerless skies, the day, though warm and humid, began with low cloud, shrouding even the forest at Donard Park. I’m always on the lookout when I reach Temple, for there one gets the first glimpse of the Mournes; on this day there was no sign of them!
11 of us gathered at Donard Park to start the ascent to the Saddle through Donard Park along the side of the Glen River. It seemed to take very little time to reach the Saddle through a thick mist with the occasional period of drizzle. Once up at the Saddle, the day started to get brighter, and our lunch break there meant that once we were ready to start walking again, we had made up our minds to take advantage of the improving conditions to do the longer planned walk along the Brandy Pad below the Commedagh Castles to reach the Devil’s Coachroad on Slieve Beg. A debate between David and Ian on whether to descend the Coachroad, ended with a decision not to, wise in view of the slippery conditions.
The conditions were improving all the while; one minute you would see the Castles, the next minute not! The tors on Bearnagh would suddenly appear unexpectantly and just as quickly disappear again.
Soon we were climbing Commedagh to get a view of the Castles from above, having already viewed them from below on our way along the Brandy Pad. This is an easy mountain to climb, a good 400ft lower than Donard with gentler slopes. From the Saddle, it can be climbed within 20 minutes, but we were rather circumnavigating it. Once at the top, some of us went down to the spring just below the summit to refill bottles with clear cold water. After a break, we were off over the wall beside the summit hut to walk the short distance to the real summit, and then down to the carpark, crossing Shanslieve and Slievenmaddy on the way.