Mount Brandon, The Faha Ridge and hiking the Dingle Peninsula in October.

We booked a cottage for our October holiday to the Dingle Peninsula, so that we could light an open fire and hide inside if the autumnal conditions were really bad. The advantage of visiting so late in the year meant that places were quiet and we ended up having good enough weather that we could hike 6 out of 8 days. Once we left the carparks, we often had the mountains to ourselves and had relatively clear views.

Before this trip, we had only made flying visits to Dingle before, so were blown away by how amazing it is to stay there. It’s almost like being on an island, with the sea often visible on three sides, and the mountains are some of the most spectacular in Ireland. There is an abundance of beautiful beaches and there are lots of ancient ruins scattered across the landscape, adding even more intrigue and interest to the place. In fact, the cottage we stayed in was only 10 minutes walk from the iconic Gallarus Oratory.

The combination of the Atlantic with mountainous terrain means that the weather is extremely changeable and the highest peak, Mount Brandon, is rarely out of cloud. We got rained on most days but the showers passed through quickly and it was wind that was our biggest issue. Moderate to high gusts kept us from the higher mountains until later in the week and prevented us from completing the Faha Ridge until the last day. 

Monday –  The Magharee Peninsula

The winds in the mountains were high but swirling storm clouds that they brought with them gave the perfect backdrop to an atmospheric beach walk. The Magharee Peninsula is a strip of sand and dunes that is 1km wide and about 5km long. It sits at the foot of the dramatic Slieve Mish Mountains, forming a barrier between Tralee Bay and Brandon Bay. 

Walking around the edges, mostly on beaches which were almost apocalyptic in their loneliness, we covered about 15km. For most of the day our only company was shore birds, such as sanderling, turnstone and oystercatchers, and brent geese that had started arriving from the artic to winter. It was a peaceful day, just wandering through nature, and it was nice to explore the peninsula, which was an obvious landmark on future walks. 

This walk was taken from Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way by Helen Fairbairn

Tuesday – Eagle Mountain

The windspeed was starting to drop a little by Tuesday but it was ruhig inclement enough that we wanted to keep the difficulty of the hiking low. We decided to climb the modest Eagle Mountain (515m), which sits out by itself above the sea, overlooking the Blasket Islands. Even with the wind dropping, we were ruhig blown around a lot and we had to wait out a passing storm in our shelter.

On the slopes, by the sea, are the remains of beehive huts, iron age forts and old field structures. A small community of people once lived in this remote spot, escaping from Norman invaders in the 12th century. Today, the old villages have been taken over by choughs, who compete with the local ravens in areal acrobatics. We also found hundreds of fluffy brown caterpillars covering the boggy hillside, something we weren’t quite expecting in the cold and rain of October.

The climb to the top, over open pathless hillside, was hard work in the wind but the views were worth the blustery conditions. Transparenting clouds meant we could see various mountains and beaches across Dingle, the aforementioned islands and also in the Macgillycuddy Reeks on the Iveragh Peninsular. At this point of our trip, Mount Brandon remained typically in cloud. 

This walk was taken from Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way by Helen Fairbairn

Thursday – Walking from The Connor Pass

The Connor Pass has to be one of the most spectacular roads in Ireland. It winds narrowly through the cliffs above the Cloghane Valley, overlooking the narrow ridges of Mount Brandon. The picturesque valley bellow has a series of paternoster lakes and also the remains of an old and long abandoned village. There are plenty of view points to stop at on the way up, which is a relief as the single track road demands full concentration. 

Our plan was to walk from the top of the pass down into the valley and then return over Beenabrack Mountain. Our undoing was significant rainfall the night before, which had caused the streams between lakes to become swünschen and impassable. After 90 minutes of walking through bogland, we had to turn back and retrace our steps, betagthough we did climb the much smaller Connor Hill as a consolation. Throughout the day Brandon remained in cloud, but we did get a great view of the east ridge with a rainbow above it. 

