Duhallow Way Challenge

By ALANNAH O’CALLAGHAN

With the sun splitting the stones 19 of us set off to tackle the very first section of the Duhallow Way, Shrone over to the Slyguddal.

Many in the group had never done this section of the Duhallow Way or even know of it’s existance prior to the walk. This section of the Duhallow is one of the most spectacular parts of the walk in my opinion. It brings you right up under the Paps, two of the most interesting looking hills in the country. The summit cairns on both of these hills are believed to be prehistoric, and resemble nipples on the breasts. Interestingly, both peaks have the rounded aspect on a comely maiden’s figure when viewed from the northwest or south-east, but have a more triangular profile which is reminiscent of a war goddess’s breastplate when looked at from the north-east (Rathmore direction) or south-west.

From the Duhallow Way, they are impressive but luckily for us, we just skirted the base of them before descending down the valley and crossing the river that runs out of Shrone Lake. Once we crossed the river we were greeted by a short but steep incline before joining the Slyguddal Pass. Once on this, you can see a glimpse of Shrone lake and yet another angle of the Paps.

From here, the group split with some deciding to continue back to Shrone Chruch via the road, and others choosing to walk back the way we came. Both groups arrived back at a similar time and enjoyed the usual tea and coffee with well deserved chocolate biscuits.

For those of you who want to join on the next section of the Duhallow Way Challenge, we will be picking up where we left off, starting from the Slyguddal we will be walking the base of Knocknabro to Awnaskirtawn on Wednesday June 28th, meeting at Shrone Church at 7pm.

The walk will be rough underfoot with some steep sections, more and is graded as strenuous. For those of you who would like to join for a more leisurely walk, we will be walking in the Mullaghareirks on Wedesday June 14th, meeting in Meelin at 7pm. Both walks are free but registering is essential, to register call Alannah or Nuala on 029 60633.

If you would like to explore the area and admire the incredible vista there are a variety of options available. Parking at Shrone Church (red X) you can walk from there to the City and join the Duhallow Way. From here, follow the Duhallow Way waymarkers to the Slyguddal – this is approx. 3.5 km (red line). From here you can either walk back the way you came or deviate and take the other road back once you meet the city (marked in pink), making the total distance approx. 7km. Otherwise if you feel like doing a longer looped walk, you can walk back to Shrone Church via the road (marked in green), making the total distance approx. 6.5km. From the Slyguddal, there is also the option to walk down to Shrone lake (marked orange) approx. 800m. Whichever you decide to do be aware that this section of the Duhallow Way crosses rough terrian so make sure you have appropriate footwear, and enough water and food to sustain you for a minimum of 2 hours.