Well, sometimes things don't quite go to plan. We took the rope and climbing kit on a long walk today.
The Great Gully Ridge of Glenmalure, looks pretty good in the guidebook to Irish climbing - so good in far, that four pages have been dedicated to documenting the route along with a couple of alluring photographs. We set off, after a night in Glendalough to make an ascent along an easy forest track that led up into a beautiful glen that is hidden from the valley below. The ridge soon came into view and we followed the directions to the point where it said leave the track and bushwhack up to the base of the ridge.
The photo above shows the ridge (to the right of the gully), but getting there looked like it was going to be unpleasant at best. Marshy bogs, streams, tussocks, trees and steep grass and scree stood in the way between us and some quite good looking rock. We decided that the joy of the climb was likely to be far outweighed by the hassle of getting to it, so continued up the ever decreasing path to see if we could abseil in from above.
The track petered out into a muddy path, which in turned faded to some wet grassy terrain. Getting over to the top of the cliff involved an exhausting negotiation of a swath of sphagnum bogs and peat cutting, but we were determined to make it, having travelled this far.
We eyed up the ridge and gully and considered descending the gully, but again, came to the same conclusion that the wet, grassy steep slopes wouldn't be providing much in the way of enjoyment and the abseil tat, at the top of the ridge looked tricky to access and inspired little in the way of confidence.
In the end, we decided to admit defeat and agreed that it just wasn't our day. It's not a particually well frequented place and after nearly two years of lockdown, it didn't look like anyone had been there in a long while. Luckily, we had a good lunch with us and a fine view to enjoy before heading down.
As we began our descent, we came across Barney, who'd hiked up to find us! This cheered us no end and we had a lot of laughs nattering on the way down to the van, where we brewed up and carried on chatting for hours. That fact that we'd not managed to climb the route didn't matter at all...
At dusk, we arrived back at Glendalough and after some food outside the village pub, we got established at the upper lake car park, where overnight parking is allowed for a small fee. It was a beautiful evening and there wasn't a breath of wind.
As we were covered in a gross sweaty sheen of sweat and suncream, the lake was the perfect place to cool off and freshen up before wriggling into our sleeping bags in the back of the cosy little van.
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