Rambling in Coomasaharn Hills

We had another spectacular day in Ireland with fine weather, but the wind was wicked.  We set off to the north of us to a ‘remote’ area just off the Ring of Kerry drive.  The start of the walk was in sheep country, down some narrow single track roads, near the beautiful Coomasaharn Lake.  We were a bit uncertain regarding our start position, so we drove up a road between a few small farms and some houses.  After we figured out we were in the correct vicinity, we parked beside the road in front of a derelict building.

Just as we left the car, and started to walk down the road, a guy drove up with two of his sheep dogs running along beside him and one sheep dog was sitting on the floor on the passenger side.  He stopped and got out so we started talking to him, he is a sheep farmer who lived nearby.  The dog in the car was his best sheep dog, while the other two were in training.

His sheep pens were right there, so he took us in to look at his sheep.  All of the sheep are sprayed with paint to identify who they belong to, his mark is a bright blue, we see painted sheep all of the time.  He runs about 300 sheep and really likes what he does for a living, although, he does not think sheep farming has much of a future.

The sheep farmer was shocked that a couple of Canadians would be out in the middle of nowhere to walk in the hills.  We told him that we don’t like to travel to cities and he totally concurred with that notion.  He was such a terrific guy, and we had a great conversation, although his accent made it a bit difficult for us to hear everything on the first go, and I had to ask him to repeat things every once in a while.

The people of rural Ireland are gems, as they are such friendly and down to earth people.  We could spend our entire time in rural Ireland and be very happy.  If we didn’t have such a desire for a reliable Internet connection, we would never stay in a bigger town.

Then his brother, who is also a sheep farmer, came walking up and he told us that it would be windy on top of the mountains, was he ever right about that.  It was so windy, that when we got up on the ridge, it was throwing both of us sideways every now and again.  However, the first mountain had a flat top, so it was okay.

When we got to the area where we were to go up to the top of the next mountain, the approach was very narrow with sharp drops on both sides, and then a very steep and slippery, grassy sheep path, went up to the top.  We had to stop and consider the wisdom of taking on the narrow ridge in the wind and decided we must forgo the ridge walk.

We retreated to a knoll out of the wind and had our tea.  Then we made for a ridge overlooking Coomasaharn Lake, and then walked back down the mountain to the car.  This area is only 10 km east of the busy Macgillycuddy’s Reeks, but nobody but the local sheep farmers are around this gorgeous area.  Also, even though the Irish walkers think it is remote, it is only a few km from the busiest, most touristy drive in Ireland, that being the Ring of  Kerry.

Coomasaharn Lake

Coomaglaslaw Lake

Looking down from the ridge to the end of Coomasaharn Lake

The narrow ridge ahead

The end of Coomasaharn Lake

Small 'hanging lake' on the east shore of Coomasaharn Lake

Macgillycuddy’s Reeks from Coomreagh Mountain

Farms down below

Coomreagh Mountain

On the way back to Kenmare, we stopped in Killarney at a Tesco, which happened to be right in the busy, city centre.  Killarney is extremely touristy, and we couldn’t wait to get back into the car and get out as fast as possible.