S.W.A.T (Sligo walk and talk)

As I start this page it is with the idea of displaying the walks that took place in 2009 in and around Sligo's and some of its mountains. I missed the first one; it involved a hike up Ben Bulben (which I have yet to ascend) on Patricks Day 09. I blame John the Map, I was actually on my way home from Connolly's when Sligo's leading Cartographer appears with Arianne and invites me to Brian's birthday party which is out in Shane and Suzanne's house. I was okay leaving there an hour and a half later but decided to further indulge later on when I arrived home. Anways, I diverse, there was an additional 6 walks which I did manage to get up for. These were Keeloglyboy mountain, Gleniff Horseshoe, Copes mountain, Kings mountain, the Swiss Valley and Srmore / Hangmans hill.
I am too sure as to who thought of our name, I think it was somebody on the Gleniff Horseshoe walk, I like the name and if I can find out who came up with it I will definitely credit them.
I believe the idea of the walks started because somebody wanted to use them as a means of getting into shape, do not worry Jim I will never tell anybody it was you. Anyways Jim roped in John the Map and as he knows most of Sligos inhabitants John thought it was a good idea to share Jim's exercise routine and ask everybody along. I believe the most we had along was 37 or thereabouts and the least was 7.5 for the last one up the Swiss Valley, the .5 constitutes Jim, he had to turn back to pick up a friend from a train.
I am too sure as to who thought of our name, I think it was somebody on the Gleniff Horseshoe walk, I like the name and if I can find out who came up with it I will definitely credit them.
I believe the idea of the walks started because somebody wanted to use them as a means of getting into shape, do not worry Jim I will never tell anybody it was you. Anyways Jim roped in John the Map and as he knows most of Sligos inhabitants John thought it was a good idea to share Jim's exercise routine and ask everybody along. I believe the most we had along was 37 or thereabouts and the least was 7.5 for the last one up the Swiss Valley, the .5 constitutes Jim, he had to turn back to pick up a friend from a train.
Sramore / Hangmans Hill (height .......date 15/11/2009)

Swiss Valley (height 400 meters . 1312 feet. 13/09/2009)

As you can see from the images below it was an absolutely fantabulous day, we went up on the 13th September and it felt like the middle of summer. There was only 7.5 bodies (see above for the .5.). We had Bernard the Frog, Clare, Anna of the Banjo's, Eileen, John, Mary of length, yours truly & half or .5 of Jim M.
I think it was rather appropriate that Clare (Bernard's better half) finds the frog and Bernard catches it. Did you know that Ireland has only one frog, rather appropriately called....The Common Frog. We also have 17 different types of Buttercups, just thought I'd throw that in, Auntie Margaret told me this on a recent walk. The flower that Mary of Length is hold is called a Tormentilla, I think it was Clare who wondered about it, turns out it is a very interesting plant: The Latin name is Potentilla Tormentilla (Potentilla translating as 'the little powerful one') and it has been used since ancient times in first aid for sealing wounds and aids in the healing process (it kills bacteria). Apparently there are approximately 150 types of the plant, all have tannins and all can be used for like purposes. I learnt something new today.
As for the Swiss Valley, I believe that was below where we actually walked, the route we took is part of the Dartry range of mountains and where we started was on the south side of Truskmore / Kings Mountain (Slievemore) and on reaching a height of 400 meters we followed the course of the valley east to west. The climb itself is relatively easy and if you wish to add a bit of length to the walk you can park your car beside Glencar lake and walk up the road, I think we done half and half. Of all the walks I have done this is the only time I remember my leg disappearing down several bog holes, it happens the on time but this day I think it happened on at least four occasions.
As for the group photograph, Mr Map said to look something or other, for the life of me I cannot remember what it was but I do know that both Anna of the Banjos and Himself got it right.
