Benbulben – Training Hike

On a bright but cold spring morning on March 15th we held our first training hike in advance of the upcoming Snowden hike in May. There was 8 of us in total and after carpooling from Sligo IT we made our way to St Lukes bridge on the north side of Benbulben, parked up, smiled for a picture and set off.

After nearly losing Brian in a bog hole we made it to the base of the main incline to bring us up to the top of the range. We followed a rough path alongside a river to get to the top and after nearly losing Niall to over exertion mid way through we all managed to safely make it to the top of the range.

After that it was just a case of veering right and make our way across the boggy ground out towards the highest point OS marker and onward to the point of Benbulben. The views were amazing and luckily the weather held up for us other than being slightly overcast.

The sandwiches and hot tea had while sitting on looking out over Lissadel were better than any michilen star chef could dish up. Slieve Lieve was barely visible through the haze to the north with Rosses point, Coolera and Aughris head displaying their beauty to the south.

The walk back felt a lot easier hampered only by some serious winds around the point of decent.

From start to finish it took around 4 hours and all in all it was a good start to our training and a very enjoyable way to spent a Sunday morning.