WALKS:It's tough getting across the soggy expanse at Barnacullian ridge but absorbing nonetheless, writes DEIRDRE DAVY
A DAY IN THE hills with your average 16-year-old usually starts with them all showered and gelled, make-up perfect, tracksuits freshly ironed – probably by a doting mother. The idea of getting their boots mucky seems most distasteful, but give them an hour in the bog and the next thing you’ll see is muck fights, faces streaked with the black stuff, and competitions to see who can jump the next bog hole and so-what if you fall in.
Adults, too, can let themselves go and no better place than the Wicklow Mountains. Out on the Barnacullian ridge you are in a desolate landscape with black peaty vistas stretching out in all directions, peat hags and black holes below. Circumnavigation is the order of the day. It is impossible to walk in a straight line as the landscape is so jumbled up with obstacles.
For some people this would be plain miserable but, if you take it as a challenge, you can enjoy the walk and get twice as much exercise as you normally would because of having to retrace your steps and jump over water, climb up walls of peat and race across oozing mud trying not to get sucked in.
The route starts at the base of Carrigshouk, a neat 571-metre peak you don’t need to climb, just contour along the side of it. Park on the gravelly spaces near a track which looks like one made by Coillte. Walk up that track until it starts to veer too much to the right and head up the side of the hill on your left. There are a lot of broken branches here, which makes it pretty slippery, so it’s unsuitable for those who are not sure-footed. Keep going around the side of the hill gaining height slowly.
Within 15 minutes you will get great views towards Lough Dan and the Vartry Lakes while ahead is your first goal, Mullaghcleevaun East Top. At 795 metres, this is one of the higher peaks in Wicklow but, as you started climbing at about 450 metres, the ascent is not strenuous. The going is easy and quite heathery. It is not until later that the mud starts. The views from Mullaghcleevaun East Top are fantastic as you are higher up than most of the surrounding peaks. You might even make out the Welsh mountains.
Unless you’re feeling very energetic, don’t bother going up to the summit of Mullaghcleevaun proper. To avoid a lot of boggy eroded ground at Mullaghcleevaun East Top summit, head northeast for a bit and, gradually gaining some height, begin to veer west. The closer to Barnacullan ridge you go the more the ground starts to become complicated. One minute you are on dry heathery bits and the next you have to drop a few metres to avoid getting your feet soaked. This type of thing goes on and on, and you have to decide to enjoy it and not become frustrated.
It’s debatable whether you’re better off carefully picking a route over the sodden boggy bits or if running across is better. Perhaps it depends on how fleet of foot you are or even how heavy. Setting yourself the challenge of getting through it with dry feet can certainly focus the mind.
Depending on the weather, fitness levels, enthusiasm and daylight, you can decide to either continue on up to the top of Tonlegee or cut your losses and exit the mountain from the col before the ground starts to rise again steeply.
Head for the Glenmacnass River which runs along the edge of the forest. Various streams drain off the side of the mountain along this stretch but they don’t cause any problems. Once at the river’s edge the walking becomes easy and the sandy track running along by the flowing water is a real delight.
The forest on the far side of the river is very light and it is easy enough to find a way up through it and back out onto the road where you left your car at the base of Carrigshouk.
Barnacullian ridge
Start and finish:R115 2.5km north of the car park near the Glenmacnass waterfall
Map: Ordnance Survey Discovery Series Sheet 56
Distance: 12-12.5km
Time: About five hours
Suitability: For all levels, but not for people averse to getting stuck in a soggy bog