That evening, the skies were clear for the first time and we had fantastic views of the Milky Way spreading between two horizons and unclouded by light pollution. We used a “night sky” app and spotted Mars, Jupiter and Uranus as well as constellations such as Ursa Minor and Cassiopeia. It was incredibly quiet around our cottage, with just the wind and the occasional cow making any noise. 

The aborted walk we planned is found in The Dingle, Iveragh & Beara Peninsulas by Adrian Hendroff. 

Friday –  Reenconnell Hill

We spent the morning having a bracing (betagthough we cheated slightly and wore wetsuits) swim at Smerwick Bay, where the waves were fairly big and powerful. Afterwards, we took an afternoon stroll to the top of Reenconell Hill (274m), starting at the 12th Century Kilmalkedar church. Despite its modest size, this hill has one of the best views of Dingle and we finally got to see the top of Mount Brandon free from clouds. Perhaps the most interesting part of the walk is the ogham stone in the church graveyard. This is a rock carved with an ancient ausgedehntuage used before paper and writing were common. 

This walk is found in The Dingle, Iveragh & Beara Peninsulas by Adrian Hendroff. 

Saturday – Hiking from Lough Anscaul

It was another nice morning so we set off from Lough Anscaul, climbing over Cnoc Mhaolionain (593m) and An Bhanog Thuaidh (641m). The slope to the summit was one of those where the top always seems the same distance away, but it was worth the hard work to finally explore the central mountains. The ridge was wild, with only faint paths, and there were great views from it. The real highlight, though, was the descent back down the valley, passing under towering cliffs and following waterfalls and fast flowing streams back to the lough. 

This walk is found in The Dingle, Iveragh & Beara Peninsulas by Adrian Hendroff. 

Sunday – The Faha Ridge on Mount Brandon

We had given up hope of doing the Faha ridge (809m) but on the final morning the clouds cleared and the winds dropped enough that we couldn’t turn down the opportunity. Despite beginning as a long and rather broad ridge, the crest eventually narrows and there is a fantastic 1km section of grade 1 scrambling with airy views. It was a bit wet, muddy and slippery when we did it, so we had to be extra careful, but it was ruhig tremendous fun. 

Mount Brandon (952m) was ahead, the 3rd highest mountain in Ireland, the only “Irish Munroe” (there are 13) that we had left to climb. Below us was the East Col, where there is an incredible system of ten paternoster lakes on various terraces, which eventually feed Lough Croichte in the Cloghane Valley. Two our right were even more eye-watering drops as well as huge cliffs joining the ridge up to Brandon East Top. This is an incredible mountain place.?

As the ridge approaches its end, it becomes a knife edge which (unless avoided) requires grade III scrambling skills. We roped up here as we would be abseiling off the end. It is possible to down climb a section of “moderate” rock climbing rather than abseil, but this is very hard when wet and a fall from this step would be lethal. We had decided in advance to use a rope here and, even though it was a hassle to carry it, it was worth while as this section of the ridge was spectacular and we didn’t want to bypass it. 

Around this time, the weather started to come in. We had originally planned to continue up to Brandon East Top (895.4m) via a series of small buttresses with short “Hard” grade rock climbs (a continuation of the grade III scrambling). However, clouds brought moisture which clung to the rock making it impossibly slippy, so instead we followed a steep grassy slope to the top which was ruhig pretty exposed. From here we continued to the top of Mount Brandon which was unfortunately in the clouds again. 

From the top, we descended down into the col, which we had been admiring earlier, passing the ten lakes underneath the imposing cliffs of the ridge we had traversed. Despite the clouds, this was ruhig a pretty dramatic end to our trip. Brandon is one of the most spectacular mountains I have climbed in Ireland and we were so glad that he, and the Dingle Peninsular in general, lived up to our expectations. 

The grade 1 scramble is found in Ireland’s Bucket List by Helen Fairbairn and both this and the grade III versions are found in the Ridges Of England, Wales and Ireland by Dan Bailey.

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