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[MG1]

Theres a carpark on the Attical side of Crocknafola wood. Are do you want to meet on the hill?

[MikeD]

fyi... i'm stiil going, so will check back later to see if we're meeting in the car park you mentioned or at eagle mountain.....

[chris]

Theres a carpark on the Attical side of Crocknafola wood. Are do you want to meet on the hill?

Is that the carpark at the start of the track leading to the windy gap? Grid 223256

[MG1]

I've no map with me mate but i think so.
Check your messages chris.

[MikeD]

Yeah, I was thinking the Crocknafeola Wood car park, on the Moyad Road, Grid 27 along the top and 22 up the side on the 1:25000 mourne map. 
And to be there for 10am.

[billy backpack]

So gutted I missed this one ! ( was unavoidable due to family commitments )

How did it go today ?

[chris]

It was good, covered the basics of rope work, moving with a rope etc. Didn't manage to get up the gully tho. Its very vegetated and slippery. We also got followed by a ferret and shouted at by a nasty farmer. Strange day all round!

[RedLeader]

Nasty farmer? Do tell!

It was good, covered the basics of rope work, moving with a rope etc. Didn't manage to get up the gully tho. Its very vegetated and slippery. We also got followed by a ferret and shouted at by a nasty farmer. Strange day all round!

[chris]

You walk down a path from the car park then cut right over a wall onto the mountains. On or way back we followed the same path in reverse but we could here this guy shouting. As he got closer he was saying something about watching out for an angry bull but in hindsight I think that was just to get us to stop. Then he started freakin out saying did we not know this was private land, where were we from, who had sent us he couldn't seem to understand that we were just out for a day in the hills!

We explained that we were responsible walkers and apologised for "trespassing" on his land and seeing as we were only 300m from the track back to the car he could escort us up and we'd be on our way. This seemed to aggravate him all the more. He started going on about if he came to my house would I want him in my garden, pretty much blamed us for burning down his gorse (even though I’m 99% sure it was started by the sun!) the he took us up to his wall and tried to force us through this gate thing that had a pile of stones on one side to secure it. I questioned how I was meant to secure such a contraption from the other side the response being “let it be” I then made the point that if I left the gate open his livestock could escape, he didn’t seem to care.

So he made us walk the full length of the wall right up to the road then back along the forest, said he was going to get his car and watch us.
Needless to say we only walked until we were out of sight then ran the 300m into the forest!

[RedLeader]

He sounds like a bit of a dick. It's incredibly hard in the Mournes to know where you are allowed access and where you aren't so landowners either need to make sure that their land is well signed as being private or calm down a bit if there are people about that aren't obviously doing any harm. You should have given him a doing for being obnoxious (obviously I'm only joking and not suggesting anyone goes beating up grumpy old red faced farmers  ).

You walk down a path from the car park then cut right over a wall onto the mountains. On or way back we followed the same path in reverse but we could here this guy shouting. As he got closer he was saying something about watching out for an angry bull but in hindsight I think that was just to get us to stop. Then he sarted freakin out saying did we not know this was private land, where were we from, who had sent us he couldn't seem to understand that we were just out for a day in the hills!

We explained that we were responsible walkers and apologised for "trespassing" on his land and seeing as we were only 300m from the track back to the car he could escort us up and we'd be on our way. This seemed to aggravate him all the more. He started going on about if he came to my house would I want him in my garden, pretty much blamed us for burning down his gorse (even though I’m 99% sure it was started by the sun!) the he took us up to his wall and tried to force us through this gate thing that had a pile of stones on one side to secure it. I questioned how I was meant to secure such a contraption from the other side the response being “let it be” I then made the point that if I left the gate open his livestock could escape, he didn’t seem to care.

So he made us walk the full length of the wall right up to the road then back along the forest, said he was going to get his car and watch us.
Needless to say we only walked until we were out of sight then ran the 300m into the forest!

[MG1]

It was a funny end to the day.  I thought chris was going to get dig in the nose the way he jumped over the wall

[MikeD]

Aye, was a good day....

I learnt how to use eastings\northing map coordinates, got some compass practice in, learnt some basics about rock climbing stuff - thats should keep me alive  at the top of Ben Nevis - it'll be one less thing to think about up there anyways!

But, the ferret was the best part, I'm gonna have to upload this picture, but the website wont let me !

Thanks for showing us this stuff, Chris and Andy !  I look forward to a scramble up the Devils Coachroad of something, if we could organise that at some point 

[MikeD]

had to Gif-ify it....

[RedLeader]

Where did you find a ferret in the Mournes?

[chris]

lol it found us! Woudn't leave us alone either! He was especially fond of Nikon Camera Straps 

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