Report by Jamie Roberts (Cover photo: Niall McLaughlin)
Trip attendees:
BCC; Aimee Smith, Alistair Miller, Jamie Roberts, Lisa Davison-Kernan, Matt Campbell, Niall McLaughlin, Owen, Rónán Davison-Kernan, Vicky Rachel.
IMC; Michal Samsel, Rafal Barszczak, Szymon Sieraszewski
The first abseil between the two great walls. Photo: Michal Samsel
The morning started early, too early, as I had to meet Niall (our chief planner of the trip) at his place for 0800, for my lift down south, which was actually due west. After quickly picking up Vicky, we drove down to a carpark to meet-up with Matt, but due to what can only be described as an alarm mishap we ended up meeting him in Sligo instead. We headed to the meet-up carpark where Alistair, Rónán and Lisa were already waiting. It was a very scenic carpark, next to Glencar lough, and surrounded by hills. The lashing rain really did add to the atmosphere of the place, but we were happy when it passed. Eventually, everyone arrived (including Matt) and we headed to the carpark at the start of our route. However, due to a lack of parking at the trail-head, vehicles needed to be shared and a few of us (myself included) ended up in the back of Alistair’s van. This brought to my mind thoughts of soldiers being piled into the back of a truck before being deployed into battle! Not seeing where you are being driven to is very disturbing…
The bottom of the second abseil. Photo: Jamie Roberts
We arrived at the carpark and headed up the hill, quickly realising it was a lot warmer than we thought and de-layered as a group. After a very enjoyable walk up a steep, wet, muddy, grassy, windy slope (this is sarcasm if you hadn’t guessed) we reached a point near the top of King’s Mountain, which marked the entrance to a canyon called Annach Re Mhór. Gearing up, we started our descent into the bowels of the mountain. The dark walls of the canyon rose above us and the ground was mossy and verdant underfoot. Eventually, a seemingly impassable dead-end was meet, where a small window in the rock leading to an even deeper level of the canyon revealed itself. Michal and I set up the first abseil and proceeded down into the darkness. We found ourselves in the narrow gap between two tall walls of limestone. One wall glistened with wet moss, while the other was black and fractured.
After the whole group had completed the first abseil, we proceeded through the rest of the canyon, taking in the dramatic surroundings. While the rest of the group went to enjoy the sunlight high on a cliff overlooking Glencar valley, Rafal and I decided to inspect the second ‘dodgy’ abseil. At the ab point, I saw three pitons, two of which were attached together by a rusty chain; however, one of the chained pitons was lying on the ground. Rafal took the initiative to hammer it back into the wall with a loose rock. It was now solid, but I took the tactful decision not to tell anyone else about this since we would be abbing off of it (it was backed up anyway). After adding some of our own maillons and tat we had ourselves a solid anchor and proceeded with the 60m ab ahead of us. Everyone seemed to have a different experience on the abseil, from ‘this isn’t too bad’, to Niall sending a TV-sized block of limestone our way. I was just happy when everyone was down safe and (most importantly) the ab rope didn’t get stuck! Apparently it took around two and a half hours for everyone to complete the final abseil, although it didn’t feel that long at the time! Heading back to the cars, we negotiated the steep grassy slopes at the base of the hill, which I personally believe was the most dangerous part of the whole trip! One slip and you wouldn’t have stopped!
Eagle’s Rock on the left, we went between the two walls. Photo: Jamie Roberts
We retreated to the lovely hostel in Sligo, where Vicky and her team of cooks fed us Spaghetti Bolognese and cake she had made. I ate a lot more of that cake than I liked to admit but I do hope she makes it again, it was very tasty. An evening of board games was played and then we all headed to bed.
The morning came again, Alistair had already headed home the day before and Rónán and Lisa needed to head back home too. The IMC lot attempted to walk up Benbulbin, but I heard they got scared off by a fence wearing high-vis jackets.
The rest of the BCC group went on a tour round Eagle’s Rock and through a lot of bog. Before we set off, I spent a lot of time contemplating whether to wear waterproof trousers or not, but in the end decided to because ‘when in Rome.’ The conditions were cloudy, but pleasant and we had a lovely, albeit very muddy, walk passing Eagle’s Rock and looping back over the hill-tops. I even got to see snow, my main goal for the trip!
Alas, we headed back to Belfast, after a quick stop at Little Wing in Enniskillen for one of their 24” pizzas (so good). Finally, when I was home, I unpacked my things to dry, got to bed and thought to myself ‘I’m going to be so tired in work tomorrow.’
Descent down the canyon to the second abseil station. Photo: Niall McLaughlin