County Mayo has much to offer walkers and cyclists and yet it is very under utilized. When we were in North Wales a couple of weeks ago there were walkers and ramblers everywhere. Many of the small villages within the Snowdonian National Park seem to rely on these visitors in order to make a living. It is estimated that 360,000 walkers climb the summit of Snowdon every year and that’s just one moutain. I can find no figures for County Mayo. Croagh Patrick, which is a pilgrim mountain has up to 20,000 walkers on Reek Sunday (the traditional day in July for climbing the mountain) but for the rest of the summer would have much fewer. The other mountain and hill walks in the county are relatively little explored.
Last week we completed a walk near Mulranny (Mallaranny) on the west coast of County Mayo. We were surrounded by amazing scenery, Clew Bay with all it’s islands and Croagh Patrick across the water and yet we saw no one (other than sheep and a few cows) till we got back to the start of our journey, where the path joins the now popular Great Western Greenway.
Initially, we followed the path that is part of the Rocky Mountain Way, then turned left onto a bog road (a road built to aid getting turf from bogs), and climbed gently uphill. We could see Croagh Patrick across the bay and looking NW, Achill Island.
Once at the top (and following a number of false summits) you get another view right over Ballycroy National Park – though by this time the cloud had come over and it wasn’t as clear as earlier in the day.
As well as sheep, hare droppings were evident and quite abundant. Heather (Erica tetralix) was in flower, and on some of the lower slopes was being visited by camera-shy bumblebees! Bog cotton and many amazing mosses also abounded. We found a few grouse feathers and hoped this now rare bird had not fallen victim to a predator.
The walk was a definite tick for my 16 for 2016 list – 2: Find two new places in Mayo to explore
And is certainly a place I would like to explore some more.
Looks like a lovely walk. Your photos are beautiful.
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Thank you – I certainly needed my picnic lunch when I got to the top! But yes lovely day:)
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Wonderful walk – thank you!
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Great to get another tick on my 16 of 2016 list as well as have a great day out.
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What a lovely serie of veiws. It looks like a great place to visit.
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It was lovely Lena.
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What a discovery – and although strangely unvisited, lovely for you to enjoy in peace. Good for the soul.
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So true Jane:)
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Incredibly beautiful. It’s amazing what is on the doorstep!
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…so right. One just needs to get out there and explore:)
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I found a new place! Callow Lake – and there is a Callow walk, a short one, there too!
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Callow is lovely. We keep meaning to do the actual loop walk. Have walked along the roads there a few times and as kids we used to swim there too!
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I went snorkelling Monday, himself went out that night and got me a go-pro type camera for underwater so we went back Tuesday too! Just happened to take off the two best days of the month 🙂
Lots of footage, shame I have no idea what to do with it!
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Lucky! You’ll have to blog footage of course, or at least some of it!
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Once I make some room on the iPad…a daunting task!
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What an impressive trek – the views are amazing!
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Clew bay is one of those little Irish treasures Eliza:)
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