- Breaking Camp in the Poisoned Glen

- Mount Errigal

- Climbing Up To Rocky Cap

- Rocky Cap - North Summit

- The Final Checkpoint - Spot Height 405

- Nearly There - The Walk Out

Ulster MPC 2008

– Derryveagh Mountains

- Breakfast At Base Camp

 

It's a long way to Tipperary. But it's verifiably an even longer way to Donegal, if you're travelling from Dublin, and when the Friday evening traffic is so bad it takes you two hours just to get past Dublin Airport, it feels very much longer indeed.

But we got there eventually - there being a remote road in the middle of Derryveagh National Park, just above the small collection of cottages that calls itself Dunlewy. This time out the team comprised Keith Brady, Dave Brannigan, Darren Ryan, and Jonathan Ryan. The leader with the team was Alan Monaghan (that's me!) and helping out on staff was Stephen O'Connor. It turned out we were one of only eleven teams that made the arduous trek to North Donegal - the lowest attendance at an MPC in a few years. But that wasn't going to put us off. We were here now; we thought we might as well climb some mountains.

First we had to make our way into Base Camp, which was in the cheerfully named Poisoned Glen. This involved squelching a long way through a bog, in the dark. This was more fun than it sounds - or at least easier than it sounds, because we had a full moon that night and the weather was fairly calm. This was just as well, because Base Camp wasn't exactly an ideal spot. Flat, dry areas were in short supply, and we ended up pitching our tents right on the edge of the riverbank. In particular, the leader's tent was positioned so that just one step too far getting out in the morning would have meant an early bath.

Luckily, we were able to avoid this, and when we got out in the morning we found that Base Camp, while it was a bit boggy, was in a spectacular spot, with cliffs towering over us. The weather wasn't bad, and it looked like it was going to be a good day for hiking until the rain started lashing down. Thankfully, this soon passed, and an hour after getting up we were checked out and climbing up from Base Camp to the first summit of the day.

Actually, summit is probably the wrong word. The hills were very rounded and the ground was very broken. We only really reached one summit and that was fairly late in the day. The rest of the time was spent negotiating gullies and hummocks and steep broken ground. It was very hard going - climbing with a full pack is hard enough without having to jump here, scramble there, and pick your way over steep ribs of rock. Then there were the dykes to be negotiated - broad steep sided gullies that we had to climb down into, scramble across, and then climb out the far side. The first one wasn't so bad, but after three or four the fun was all gone.

We had the spectacular looking Errigal looking over our shoulder all the way - it was just on the other side of the valley - and we were able to use this to gauge our height. At about five hundred meters we passed through a manned checkpoint, and then set off up the steep gully to the North top of Rocky Cap. It was windy, so we didn't hang about. Our next destination was the South top, which looked equally windy, so we decided to stop off at a small sheltered lake in between which, being out of the wind, was almost pleasant. Then it was on again to the South top, where we found our Staff member Stephen, half frozen and badly buffeted by the wind. Once again, we didn't hang about, and after a brief check about where to go next, we set about losing some height, skipped the first nearly vertical rocky gully, and took the prescribed route down into the col between here and Sliabh na Sneachta.

There was no snow on Sliabh Na Sneachta today, but still the team wasn't interested in climbing it - even without their bags. Still, for some reason, Keith seemed interested in walking all the way around it, but that wasn't part of the official route, so we pressed on down another steep gully, eventually skirting around another small lake, and then climbing to a Spot Height, where we found the last checkpoint of the day.

By this time we were all fairly tired. It wasn't that we'd done a lot of climbing, but the ground was so rough that even going across the flat was hard work. We could see Lough Acorrymore, where High Camp was, and it was about two kilometers away, with a couple of hundred metres of climbing thrown in. Oh well - where else were we going to stay?

It took us about an hour to get there, and it wasn't worth the trip. Compared to this, Base Camp was palatial. Here, the ground was wet and broken. You could have flat and wet or lumpy and dry, and that was about it. We eventually found a couple of spots that weren't too bad, but before we could get one tent up we had to do some emergency pole surgery. MacGyver would have been proud. Job done, we got the scout's tent up and their dinner under way. The leader's tent couldn't go up because Stephen was carrying it and he seemed to be finding the last leg particularly hard going.He got in eventually, and with both tents up and both dinners disposed of, it was time for bed. What else can you do at a boggy lake high in the mountains, with a howling gale blowing across it and darkness coming on?

Next morning the place looked hardly any more welcoming, and after a quick Scout's Own, we were glad to be on our way and following the river down and out of the mountains. Again, this was tough going because of the roughness of the ground, and it was a good two hours before we finally reached civilisation. Then it was time for a quick change and one last look at Errigal, before we got into the cars and set off on the four hour drive back to Dublin.