I think it was rather appropriate that Clare (Bernard's better half) finds the frog and Bernard catches it. Did you know that Ireland has only one frog, rather appropriately called....The Common Frog. We also have 17 different types of Buttercups, just thought I'd throw that in, Auntie Margaret told me this on a recent walk. The flower that Mary of Length is hold is called a Tormentilla, I think it was Clare who wondered about it, turns out it is a very interesting plant: The Latin name is Potentilla Tormentilla (Potentilla translating as 'the little powerful one') and it has been used since ancient times in first aid for sealing wounds and aids in the healing process (it kills bacteria). Apparently there are approximately 150 types of the plant, all have tannins and all can be used for like purposes. I learnt something new today.
As for the Swiss Valley, I believe that was below where we actually walked, the route we took is part of the Dartry range of mountains and where we started was on the south side of Truskmore / Kings Mountain (Slievemore) and on reaching a height of 400 meters we followed the course of the valley east to west. The climb itself is relatively easy and if you wish to add a bit of length to the walk you can park your car beside Glencar lake and walk up the road, I think we done half and half. Of all the walks I have done this is the only time I remember my leg disappearing down several bog holes, it happens the on time but this day I think it happened on at least four occasions.
As for the group photograph, Mr Map said to look something or other, for the life of me I cannot remember what it was but I do know that both Anna of the Banjos and Himself got it right.
Copes Mountain (height 400 meters . 1312 feet. 03/08/2009)

We went up Copes mountain on the 3rd of August. Part of the Darty range it is west of Keelogyboy and south of Kings mountain, the lake you can see below is that of Glencar and it peaks at 452 meters, the mountain not the lake (ordanance survey figures). It was a typical soft day; as you can see Gay managed to indulge in a brother of one of the 4 sheep of the apocalypse. On the walk we had left to right in the group photograph Billy Fitz, Clare or Claire D (not sure how she spells it), 3 somebodies, Eileen (green hat), Auntie Margaret (orange hat), Suzanne D, Gay McD, Uili ( I think he is Chilian), Imelda Fitz, somebody known as mad somebody who one of my sisters (Jennie) knows well, the mad somebody is now living in San Francisco, One of Roses Girls, Debbie of Argentina (we hope she teaches us the art of beach volleyball someday), Rose, John the Map. We had approx 23 or 24 on this walk so there is obviously more than myself that is camera shy. The last image is of one of the many Megalithic tombs that are spread throughout the area; dont quote me on this but I think this is of the Barrow or Tumulus type of burial mound. It is usually started as a tomb or tombs primarilay comprised of large stones and is then covered in earth. We get the word Megalithic from ancient Greek Megalos Great or Big and Lithos Stone. Another Greek word I used today was Apocalypse; I found it translated as 'lifting the veil' or 'revelation' in Wikipedia; I am not sure where I read this but as far as I am aware the term Apocalypse only came into being as a theological one in the 90's AD when Saint John wrote the Book of Revelations. Lifting the veil sounds to me like a more modern interpretation of the word but with a meaning that gives it a more ambigious and general origin; it is quite possible I am not making myself clear here.
Kings Mountain (height 400 meters . 1312 feet. 01/06/2009)

Not 100% sure about this but I think we went up on the 1st June 2009 (will confirm). Initially a farmer was objecting to the presence of a dog in our company (not John the Map, a regular canine belonging to Bernard the Frog), however after a promise to keep him on the leash and a bit of wit from one Mr. O’Dear on the evolution of golf courses and mountains within county Sligo (you would have to be there) he relented.
Kings Mountain is part of the Darty range, I believe most people in Sligo think it is a part of Ben Bulben however there is a valley separating them and as such a mountain in its own right. If you are viewing it from the south; follow the top of Ben Bulben and as you move your eyes east you will see a distinguished table on top: and that is the top of Kings Mountain.
It was a beautiful day as you can see from the pictures, we did however manage to stray from our intended path and personally I think this added somewhat to the overall experience. We came up the side of the mountain and after having our refreshments on the plateau we were set to make the descent; Mary L. and myself wanted to check out a ridge to the south and set off to do so while the remained of the party discussed their route. Fortunately they followed us and the views that opened up as we reached the edge cannot not be described in words. If we had came up the intended route we would have seen these views simply by looking over our shoulders as we climbed instead a panoramic view of Sligo and west Leitrim just appeared for us.
