Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => Meets, places, trips and reviews => Topic started by: LandyLiam on August 21, 2012
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Decided to do a bit of navigation practise with my MMM partner today, staying off the paths and keeping to rough ground, the forecast was for bad weather, excellent, just what we needed :) so we started off from Tollymore to go through the forest, on to Luke's Mountain, and into the Pot of Legawherry (beside Slieve Commedagh) then up one of the gulleys to the Mourne Wall.
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210337Small.jpg)
the weather started a bit too good :(
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210348Small.jpg)
we found some tracks through the forest to save a long zig zag trek along the forest roads to Parnells Bridge
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210362Small.jpg)
On top of Luke's Mountain looking towards Commedagh
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210361Small.jpg)
now looking towards Newcastle, this would be a lovely spot for a quick overnighter, plenty of tent space and lovely soft grass so you'd hardly need a sleeping mat
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210365s.jpg)
the pot of legawherry (with our route dotted), looks very steep up the last bit, but i had come down it before, so i knew it was doable, if we found the right gully (we didn't!)
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210375Small.jpg)
now in the pot, crossing the big flat bit, this would be a great spot in the snow, i don't think much sun would hit here
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210370Small.jpg)
the view from the pot
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210372Small.jpg)
at last, some fog to test our navigation skills
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210380Small.jpg)
no he hasn't lost his legs, it was just VERY steep!
eventually we made it to the Mourne wall, after a little navigation error, we were to far to the left of the pot and missed the easy gully (it was very foggy) and when i checked the gps we were actually scrambling up the side of Commedagh :o so turned 90 deg right and hit the wall after 30 meters :)
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210388Small.jpg)
top of the pot
we had planned to go on to Bearnagh & Spellack but a quick look at the weather radar picture showed that all hell might break loose shortly so we followed the wall to Slievenaglogh and cut cross country back to Luke's Mountain (the worst of the showers actually missed us)
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/wxr1300Small.jpg)
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210391Small.jpg)
stopping for 2nd lunch at a nice rock feature near Slievenaglogh
(i actually didn't know it was this nice til i saw the photo, i only saw it from the other side)
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210397Small.jpg)
the cloud lifts and we get a good view of Luke's Mountain
we did a bit of pacing here, i worked out the distance and my estimated speed, i reckoned we would be at the path in 12 mins, my son thought it would take longer, even i doubted myself, but i got there in 11min 55sec :) so well worth working out your pacing times, much easier than counting steps
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/P1210401Small.jpg)
back at our start point, then off to Zebedee's in Castlewellan for an BIG chicken burger
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2012/gpsrouteSmall.jpg)
our route
983m ascent
13.2km
3h 42m moving
1h 49m stopped
(5.5 hrs total)
3.6 kmh moving average
I wouldn't recommend trying to go up or down the pot without someone who has done it before, could easily get yourself into a pickle, and dry weather and good visibility will help. But I believe the easiet gully is the one nearest to Commedagh.
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Missed out on this dander today,waited for a delivery all day only to get a phone call at 4.15 pm to say it would be tomorrow, ??? Anyway looked like a good day out & you got that wee bit of bad weather you were looking for!Maybe one day next week we could trek the Western Mournes,doing some micro naving
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Yep, those Ann Summers deliveries are so unreliable ;D
Back to work next week so evenings only, or maybe that little overnighter on Lukes Mtn :)
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Enjoyed reading the post Liam, and the photos. It's good to see parts of the Mournes I've never been to.
And good use of technology while you're roughing it up there. Think I've been left behind! :o
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A nice wee reminder of some of the places I haven't been yet.
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Missed out on this dander today,waited for a delivery all day only to get a phone call at 4.15 pm to say it would be tomorrow, ??? Anyway looked like a good day out & you got that wee bit of bad weather you were looking for!Maybe one day next week we could trek the Western Mournes,doing some micro naving
Mate I hate when that happens
It really, really pisses me off
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I've wanted to camp in one of the pots for ages but I didn't realise it was such a hard hike up. Can you go onto Commedagh and drop down?
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its not that hard to hike up if you take a shorter route from a different part of tollymore and stick to the paths, we just wanted to do it the hard way 8) very possible to come down from commedagh but that would be longer, another way would be to go through donard forest, in fact that might well be my next hike.
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We should get a quick overnighter planned.
its not that hard to hike up if you take a shorter route from a different part of tollymore and stick to the paths, we just wanted to do it the hard way 8) very possible to come down from commedagh but that would be longer, another way would be to go through donard forest, in fact that might well be my next hike.
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POT... High.... What sort of camp are you after?? :P
TRIPPY!!!