Sligo Scrambling Trip Report — Belfast Climbing Club

'It's A Dangerous Business, Frodo, Going Out Your Door. You Step Onto The Road, And If You Don't Keep Your Feet, There's No Knowing Where You Might Be Swept Off To' ― J.R.R. Tolkien

By Vicky Ward and Kyle Stewart (King’s mountain Section)

Attendees: Vicky Ward, Kyle Stewart, Josh Taujanskas, Peter Adamson, Paul Kelly, Paul Grattage, Tony Holdsworth, Magdalena Oleszek and Lukasz Szadowiak

Early on Saturday morning the ominous message appeared in the group chat for the Sligo Trip: “Red sky in the morning shepherd’s warning”. I double checked the weather forecast, and it all still seemed good, but I packed an extra pair of gloves and dug in the cupboard for my waterproof trousers. Nothing can go wrong if you have waterproof trousers.

I met Peter and Paul at 7.30am at Paul’s house before heading on via Josh’s to get to Kyle’s to swap cars and then on to Sprucefield to decant half our passengers into the other Paul’s car. Who doesn’t love some good car faff? Three hours later we all met up at Glencar Lough to redistribute more passengers amongst different cars to ferry onto the “community house” at the start of the King’s mountain hike. Yay more car faff. At this stage Peter’s car count for the trip was on 4.

After peering through all the windows and weighing up the odds that this “community house” was indeed the recommended car parking spot for king’s mountain and we weren’t trespassing on a local’s driveway we headed off up the mountain. At the bottom of the steep slope we split into our two groups -one heading for Pinnacle Gully and the other King’s Gully.

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King’s Mountain

After keenly debating who would carry the 2 abseil ropes we brought and who would be peeling & chopping apples for dessert later (odd compromises) a party of Kyle, Tony, Mags, Peter, Paul K and Josh set off. After navigating parking spaces and probably not trespassing through a sheep field we left our pinnacle gully peers at the base of the mountain and attacked the grassy slope. After enduring burning calves and quads for 30 minutes (don’t skip leg day) we skirted around the top slopes of the mountain to realise we had went a little too far. Brief navigation meeting between Tony and Kyle sent the team back in the right direction to the start. We found a mini cave/gully that Kyle enthusiastically jumped into as a warm up to the main event. A few minutes later and we found ourselves at the gates of Mordor (Kings Mountain) ready to (not) destroy the one master (abseil) ring. We decided to harness and helm up at this point in preparation of depths below.

A massive rock crevice looking almost carved by men enshrouded us as our fellowship delved deep into the gully. After a very enjoyable scramble down some scree slopes and up some small pinnacle we came to our first abseil. After chatting to another group of walkers that found themselves in the realms of fantasy caves Tony and Kyle Sorted the ropes and secured the abseil. Tony bravely abseiled first into the abyss followed by the rest of our clan. Kyle pulled through and coiled the rope. More scrambling and around and we managed to climb out into a plateau of sunlight were we had our Elven bread and drank from our water skins. Back into the depths we travelled for a final push until we reached our final challenge and abseil. Tying the ropes together we abseiled to freedom into beautiful blue skies. Back down a steep grass slope we walked (/bum slid) back to the point our groups had separated earlier in the day. Looking back we seen (and heard *cough* vicky) the Pinnacle Gully crew making a quick run down the grassy switch back paths. 10 minutes later not trespassing though some fields, we landed back at the cars to end a beautiful adventure.

Kyle claiming this was just a hike
Photo Credit: Kyle

Pinnacle Gully

The information online for the pinnacle gully was sparse. As was the info in the scrambling guide book. However, the directions to head for the “phallic-shaped pinnacle” turned out to be more than sufficient. After making our way across a surprisingly flowy scree slope we reached the base of the pillar.

I looked up at the pinnacle. It looked steep and a bit loose but the stairway seemed obvious…it only deserved a paragraph in the guidebook and there was limited info online…it couldn’t be hard…right? I ponderously started making my way up; I jiggled a hold, it came loose, I chucked it down safely and I repeated this process a few times. After a few meters, I decided to down climb. Sitting down I re-found the guidebook, “take the left gully beyond the pillar” ah that explained matters somewhat.

I walked round the pillar and stared up – yes this looked more doable. I started the ascent again. There seemed to be some quite big moves for a scramble, some quite big high feet but I was not perturbed until I came to the tat. This was clearly “bailing tat”. I looked up either side of me – 2 steep walls with zero obvious holds. This was in no definition of the word scrambling territory. However, unlike the previous inhabitants of this predicament, I had no rope or gear. This was a more precarious downclimb than I would have perhaps liked. I chucked my bag in order to aid my balance. I mournfully watched as Paul missed the catch and it merrily bounced its way down the steep slopes below.

One of the Incorrect Pinnacle Gully Approaches
Photo Credit: Lukasz

After Paul the hero went to retrieve my bag I decided that the only sensible thing to do now was have lunch. Miraculously my phone had survived the descent down the rocky slope unscathed. The same can not be said for my lunch (nor Paul’s trousers).

Undeterred we walked a little bit further round the mountain and all became obvious. There was a delightful, friendly, interesting walkway through a cavernous gully. Now didn’t I feel a bit silly.

Friendly Pinnacle Gully
Photo Credit: Lukasz

Popping out the gully we then proceeded to go on a delightful hike around the plateau visiting Benbulben and King’s mountain summit while Paul’s trousers gradually became more and more ripped. The skies were clear and the views fantastic. We found our way back to the carpark where Mags enquired whether Paul had been attacked by a bear.

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We ended the day after more car faff and a café stop in the Benwiskin Hostel. We shared a communal meal and played some games. For some reason the king’s mountain lot were very aggressive on whose job it was to peel apples. Great craic in all.

The next day we decided to head to Benwiskin – just a 5 minute drive from the hostel. Kyle led the way striding up the forest path to reach the steep slopes. The pace of the day was bold. The guidebook had put (steep) in the description. This was justified. We skirted the forest to reach the spectacular ridge of Benwiskin. I’m not sure whether it would have qualified as a rock scramble but it was at least a grade 1 grass scramble in my eyes; my calves hurt. We walked along the ridge as a group past the wonderous scenery of the cliffs of Benwiskin. The cauldron in particular was spectacular.

We descended the mountain via a road which was “definitely not trespassing” looking out for Diarmuid and Grainne’s cave as this was a listed optional extra for this hike. Having reached the base of the valley again we finally caught sight of the ginormous cave above. For some reason the steep grass slope up there didn’t seem to tempt anyone.

We all said our emotional goodbyes in the car park before heading back to our respective homes with great car faff to be had. It was a wonderful trip. The waterproof trousers were not required.

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