We had two points of interest on the descent; First was the monument to the ‘Noble Six’ (our planners had intended us to ascend via this route). The monument is laid where the Noble Six of Sligo, a patrol of the Old IRA, were ambushed by the Free State Army during the Irish Civil War in September 1922. It is believed that they were shot after surrendering.
Second up there is the crevasse or fissure in the mountain that more adventurous folk than us abseil down. We did go up to have a look but then we retraced our steps; I think most of us are going to wait until they install the cable car before taking that route.
On the walk we had: (left to right in the group photograph) Brian Mc (I did ask him to show us his good side), John the Map, Gay Mc, somebody with a name I cannot remember, Brians brother ( I’m sure he has is own name just cannot remember), Eileen (I think), Mary L., Billy Fitz., (thanks for showing the nephews around the science dept in the I.T.), Suzanne D., Bernard the Frog, Jim M., Bernie M., (no relation to Jim M) and the one and only Mr. John O’Dear.
The image to your right (that is if you are facing away from the screen and have eyes in the back of your head, otherwise it should be to your left) was taken from the top of the Isle of Capri during the summer of 2009 and I have no idea why I placed it in this section
Kings Mountain is part of the Darty range, I believe most people in Sligo think it is a part of Ben Bulben however there is a valley separating them and as such a mountain in its own right. If you are viewing it from the south; follow the top of Ben Bulben and as you move your eyes east you will see a distinguished table on top: and that is the top of Kings Mountain.
It was a beautiful day as you can see from the pictures, we did however manage to stray from our intended path and personally I think this added somewhat to the overall experience. We came up the side of the mountain and after having our refreshments on the plateau we were set to make the descent; Mary L. and myself wanted to check out a ridge to the south and set off to do so while the remained of the party discussed their route. Fortunately they followed us and the views that opened up as we reached the edge cannot not be described in words. If we had came up the intended route we would have seen these views simply by looking over our shoulders as we climbed instead a panoramic view of Sligo and west Leitrim just appeared for us.
We had two points of interest on the descent; First was the monument to the ‘Noble Six’ (our planners had intended us to ascend via this route). The monument is laid where the Noble Six of Sligo, a patrol of the Old IRA, were ambushed by the Free State Army during the Irish Civil War in September 1922. It is believed that they were shot after surrendering.
Second up there is the crevasse or fissure in the mountain that more adventurous folk than us abseil down. We did go up to have a look but then we retraced our steps; I think most of us are going to wait until they install the cable car before taking that route.
On the walk we had: (left to right in the group photograph) Brian Mc (I did ask him to show us his good side), John the Map, Gay Mc, somebody with a name I cannot remember, Brians brother ( I’m sure he has is own name just cannot remember), Eileen (I think), Mary L., Billy Fitz., (thanks for showing the nephews around the science dept in the I.T.), Suzanne D., Bernard the Frog, Jim M., Bernie M., (no relation to Jim M) and the one and only Mr. John O’Dear.
The image to your right (that is if you are facing away from the screen and have eyes in the back of your head, otherwise it should be to your left) was taken from the top of the Isle of Capri during the summer of 2009 and I have no idea why I placed it in this section
Gleniff Horseshoe 04/05/2009)

This was the second walk I was on and it was on the 4th May 2009
Despite a rather soft day this was a very enjoyable walk. Just in case you are not familiar with Irish speak a soft day is (in my opinion) a rather cloudy day when the sun may threaten to break through but rarely does and even when it manages to find us it does not stay for long, now with the clouds we have our rain of course, however this is not what we call real rain, for the most part of the day you could duck between the drops, you will get the mandatory 2 or 3 brief showers but nothing that will have you wishing for an ark, finally, a soft day is never really cold.
Anyways, we had intended to head up Kings mountain but due to the softness of our day this had to be abandoned, you will see why in the clouds caressing the heights in the images below. We met our fearless leaders in Davies’ ( Jim and John) and after cutting our cars in half we headed for Ballintrillick Bridge (which happens to lie over Ballintrillick river), the first image below is of our starting point. Looking for some info on the web about our walk I discovered that the few sites, and there were very few, mention a clockwise walk, rarely do they give you a starting point which I usually find very useful. Well anyways, our dynamic duo led us off in a anti-clockwise, which in my opinion was a good move, tell you why later.
