2012 Nenagh Walking Festival
Planning is already underway for our third walking festival. This will take place over the weekend of the 12th & 13th of May. A number of new walks will be included for 2012. This will include a 30 km monster hike along the Slieve Felim way from Glenstall Woods (near Murroe) to the Silvermines Village. There will be a choice of 3 walks of varying length each day to cater for all standards of walkers.
Coum Woods, 18th December 2011
We had our annual mulled wine walk in Coum Woods in the hills above Portroe. The day was bright and cold with a few traces of snow on the ground. We had a 3 hour walk, with a break at the lake on top of the hill. The mulled wine and mince pies went down a treat. There has been a lot of felling of trees on these hills and this has opened up a lot of the views. Many thanks to John Hogan for leading the walk.
Bray Weekend, September 30th to October 2nd 2011
15 members of the club booked in for this weekend. Thanks to Willie Keane and Brid Buckley for organising the accommodation. Saturday was very wet but, undaunted, 11 of us headed for Djouce Mountain. We lived the old hillwalking adage that there is no such thing as bad weather, only poor clothing. We had no difficulties in the climb. Djouce is very popular and unfortunately it is also badly eroded from all that traffic. We walked up from the old Paddock Pond and then joined the Wicklow Way. Views were very limited. Afterwards we hiked over to see the Dargle River in full spate, near the back of the Powerscourt waterfall.
The forecast for Sunday was equally bad, but thankfully this proved inaccurate and the weather stayed largely dry. We met up at Dun Laoghaire Dart station and rambled along the coast to Killiney. We took in the Forty Foot, the Bullock Harbour, Dalkey village, Coliemore Harbour and then up over Killiney Hill before dropping down to finish on Killiney Beach. 16 of us enjoyed this walk, even if we didn't spot any celebrities.
Lugnaquilla September 11th
We headed to Wicklow on a breezy day, undaunted by the threat of Hurricane Katia. Lug as it is known is not only Wicklow's highest moutain but the highest mountain in Ireland, outside Kerry. There were 13 of us, including 8 first-timers on Lug and even some who were new to the Wicklow hills. We had no difficulties and were up and down in 4.5 hours. Our route was from the Glen of Imaal and up over Camara Hill. The top was misty but we had good views up to about 2,500 feet. We then adjourned to Fenton's pub for a celebratory drink. The new motorway means Wicklow is now only 2 hours from Nenagh and more frequent visits are planned to the Garden County.
Festival 6-8th May 2011
Extract from the Guardian newspaper
Organisers hailed last weekends Aonach ar Siul Walking Festival a big success. Around 250 people took part in the event which ran over the weekend of May 6-8th. Seamus Morris, the Mayor of Nenagh, launched the event at a reception in the Abbey Court Hotel on Friday night.
There were three different walks on Saturday featuring Lough Derg and the Arra Mountains. Many thanks to the people of Killoran who provided refreshments at the end of two of the walks. The other walk concluded with refreshments in Larkins of Garrykennedy. Friday night brought heavy rain, but Saturday was largely dry making the walking even more enjoyable. Saturday ended with a very fine barbeque and disco in the Abbey Court.
Sunday dawned bright and fresh and we had even larger groups of walkers on the hills. All Sunday’s walks were centred around Keeper Hill. We had mixed weather, including sunshine a few heavy showers and strong winds. However all the walkers were well prepared for a little Irish weather and the walks proved very enjoyable. Thanks also to the good people of Killoscully who provided great hospitality and excellent food at the end of the walks.
The organisers would like to say a special word of thanks to the North Tipperary Civil Defence Unit. The Civil Defence were our guardian angels over the weekend, shadowing us on all our walks. Thankfully we had no serious incidents to report but the walk leaders were very pleased to have such capable back-up. Aonach ar Siul organises hill walks throughout the year. Further information can be found here in the Guardian newspaper or on our website www.nenaghwalk.ie.
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