Conquering Knocknarea

Knocknarea - image from www.travelinireland.com

One of my favourite walks in Sligo is definitely Knocknarea.  You can see the mountain and the tomb on top from all over Sligo and there is definitely something deeply satisfying in reaching the top.  The views are spectacular, and on a clear day you can see all five counties: Sligo, Mayo, Donegal, Leitrim and Roscommon…and maybe even the tip of Galway, but my geography isn’t good enough to work that out.

The road on Knocknarea

Every time I go up I try to get pictures of the view from the top but I just don’t have a good enough camera to pick it out. All the fields spread below you like a patchwork quilt and Benbulben looks incredibly impressive .  It’s a real-life version of those 3-D plastic topographic moulds you got in geography class.

Maebh's cairn from a-top Knocknarea

The most famous aspect to the Mountain is Queen Maeve‘s grave of course, which sits some 10 meters tall on top of Knocknarea. Legend has it she’s buried upright, protecting Sligo from her enemies in Ulster, hence the massive size of the thing. The powers that be are trying to address the conservation of the cairn and have a nice big sign up these days reminding visitors not to climb up on top of it (but you’ll see from this pic that not everyone is paying attention) or to take the stones from it.  The old tradition used to be that you would bring a stone up the mountain with you and add it to the pile, so let’s have that one back.

Practical bits – the walk up is about 45mins and not too tough going. It is steep, and you will want to stop lots of times to “admire the view” (aka catch your breath) but it’s not too tricky.  It can get very warm with all the walking so wear layers that can be tied around your waist. Up top can be freezing so pick your day. If it is in anyway overcast or the cloud cover is low, I’d say leave it till another time, you really need the view to make it a great. Be aware that event on a warm day down the bottom it’ll be a few degrees colder up top.

You drive to the car park and take it from there. The car park is well signed as Knocknarea and there are pretty good directions on Discover Ireland, or just get to Ransboro Church and follow the signs. The whole up and down will take you anything from an hour and a bit to 2 hours depending on how much rambling you do once you’re up on the top.

To balance the virtuous feeling of accomplishment and downright healthiness get down to The Strand for one of their super pub lunches and a pint of the black stuff.  Has to be done.