MOURNE RAMBLERS NEWSLETTER

July2015

A message from the Editor

Welcome to the latest edition of the Mourne Rambling Group newsletter. In this issue I hope you will find articles and items of interest to you including:

  • NEW MEMBER UPDATE
  • A WORD OF THANKS
  • MARY MAGOWAN: A TRIBUTE
  • DAVID COATES: A TRIBUTE
  • TRAINING
  • GPS COURSE
  • GUIDELINES FOR WALKING GRADES
  • NORTH-WESTMOUNTAIN RESCUE TEAM MEETING
  • THE WESTPORT REPORT OR ‘A TRIP OF TWO HALVES
  • DINGLE TRIP 22 – 25 MAY 2015
  • TRIPS AWAY – A NEED FOR ORGANISERS
  • NOTICEBOARD
  • LIST OF PAID – UP MEMBERS 2015

Vincent Trainor, Editor

Welcome to the following new members

since the last newsletter (February 2015)

(up-to-date as at 22 July 2015)

Denis Drinkell, Reynold Gribbin, Monica McStravick, Nicola McSherry, Johanna O’Shea, Mark McGinley, Bernie Moore, Jessica Greer.

Please note: Mourne Ramblers get a discount on car parking (£3 instead of £4 per car) when our walks start at Meelmore Lodge. Simply pay inside the café rather than at the

machine.

A WORD OF THANKS

Since the last newsletter, there have been quite a few events organised by members for the group. We would like to offer our thanks on behalf of everyone for the following:

  • Slide Show (22February). Thank you to Harry Goodman for once again organising this event so well and to all the members who showed pictures or attended.
  • Westport Trip (12 –16 April). Thanks to David Oldfield and Irene Cauley for being Leader/Organiser for this trip. We are very grateful to Joe McKnight for writing up the report on what was a memorable four days of walking (article below).
  • North WestMountain Rescue Team (12 April). Domnall McComish was the organiser of aninformation session provided by Joe Dowdall of the North- West Mountain Rescue Team on 12 April in Meelmore Lodge. Everyone present was very impressed by Joe’s presentation and we wish to thank him very much for the time and effort he put in. Many thanks also to Domnall for the work he put in to organising the event. Thank you also to Meelmore Lodge for hosting the event.
  • DinglePeninsula (22 –25 May). In recent times trips away have usually focused on either A group or A/B group or C group. This trip to the DinglePeninsula was organised by Andrew McKibbin for an A/B group and by Harry Goodman for a C group. Everyone who took part seems to have enjoyed it immensely. A special thanks to Andrew and Harry for the organising. Thanks also to Irene Cauley and Peter McGowan for the report on the trip (article below).
  • Annual Picnic (07 June).Meelmore Lodge turned out to be a very suitable venue for the annual picnic and there was a good turnout of ramblers present. We extend our sincere thanks to Carmel Quinn and Toni Taylor for their efforts over and above the call of duty in planning and providing the party. Thank you to everyone who came along and again thanks to Meelmore Lodge for the use of their premises.

MARY MAGOWAN – A TRIBUTE

It was with profound shock and incredulity we learnt of Mary’s sudden and untimely death.

We met Mary on her first walk with the Ramblers in July 1995 when we trekked up Doan on the Clarence Cheney annual walk and Mary complained to Terry that this was not a good idea! Fortunatelyfor all of us, Mary became a regular walker, led many C walks, served on the committee and was chairperson in 2002 and 2003.She had the capability of making everyone welcome and made a point of reaching out to new members and many would today admit that their continued membership was due to her enthusiasm for the hills. Her ‘organic’ breakfasts after the ‘sunrise walk’ were famous.

Many occasions were celebrated on the mountains, one of which was her special birthday when Terry produceda bottle of champagne with crystal glasses which he had carried to the top of Commedagh.

We walked with Mary in her belovedMournes, in Cork and in Kerry.After a couple of annualweekends in Connemara the Ramblers joined us and we spent many Easter breaks there walking in the Bens.

Our next adventures took us to Mary and Terry’s holiday home in Bagneres de Bigorre where we had favourite walks in the Pyrenees, ate in the local restaurants and talked into the early morning hours. On these trips Mary and Liz shared the driving on the French motorways and the corkscrew roads in the mountains. When we watch the Tour de France winding its way to the Col du Tourmalet at 7000 feet we remember Mary driving, admiring the views, with vast drops on each side of the road and her passengers in stunned silence.In thick fog, on another trip, it was not to be recommended.There is a shrub in the Square in Bagneres which Mary pruned annually with the hire car as she drove past.She loved going to the patisserie with her basket for the lovelybread for our breakfasts and lunches and looked a typical French lady, practising the language when she got the opportunity.

Mary was inspirational. She was a very special person and a loyal friend. Her love of animals was well known and she rescued so many.Our special memories are of her laughter, her energy, her elegance, her enthusiasm, her love of flowers and the nature around her.