Some trivia here: the name Ballintrillick or Beal Atha an Tri liag translates as Mouth of the ford of the three flags. There are three fada’s in the Irish spelling of the name but I have left them off as HTML tends to convert them into gobbidly gook. For now I do not know why and where the ‘three flags’ come in I will include it at a later date.
Now Ballintrillick and our walk is located in the Parish of Rossinver, most of which is actually in County Leitrim, our part however is within Sligo. Rossinver makes up a part of the Barony of Carbury, which according to Kilgannons History of Sligo is comprised of “76,592 acres 3 roods and 23 perches”. Carbury is named after Cairbre, the third eldest of Niall of the Nine Hostages eight sons, Cairbre grandson, Tuathal Maelgarb was High King of Ireland in the 6th century, he died circa 540 AD.
The first building on our walk is the ruin of the old School while further on there is additional ruins of dwelling houses. They all paint a picture of how in the not too distant past Gleniff and its environs was a fairly busy little alcove. The tourist sites state that there were over a 100 inhabitants here and that this is now down to approximately 25 permanent residents. The reason for the possible rise and definite decline of this community seems to be the Byrates mines of Gleniff and Benbulben &Kings mountains. This was brought to the mill (which features in the images at the end of our walk) and from the mill transported on a single gauge railway to Mullaghmore harbour where it was exported. Mullaghmore harbour was commissioned by Viscount Palmerston, later Lord, work began on it 1822 and was completed in 1845.
Barytes, the name comes from the Greek word βαρυςmeaning heavy, was much sought after then and it was primarily used in Sugar refining while also being used in the whitening process of Textiles, Paper and Paint. In modern times it is used for “drilling fluids in oil and gas exploration” (go figure) and to a lesser degree it is still used in modern day Paints, Paper and also TV Screens, Car Windscreens among many other things.
The reason I would recommend the anticlockwise direction is due to the fact that you finish up at the Mill, it is a nice finish to the walk.
Who was on the walk….Once again I am rather short on names here.
Among others we had Jim, John, Mary, Eileen, Billy, Imelda, Rose, Philippe, Rory, Anna, Brian, Arianna, John M, not our JtM and hopefully I will have the remainder sometime in the future.
(Most of the info above came from Kilgannons Sligo and its Surroundings and Wikipedia.)
Despite a rather soft day this was a very enjoyable walk. Just in case you are not familiar with Irish speak a soft day is (in my opinion) a rather cloudy day when the sun may threaten to break through but rarely does and even when it manages to find us it does not stay for long, now with the clouds we have our rain of course, however this is not what we call real rain, for the most part of the day you could duck between the drops, you will get the mandatory 2 or 3 brief showers but nothing that will have you wishing for an ark, finally, a soft day is never really cold.
Anyways, we had intended to head up Kings mountain but due to the softness of our day this had to be abandoned, you will see why in the clouds caressing the heights in the images below. We met our fearless leaders in Davies’ ( Jim and John) and after cutting our cars in half we headed for Ballintrillick Bridge (which happens to lie over Ballintrillick river), the first image below is of our starting point. Looking for some info on the web about our walk I discovered that the few sites, and there were very few, mention a clockwise walk, rarely do they give you a starting point which I usually find very useful. Well anyways, our dynamic duo led us off in a anti-clockwise, which in my opinion was a good move, tell you why later.
Some trivia here: the name Ballintrillick or Beal Atha an Tri liag translates as Mouth of the ford of the three flags. There are three fada’s in the Irish spelling of the name but I have left them off as HTML tends to convert them into gobbidly gook. For now I do not know why and where the ‘three flags’ come in I will include it at a later date.
