Go Walk: Tievebaun, Co Leitrim and Truskmore, Co Sligo

Some years ago while cycling around the coast of Ireland I got the notion to bag the highest peak in each county that I passed through. The easiest was Sligo and Leitrim as I could tick off two peaks on the one day with the added bonus of being able to cycle up the less steep bits on the road and freewheel all the way down, which was cheating really. So this summer I returned to climb them properly.

Truskmore (647m) is the highest point in Co Sligo while a few hundred metres away a cairn on the 650m contour line marks the highest point in Co Leitrim. Now I think that a beautiful county like Leitrim deserves more than a quick stroll across to a nondescript nameless cairn on the edge of the Truskmore Plateau. So I decided that Tievebaun (611m), which is the highest spot height in Leitrim, would be my first objective of the day. From the car park a forest road zigzags up the steep wooded slopes of the Dartry Plateau’s southern edge to a clearing where a stile brings you on to the bog road. The track gets you easily through the worst of the cutaway bog and up to 350m before you have to venture on to the rough ground of the open moorland.

Head northeast across the bog towards the Glenade Valley, keeping an eye out for the large bog holes and sink holes which dot the area. While Ben Bulbin gets all the press, the edge of the Glenade Valley is equally impressive with vertical limestone cliffs buttressed by great flounces of scree.

Contour northwards along the top of the cliffs towards Tievebaun. As you get closer you’ll notice an outcrop of startlingly white rock which looks like a large arrow pointing uphill. It appears to be a deposit of pure carboniferous limestone which you don’t often come across. It’s called Eagles Rock.

The county boundary on the plateau is marked by a fine stone wall which morphs into a fence towards the summit. Keep around 100m on the Leitrim side and you’ll come across a pair of twin cairns, and 500m further on the cairn which marks the spot height.

This indeed is a noble viewing point. Below you the Sligo coast scalloped by its famous beaches provide a sparkling contrast with Slieve League’s towering cliffs across Donegal Bay. To the west the top of Ben Bulbin peeps over the long ridge of Benwiskin, while on the Leitrim side there is a full view down the glacial valley of Glenade.

It is an easy walk along the county boundary to Truskmore, finishing with a steep pull up to the summit. You’ll get the distinct feeling that you are being microwaved by the various aerials and dishes on the masts. It’s not a mountain I’d climb with a hypochondriac – he or she would have a fit.

The ground around Truskmore is steep, so the fastest way off is to drop down the slope you ascended and then contour around onto grassy moorland and head southwest to pick up your outward track.

The descent in the evening light is magic as ahead of you the dark outline of Knocknarea is framed between Kings Mountain and Copes Mountain. Passing the information panel which overlooks the upper part of Glencar Waterfall and which has Yeats's poem The Stolen Child printed on it, the irreverent thought crossed my mind that if Yeats had been a peak bagger, he might well have written a poem about Tievebaun. It deserves a verse or two.