Good Friday on Diamond Hill

The day on Diamond Hill turned out windy and rainy despite early promise but we'll still enjoyed the walk immensely.

The forecast was for a warm and clear day.  The forecast was wrong!  Still, it didn't deter my mate and I as we took advantage of our day off from work to head for Diamond Hill.  This noble pertrusion that lies to the back of the Connemara National Park information centre and casts it's cold eye over it's more illustrious neighbours, the Twelve Pins. 



 We set off early enough and got to Letterfrack by about 10.20am.  Last September we conquered the mighty Glen Coghan Horseshoe loop that takes in 7 of the twelve pins, but this time 'round we opted to ease into the season by walking the Diamond.  The hill itself is pretty high (well over 1400ft), but it is very manageable due to the work that has been done by the National Park and the Office of Public Works.  Amazingly it is stepped almost all of the way up with flagstones.  Walkers were out in their droves and one Englishman, on hearing our accents, joked that he 'didn't know Irish people walked'. 

A sandwich at the summit...

It took us around two hours to go up and down and the wind was heavy to say the least at the very top.  In fact we were practically blown off our feet and I ran the last section coming towards the stones that symboled the mountains peak, so that I could shelter behind the rock wall at the very top.  There I enjoyed a sandwich or two while we surveyed the sprawling wilderness below -  with a great view of Kylemore Abbey to our right and directly ahead of us, in the far distance, we could see Mayo's highest peak - Mweelrea Mountain.

Amazingly this mountain has a stone pathway nearly all the way up!  Firstly:  how did they manage to do this? Secondly:  do not underestimate the climb simply because it has this path!

It started to rain as we made our descent, but it took nothing away from the lovely views, the great chat and the fine start to another year of walking and running...