Now Ballintrillick and our walk is located in the Parish of Rossinver, most of which is actually in County Leitrim, our part however is within Sligo. Rossinver makes up a part of the Barony of Carbury, which according to Kilgannons History of Sligo is comprised of “76,592 acres 3 roods and 23 perches”. Carbury is named after Cairbre, the third eldest of Niall of the Nine Hostages eight sons, Cairbre grandson, Tuathal Maelgarb was High King of Ireland in the 6th century, he died circa 540 AD.
The first building on our walk is the ruin of the old School while further on there is additional ruins of dwelling houses. They all paint a picture of how in the not too distant past Gleniff and its environs was a fairly busy little alcove. The tourist sites state that there were over a 100 inhabitants here and that this is now down to approximately 25 permanent residents. The reason for the possible rise and definite decline of this community seems to be the Byrates mines of Gleniff and Benbulben &Kings mountains. This was brought to the mill (which features in the images at the end of our walk) and from the mill transported on a single gauge railway to Mullaghmore harbour where it was exported. Mullaghmore harbour was commissioned by Viscount Palmerston, later Lord, work began on it 1822 and was completed in 1845.
Barytes, the name comes from the Greek word βαρυςmeaning heavy, was much sought after then and it was primarily used in Sugar refining while also being used in the whitening process of Textiles, Paper and Paint. In modern times it is used for “drilling fluids in oil and gas exploration” (go figure) and to a lesser degree it is still used in modern day Paints, Paper and also TV Screens, Car Windscreens among many other things.
The reason I would recommend the anticlockwise direction is due to the fact that you finish up at the Mill, it is a nice finish to the walk.
Who was on the walk….Once again I am rather short on names here.
Among others we had Jim, John, Mary, Eileen, Billy, Imelda, Rose, Philippe, Rory, Anna, Brian, Arianna, John M, not our JtM and hopefully I will have the remainder sometime in the future.
(Most of the info above came from Kilgannons Sligo and its Surroundings and Wikipedia.)
Keelogyboy. (height 400 meters . 1312 feet. 10/04/2009)
We walked up this mountain on the 10th of April. Weather was okay although it did seem to brighten up more the further down the mountain we got.
I dont know why I can only find these 6 images I am sure I took some more.
On the walk we had our fearless leaders; Jim and John and following along were us mere mortals; Mary, Eileen, Anna, Barbara, Imelda and Billy, Suzanne, Shane, and of course yours truly there was also a few more bodies with arms and legs whose names I hope to get from John .
Keelogyboy is part of the Darty range and peaks at 438 meters above sea level ( I notice the Google map says 440).
Bedrock geology is primarily limestone including fossiliferous reef and siliceous limestone and The site consists of a series of relatively flat-topped mountains supporting upland blanket bog, heath, exposed rock and upland grassland. The site margins feature steep to vertical
exposed cliffs and limestone scree. A variety of habitats occur on more gentle slopes including lowland blanket bog, wet heath, wet grassland, woodland and scrub ( The site refers to Keelogyboy, Crockauns and Copes Mountains and part of Hangmans Hill). ( Info taken from www.npsw.ie which is the National Parks and Wildlife site of Ireland.)
We walked up this mountain on the 10th of April. Weather was okay although it did seem to brighten up more the further down the mountain we got.
I dont know why I can only find these 6 images I am sure I took some more.
On the walk we had our fearless leaders; Jim and John and following along were us mere mortals; Mary, Eileen, Anna, Barbara, Imelda and Billy, Suzanne, Shane, and of course yours truly there was also a few more bodies with arms and legs whose names I hope to get from John .
Keelogyboy is part of the Darty range and peaks at 438 meters above sea level ( I notice the Google map says 440).
Bedrock geology is primarily limestone including fossiliferous reef and siliceous limestone and The site consists of a series of relatively flat-topped mountains supporting upland blanket bog, heath, exposed rock and upland grassland. The site margins feature steep to vertical
exposed cliffs and limestone scree. A variety of habitats occur on more gentle slopes including lowland blanket bog, wet heath, wet grassland, woodland and scrub ( The site refers to Keelogyboy, Crockauns and Copes Mountains and part of Hangmans Hill). ( Info taken from www.npsw.ie which is the National Parks and Wildlife site of Ireland.)