Thank you for the wonderful memories.We shall never forget you

Joan CalvertElizabethSloanSarah Newell

DAVID COATES – A TRIBUTE

David Coates, who passed away on 17 June, was a member of the Mourne Rambling Group, WeeBinnian Walkers and theDruidsWalkingGroup.David had a great love for the Mournes and was a familiar face at theweekends away with Harry and David.
David lived all his life in Belfast and was a coach painter for Ulster Transport,a job he excelled at. He was a real character, always with a smile on his face, and will be remembered for his inventions and modifications to his walkingequipment, especially the cup holder on top of his walking pole and the handwarmer - a soup tin with firelighters inside - not one of his better inventions.He was great company in the hills with his stories, chocolate and kindness,and will be greatly missed by all his walking friends, especially those in theThursdaygroup.

David is survived by his wife Dorothy, sonSamuel and daughters Lucille and Angela.

Wilf Green

TRAINING

We are keen to promote opportunities for members to improve their hillwalking skills. If you have an idea for atraining moduleor if you would like to find out if training can be provided for a particular topic, please contact Laura Fawcett.[ Laura will follow this up and liaise with you.

GPS COURSE

Date : Saturday, 26th September 2015.

Time : 09.00hrs – 17.00hrs

Venue : Tollymore National Outdoor Centre, Bryansford,Newcastle.

Cost : £35.00 pp (the course fee would normally be £51.00 – however, it has been subsidised by the Ulster Federation of Rambling Clubs and Walking in Your Community)

This course will be of interest to many of our members – for more information please check out the UFRC web site or contact George (02893340642).

GUIDELINES FOR WALKING GRADES

Trevor Russell, Raymond Gray and I are currently looking again at these. We are aware that there are differing views on them, and will be considering whether to add distance and terrain to them.

The key point is that we do not want them to be prescriptive – they are only guidelines and the leader will always make their decisions based on the group that is out, weather, and so on.

We would really welcome any views that you have, which we will take into account if possible. Please send them to us within a week of the newsletter being with you. You can email me at and I will pass them on to Trevor and Ray.

David S. Oldfield

North-WestMountain Rescue Team Meeting

Meelmore Lodge, 12th April 2015

It was great to see so many Mourne Ramblers at the meeting.

The NWMR gave practical advice on group management during an incident, and how to assist the emergency team in reference to casualty condition, location and group size. They also clearly demonstrated how to use rescue equipment; and it’s good to know what gear to have in case of an emergency call out.

Here are a few things you can do to assist and obtain assistance in the mountains:

•The NWMR is urging walkers and other outdoor enthusiasts to register for a new emergency text service, which allows people to text 999 when voice calls can’t be made, but they still have sufficient signal to send a text. Registration is required to avoid misuse of the service. If you’d like to sign up, simply text “REGISTER” to 999 and follow the instructions given.

•You can also use 112, which is the pan European emergency contact number, and was introduced to the UK over 15 years ago to run parallel with 999. It gives a you chance to get through to the emergency services in case the latter number is too busy.

•By simply adding the letters ICE (In Case of Emergency) to the end of next-of-kin names in your mobile phones contact book, this would assist the emergency services in the event you’re unable to tell them who to contact.

Thanks to Joe Dowdall for helping me arrange the event, and thanks to all who attended.

Domnall McComish

(A donation of £50 towards NWMR has been sentas a token of our appreciation).

The Westport Report or ‘A trip of two halves’

Having struggled through the rain, mist and eventually snow to lead a walk from Meelmore Lodge in the morning, it was a joy to drive in the sun to Westport during the afternoon of the 12th April. The joy was frequently spoilt by Sunday drivers who seemed to have nowhere to go in a hurry and insisted on driving down the middle of the road so no one else could go anywhere quickly! Nonetheless, we arrived in time for the briefing from our esteemed leader and organiser David and more importantly, dinner.

Our challenge for Monday (day 1) was to be ‘Ben Gorm and Ben Creggan’, starting from where the Glendavock River comes close to the road and a day of 11k/7 miles with 800m/2,625 feet of ascent. The morning could be described as ‘soft’ as we set off in convoy to our starting point. We had walked for about 20 minutes when a figure at the bottom of the hill started ‘guldering’. There was some debate among the group as to the object of his attention and it was generally agreed to be elsewhere so we carried on. However the ‘guldering’ continued insistently as this person made his way up the hill and eventually the consensus was that he was seeking to communicate with us and we should stop. When he eventually got to our position it was hard to tell whether the farmer/landowner, as he informed us at the start of the conversation, was more red faced due to his exertion in getting up the hill or at our trespass onto his land “during the lambing’. In any event he was not for letting us go any further and so we all trudged back to our cars at the bottom of the hill. The learning from this is that just because a walk is featured in a reputable publication does not mean that the locals have agreed occasional right of way.

Having fallen at this obstacle we reverted to our leader’s bad weather back-up walk, Little Killary harbour which he assured us in his notes “…is almost at its best in stormy weather.” The weather was not very stormy and it was a very pleasant walk with spectacular scenery along the side of ‘Ireland’s Fjord’, as it is described in the tourist notices. I was somewhat troubled by this assertion as it triggered memories of my O-Level Geography. Further research has confirmed my memory that Carlingford Lough and Lough Swilly are also fjords.

