Climbing Carrauntoohil 16-8-2007

Myself, Rob, John and Jim headed of to climb the tallest mountain in Ireland - Carrauntoohil. The mountain isn't far from Killorglin in Co. Kerry. There's two routes up the mountain. We decided to take the 'Devil's Ladder Route'. The devil's ladder is a small but very steep ridge that you have to climb at a certain point in the hike. The scenery here was spectacular - you wouln't think you were in Ireland at all. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get up and 2 1/2 to get get back at a fairly easy pace. I must try it from the other route the next time - the Carra Route. Beautiful!












The very top of the mountain was cloud covered and made the whole thing very errie. Somebody had managed to haul a giant, iron cross and haul it to the top at some stage over the years.

Puck Fair 10th to 13th -6-2007

A few of us headed down to Puck Fair, in Killorglin, for the weekend. The Puck fair is a bizzare festival which kicks of with a goat, captured from the Kerry hills, that they hoist up onto a giant pedestal for the duration of the fair. Between putting him up and taking him down is three days of festival in the town. Here's a video of the goat (Jimmy) going up with "Puck ar Buile" theme tune being sung.







Killorglin's actually in a pretty beautiful part of the country. Not far away was Rossbeigh where we went for a swim on the second day.



The town is also on the edge of the Magillycuddyreeks mountain range, where Carountoohill, Ireland's tallest mountain is ... Very beautiful.