UKC

My wife & I are planning a visit to Ireland starting 16 September 2017 for approximately 10 days.
We will start in Dublin and head south from there, either by public transport or rental car.

We are members of the Mountain Club of South Africa (Stellenbosch section) and hope to do some hillwalking & scrambling during our visit.

During previous visits to the UK, we enjoyed routes like Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis, Curved ridge on Buachaille Etive Mor, West Ridge of Sgurr nan Gillean on Skye etc.

However we have never been to Ireland and will appreciate route suggestions as well as appropriate route descriptions and/or guide books to consult.

Thanks in advance.

In reply to mountain_lion:

Howling Ridge is a must and it tops out on the highest mountain in Ireland. Howling Ridge (Summer) (VD)

FM combined with Upper FM in the Mournes is also really cool. FM (VD)

Great Gully Ridge in Wicklow and Carrot Ridge in Connemara might also be worth checking out.

Probably best to get a rental car as you cant get to most crags using public transport. There's a guidebook called Rock Climbing In Ireland that should have descriptions for these.

There's also loads of scrambles in Donegal (like this vimeo.com/59045020 ) that may not be in that book but there's info here http://www.uniqueascent.ie/

In reply to mountain_lion:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/226705927345015?view=permalink&id=1763010...
There is a brand new scrambling guide published, hope link works

In reply to auld al & mcgovern :

Thanks for the information.
Will see if I can get hold of the guide books from other side of the equator without breaking the bank...

We will certainly rent a car or perhaps a small motorhome.
The question is just if we rent in Dublin and drive south or take public transport (train?) south and rent a car in the south.

We are considering camping (hope the midges are not as bad in Ireland as in Scotland!).
Not sure yet if we will use a central base or move around depending on the selected routes.
Suggestions?

In reply to auld al:

I have a review copy...it's excellent.

In reply to mountain_lion:

Regarding transport, trains in Ireland are still expensive, slow and infrequent. Every time I go back I rent a car from Dublin airport. There will be a lot of choice there. Get your excess covered from one of the online companies (e.g. insurance4carhire or icarhireinsurance). Driving to and from Dublin, especially if going south you will drive over a toll bridge, some car hire companies will take care of this , others don't. If they do not you need to pay in a shop or online fairly quickly before charges add up, I had to ring them up and beg ignorance etc and so they let me just pay the fee.


The roads have much improved, my town (Kilkenny) is 75 miles from Dublin, used to take 2.5 hrs, now just over 1 hr (if willing to go over the speed limit a bit, as you leave the Dublin area the roads empty out, sometimes driving home from the airport late in the evening I would be the only car in sight). Beware rush hour around Dublin though.

Regarding walks, scrambles, best to plan before hand as rights of way etc are not very common. Outdoor shops etc are also not very common so if you are not bringing every thing with you, look up shop locations beforehand.

Bring your swimming gear as most mountains are near the sea and there are lots of lovely empty beaches (water is a bit cold but not too bad).

Enjoy!