Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
Outdoor Activities => Northern Ireland Camping and Bushcraft => Topic started by: WildWesty on January 09, 2012
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Hi everyone, I am planning on a two day camping trip this weekend to the Mournes .... I haven’t been up in a while and was looking for any good camping spots that aren’t too hard to get too and close to water.
This might be a silly question but does anyone know of any wild camping spots in the area where you could possibly do a spot of fishing also?? I plan on going up Donard at some point during the two days and would be grateful for any suggestions.
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Hi mate.
Id suggest the shelterstone for your wee trip.
You can park at an area called meelmore lodge that offers parking with cctv cameras which can give you peace of mind, you do have to pay for it but its around £4 a day which isnt too bad.
From the carpark walk towards the hills and youl find yourself on the trasey track which you will follow up to the hares gap, its a hollow between Slieve bernagh and slievenaglogh.
Go over the stile and youl see Ben Crom reservoir in front of you, theres a trail to your right that will take you down to a great campsite thats right at the end of the reservoir, youl find fresh water there as well as a stream runs beside the campsite.
We camped there in the summer when the water was perfectly calm, and the amount of fish i saw rising was pretty impressive, probably trout.
If you pack up camp and go back up to the stile again you can get to donard by following the brandy pad which is a path that skirts the sides of the mountains, it can be a trek mind you. Personally id go slieve bernagh for the view but where ever youl have a good time.
Alan.
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Im also heading up this weekend for an overnighter as i havnt been out since before christmas and i have planned on using the exact route above haha! I think i might aim for the shelter stone though, or at least trying to find it ???
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Hi Adam, that is the shelter stone campsite that im talking about, but i forgot to write that bit, oops. :P
If you look up the hill you should see the stone above you, to the left hand side of the stream.
You can find some pics of the site on the forum.
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Here's some photos of the areaknown as the Shelter Stone campsite
http://imageshack.us/g/715/night16july2011009.jpg/
there are places to camp on each side of the river.
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A wee map will help.
(http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/matthewrblack/mountains/Capture-5.jpg)
Some photos from the last camp there
(http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/matthewrblack/mountains/o.jpg)
(http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e144/matthewrblack/mountains/j.jpg)
A link to the the original thread can be found here
http://www.ni-wild.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2733.0 (http://www.ni-wild.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2733.0)
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Hi Adam, that is the shelter stone campsite that im talking about, but i forgot to write that bit, oops. :P
If you look up the hill you should see the stone above you, to the left hand side of the stream.
You can find some pics of the site on the forum.
Been down only twice before but wasnt really looking for it, have it well marked out on the map with a grid reference so i cant miss it. I will not sleep until its found :D Thanks for the info. Is it big enough to bivvi in or is it not actually a stone like im thinking ???
Here's some photos of the areaknown as the Shelter Stone campsite
http://imageshack.us/g/715/night16july2011009.jpg/
there are places to camp on each side of the river.
Had a look at the pics there and thats exactly somewere were i aim to camp, and what a view to wake up too! Have you a trip write up about it? Thanks for the help as always :)
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Happy days Matthew, thanks for that, the more maps to study before the better :) have my route planned out, anytime iv been before i just was expecting to see this massive cave, maybe thats were i went wrong. I think if i get close enough to Ben Crom then track back im bound to find it properly! :-\
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Its really not a cave more like a 1.5x2 m opening.
You are looking for the rocky outcrop, you need to head up the Kilkeel river 50-100 m
(http://www.ni-wild.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/DSCF7843-300x225.jpg)
and it looks a bit like this when at the stone
(http://www.ni-wild.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/DSCF7845-300x225.jpg)
Jonno posted a trip report on the blog and it can be found below
http://www.ni-wild.co.uk/blog/2011/07/camp-at-ben-crom/ (http://www.ni-wild.co.uk/blog/2011/07/camp-at-ben-crom/)
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Trout? In Ben Crom... I've never seen any, however if there were we should go, err, see them...
We camped there in the summer when the water was perfectly calm, and the amount of fish i saw rising was pretty impressive, probably trout.
