A Walk for the Weekend: The Comeraghs

I like the Comeraghs. The southeast's most expansive uplands may not possess the signature peaks of the adjacent Galtees and Knockmealdowns, but they more than compensate with an unforgettable necklace of corries biting hungrily into a sprawling plateau. A timeless landscape of blanket bogs and sandstone grits, the high Comeraghs still remain gloriously devoid of 21st-century paraphernalia, while marking a startling transition from the rounded hills of Leinster to the raw, untamed landscape of the south-west.

I set out from the Nire Valley carpark in the watery light of a winter morning. My chosen path followed a line of poles marking an ancient trade route – known locally as Bóithrín na Sochraide, since it was also used to carry coffins from the Nire Valley to Rathgormack. Today, it handrailed me gently upwards to reach “The Gap” – a high saddle dividing Knockanaffrin from the East Comeraghs.

Tagging a fence that blossomed to the right and steeply uphill, elevated me onto the Comeragh plateau. When the fence ended abruptly, it was left to a high point above Coum Iarthair, the Comeragh’s lonesomest corrie. Traversing along the rim of this coum I happily banqueted on an expansive prospect over four picturesque paternoster lakes. Come the southeast extremity, I veered right and crossed high moorland to gain the great declivities tumbling vertiginously into Crotty Lake.

The edge of this precipice conveyed me to the prominent pinnacle known as Crotty's Rock, which once served as a lookout for William Crotty – an 18th-century outlaw in the style of Robin Hood. Goodness knows how he survived in these harsh uplands, but certainly his lookout was well chosen for it offered a knockout vista over Waterford and Kilkenny to the Blackstairs Mountains.

Next stop was the alarmingly huge cliffs, lying south of Crotty’s, that gaze upon the show-pony of Ireland’s glaciated coum. Few clichés remain unhackneyed in describing the glory of Coumshingaun, so I will merely say that this panorama proves, as always, the highlight of my Comeragh outing.

Now it was resolutely out across featureless moorland towards the small cairn marking Fauscoum (792m), the highest point of the Comeraghs. Here, I feasted on superb views that unfolded over the Comeraghs, the Knockmealdowns, the Waterford lowlands and the distant sparkle of the Atlantic.

Then I took a northwesterly direction to gain the headwaters of the stream that cascades into Coumlara. Known locally as the blind valley because – unusually – it does not contain a lake, it nevertheless makes for a very pleasant descent by a series of picturesque little waterfalls.

Crossing below the Gap I returned to Bóithrín na Sochraide and retraced my steps to the Nire Valley carpark.

Map:

OS DS 75.

Start:

In Ballymacarbry go left  opposite Melody’s pub and continue to thatched house by a bridge. Narrow road leads right for about 4km to the startpoint.

Time:

5 hours.

Suitability: 

Strenuous, suitable for well-equipped walkers.