Woke up this morning and had a nice hearty breakfast at the Beach House before jogging the guesthouse dog down to the beach one final time.

Beach House guesthouse, Kilkieran, Ireland

At this stage, Elizabeth and I will separate for our daily activities, so in this post I will relay my day. I packed up and headed out to Connemarra National Park in Letterfrack on the west coast of Ireland, first passing through Clifden.

Clifden, western Ireland

The park was free admission, and I followed the 3.7km hiking tour up and around Diamond Hill at 442 meters in elevation (about 1470 feet) which was a nice hike, a combination of gravel path and stone steps. Gorgeous view down into Barnaderg Bay, feeing from the Atlantic Ocean. Here are a few shots from my morning warmup.

Connemara mare and pony, Connemara National Park

Diamond Hill, Connemara National Park

panorama of Connemara National Park

And then a roadside castle on the way to my next hike.

castle between Connemara National Park and Twelve Bens

Then it was quite an adventure - first of all, I really wanted to hike within the famous Twelve Bens, a series of peaks that starts at Connemarra National Park then heads inland. It took several false starts and false instructions, but eventually I parked at a youth hostel and began the hike up.

Let me first start by saying that I burned just over twice the calories on this hike than I normally do running! The first 2.5km was straight up Benlettery at 577 meters (1920 feet) - but it was the most challenging terrain I have ever hiked. There is no consistent trail, let a long any marked trail, so almost the entire climb is done making your own way over bog, sliding rocks and small rocky streams. For this first Ben summit, it was well worth the view at the top.

part of the Twelve Bens, western Ireland

Having covered the 2.5km in a whopping 50 minutes, I decided to tackle a second Ben - this time there was a faint outline of a path, but it was unclear whether it was a sheep path, an actual hiking path, or just a natural rock path from streams. Regardless, it was slightly easier going down and back up to Bengower at 664 meters (2213 feet), this time over nothing but loose rock. By this time the fog was starting to roll in slightly, but still good visibility.

Feeling in good shape, I decided to take on a third Ben which involved descending almost 200 meters (666 feet), then climbing another 221 meters (737 feet) to summit Ben Breen at 691 meters. This stretch became more difficult, as the steepness increased, while the footing became more difficult. By this time, the fog had started to roll in quite heavily, enough so that not only could I not even make out the 4th Ben, I didn't even know which direction it was - each side seemed to plummet over the edge.

So I thought I'd take it safe and head back in the direction I had come, just reversing my path on a simple line - except the fog really started to roll in and I quickly lost all sense of direction. I ended up wandering around from edge to edge, made some false descents and ascents, and finally had to descend beneath the fog in some points, get my bearings, then climb back up and retrace. I had to do this several times, and at one point had resigned myself to waiting in a rock shelter until the fog had passed or morning arrived.

Fortunately, I was able to find a few key landmarks and was finally on my way back down; keep in mind, throughout this entire trek, I didn't meet a single person although there were plenty of sheep. By this time I had expended a lot of nervous energy, but still had a few climbs and one big descent left. I did manage to finally work my way down, and the 9km hike took just under 3 hours, or about twice as long as a normal hike would.

Benlettery, part of Twelve Bens, Ireland

sheep on the Twelve Bens

I was completely exhausted when I reached the car, muddy and mentally drained. Overall I would classify this as an extremely challenging and exciting adventure, but not terribly fun. I think with better conditions and real full-on hiking boots, the entire circuit of the 12 Bens would be great; but my 3 Bens were plenty on this day...

08/14/09 by visitEarth
Tags: connemara, connemara national park, Twelve Bens, Ireland, ireland hike, connemara hike, connemara pony