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Trout? In Ben Crom... I've never seen any, however if there were we should go, err, see them...
We camped there in the summer when the water was perfectly calm, and the amount of fish i saw rising was pretty impressive, probably trout.
I have searched the net (no pun intended :)) many times over the years for fish in the mournes and especially Ben crom, but can find no hard evidence of them? I have seen small trout in the trassey river and spelga has trout too, also found a document suggesting there might be arctic char in lough shannagh, if there were fish in Ben crom I can't think of many better places to cast a line!
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Id love a go for the Atlantic char very rare/hard fish to get . do you have a wee link to where you read that plz
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Thanks guys for all the information – think I will have to leave my trip to next week as I still have a bit of gear to get first before I can venture out.
I myself have searched the net trying to find a place to fish in the Mournes but have had no joy. I think the only way to find out is to give it a go......
If anyone has ever tried to fish Ben Crom before it would be great to hear how they went.
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Id love a go for the Atlantic char very rare/hard fish to get . do you have a wee link to where you read that plz
I'll see if I can find it again and stick a link on for you.
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I think I found the document – there is only one paragraph that mentions Artic Char and it is as follows...
“It is thought that Lough Shannagh may contain a rare species of fish known as “Artic Char”. The habitat at the Lough would suggest that it is suitable for these rare species. A survey is to be carried out by DCAL Inland Waterways and Inland Fisheries Branch, Castlewellan to determine the population status.”
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Yes that's the one I was referring to! That was in 2004 but I can find no record of the study if it was ever done?
As rumblebum said during the summer shelter stone camp the amount of 'rises' on Ben crom was mighty!
Did u actually see fish jumping mate or just ripples on the surface? I remember seeing loads of ripples, but I thought it was those bloody midges going for a swim ! ;D Lol
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I don't know, some of them were massive! Lol I'm gonna have to take a rod up and have a try, it's the only thing for it! Lol
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I don't know, some of them were massive! Lol I'm gonna have to take a rod up and have a try, it's the only thing for it! Lol
Is that a rod to catch midges or fish?
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I don't know, some of them were massive! Lol I'm gonna have to take a rod up and have a try, it's the only thing for it! Lol
Is that a rod to catch midges or fish?
;D
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I was talking to my mate about this last week, he was telling me that he was up at ben crom resevoir a few years ago with his dad who works for the rivers agency (or something like that) :-\, anyway they had to go out and carry out a survey on the fish stocks and species. There are definately a good number trout in there, but what they found is that some may be slightly stunted in growth , a 10 year old fish in another lake would be larger due to the lack of nutrition and food in the water, you only really have the kilkeel river that feeds it, there are no trees or shrubs or reeds that would attract the insects which feed the fish, could be why i saw so many rising during the summer cus they were all flipin starvin!!!
You always got the spelga Dam but im gonna take the rod to the shelter stone and try this out, hey if i dont get anything at least il have my wine and steak to keep me happy.
Maybe we can organise a nite out in the brighter nights.
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I've fished nearly all the Mournes lakes at some point or another,most contain wild brownies,weighting around half a pound at the most,gold head nymph usually works well,or an olive,but there's very little chance of catching any this time of year,it's just too cold for those little trout,summer past I had a good day on blue lough under Lamagan caught around 9 or 10 on a hares ear pattern,all catch & release,although I've heard there's a very boggy taste of them!I'll look for some photo's tomorrow,& as always I've used barbless hooks on wild browns & sea-trout
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Cheers for the info lads! boggy tasting or not, would still be pretty cool to catch a trout and fry it up for the dinner in the middle of the mournes! :)
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A few wild Mourne Brownie's,all returned to the water
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7149/6677296457_641d4a43c9_z.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/70169151@N05/6677296457/)
198131_5593184859_628904859_151019_3265_n (http://www.flickr.com/photos/70169151@N05/6677296457/) by shannaghan (http://www.flickr.com/people/70169151@N05/), on Flickr
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returned alive ? they look dead
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They look wet still - probly just out of a keep net.
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kept them in a bucket,they all let go