Well the forecasted rain held off on Saturday for the "Curlew walkers"from Sligo.The walking club were on a weekend visit to the sunny south East and the plan for day 1 was to shake off the cob-webs and enjoy a nice relaxing guided few hours around the beautiful and always interesting Ardmore cliff walk...The 12 first time visitors to this wonderful area really enjoyed the nice'n'flat easy trail which took us to lots of historic and interesting sites such as Saint Declans well, the wreck of the "Samson" crane ship and of course the 10th century St. Declans oratory and impressive 10th century round tower..
After a stopping off for a relaxing coffee and some nice home baking in a we left Ardmore to go and visit the renowned Stephen Pearce Pottery in the lovely East Cork village of Shanagarry.The gang really enjoyed their full tour off this world famous pottery and even got a lesson on throwing pots by Stephen Pearce himself !!!A perfect and informative end to an ever interesting day....
Sunday we headed East from their hotel base in the historic town of Youghal to the beautiful Comeragh mountains of West Waterford...None of them had walked or been to the Comeraghs before and the forecast was for nice bright sunshine all day with only light cloud!!! They thought Ardmore was amazing so I couldn't wait for them to see the Comeraghs!!!!!
Our objective for Sunday was the stunning Coumshingaun horseshoe....The group were blown away by the awesome beauty of the place...and all only a half hour walk from the main road.!!! A little cloudier than we had expected but some brilliant sunshine at times and a really great route...one of my favorites in the whole country in fact!!! We also took in the impressive coum of "Crottys Lake"...
A great weekend had by all on their first and hopefully not last visit to this wonderful wonderful area and range of beautiful hills...
The Comeragh Mountains stretch diagonally across County Waterford from Dungarvan to Clonmel. They divide the county roughly in half. As mountains go they are not spectacularly high but they are rugged and interesting abounding in lakes, rivers, hollows, cliffs and rocky slopes. At the very summit of the range is a great bog which gave the mountains the name Monavollagh meaning turf on top but ...the name by which they are better known is The Comeraghs ( Na Comeraigh), meaning having many river confluences or Com Seangan ( pissmire valley also translated as hollow of the ants). Coumshingaun is perhaps the finest example of a glacial corrie or coum in the British Isles and for the most part is made up of a knobbly conglomerate rock type.
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