The day 2 objective was ‘the classic’ Sheeffry Hills, an end-to-end ridge walk of 10.5k/6.5 miles with 720m/2,362 feet of ascent. The start of the day was not without incident as the road to our start point was blocked by a ‘Closed Due To Road Works’ sign. However, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the nice man from the County Council allowed us through after a short conversation. Our start point was prior to the roadworks.

The initial ascent was a bit breezy. However, as we gained height the wind speed increased to the point when it made progress difficult. Close to the summit we stopped for lunch and it was agreed that given the narrowness of the high ridge and the ferocity of the wind it would be unsafe to progress along the original route. Accordingly we made a descent down the south (sheltered) side and followed the contours back to our starting point.

Wednesday was to be our Croagh Patrick Pilgrimage starting on the main road at Knockaraha and taking in the little humps on the way to the main event and then back the same way to the cars. The morning started off grey but dry and warm dry but grey as we made our way from the hotel to the starting point. David had warned us that the track up Croagh Patrick was loose shale and he did not exaggerate. It was tricky and fairly tough going and not made any easier by the fact the summit was shrouded in cloud. However, everyone made it up to the top safely and we were put to shame by members of the local football team who seem to do a running ascent and descent of the mountain as part of their daily training routine.

We stopped at the top of Croagh Patrick for our lunch and, despite the lack of barefoot pilgrims in our group, experienced our own miracle as the clouds parted and the sun came out. We had the most fantastic view of Clew Bay and the islands, really spectacular and well worth the effort of getting to the top.

The parting of the clouds on Wednesday marked a significant change in the weather to the good and, as we set off on Thursday morning for our final outing, the sun shone and the birds were happy. Our leader had promised us Mweelrea by what is sometimes referred to as the ledge route, starting and finishing from just north-west of Doo Lough and ascending by Coum Dubh. Depending on the weather the plan was to also take in Ben Bury and Ben Lugmore. The shorter route was to be about 10.5k/6.5 miles, with an ascent of 900m/3,000 feet, the longer approximately 12k/7.5 miles and 1,000m/3,300 feet.

From the road the route looked impressive and challenging and I can confirm that it was both, particularly on the way up. There were a couple of times the route was very steep and when the route was not steep the drop away was. Nonetheless, everyone completed the ascent and, given the bright clear day, we were once again greeted by fantastic vistas on all sides. The coastal views to the north and south were particularly impressive.

It was somewhat disappointing to reach the cars at the end of the walk and realize our trip was near to an end.

As for any trip the motto is ‘What goes on tour stays on tour’ but there were a couple of achievements that should be shared. In particular, Gordon and Loretto are to be congratulated for winning the jive competition against stiff competition from some eighty year olds. Irene’s squeaky boots (since cured) ensured we were unable to observe any wildlife from close quarters and the hotel Elvis is also worthy of mention, particularly his plastic ‘quiff’ (he was a decent singer as well).

For the data junkies the stats, courtesy of Ray appear below and there is a link to some of David’s photos. But I could not end without saying how much everyone enjoyed the trip and thanking David and Irene for all the work they put into the organisation.

KillaryHarbour (Part 2 of Day 1) / Sheeffry Hills (Day 2)
Length: 7.89 km / 4.93 mi
Total Time: 2 hours 50 minutes
Average Speed: 2.79 kph / 1.73 mph
Track Start Time: 13:43:50
Track End Time: 16:33:22 / Length: 7.94 km / 4.96 mi
Total Time: 4 hours 18 minutes
Average Speed: 1.85 kph / 1.15 mph
Track Start Time: 10:26:23
Track End Time: 14:44:05
Croagh Patrick (Day 3) / Mweelrea (Day 4)
Length: 16.29 km / 10.18 mi
Total Time: 7 hours 28 minutes
Average Speed: 2.18 kph / 1.36 mph
Track Start Time: 09:27:45
Track End Time: 16:55:22 / Length: 14.06 km / 8.79 mi
Total Time: 7 hours 37 minutes
Average Speed: 1.85 kph / 1.15 mph
Track Start Time: 10:03:37
Track End Time: 17:40:31

Some of David’s photos taken on the Westport trip are on the website – or click here for access.

Joe McKnight

Dingle Trip, May 22nd – 25th 2015

A group of Mourne Ramblers (walkers, wives, husbands) were to be found heading for Anascaul, Co Kerry for 3 days walking. Spread mostly over 2 side-by-side B&Bs (The Old Anchor Inn and Teac Sean), Marty was located in another B&B in the village and Joan had the luxury of the hostel about 5 miles up the road. A/B group walkers included Andrew McKibbin (organiser and leader), Irene Cauley, Ray Gray, Marie Hoeritzauer, Joan Hulme, Domnall McComish and David Oldfield while the C group were Harry Goodman (leader), Dermot MacDermott, Peter McGowan, Marty Overend, Toni Taylor and John Tweed.