Trevor Fisher, an instructor at Tol lymore Mountain Centre, Co Down, tells Arminta Wallaceabout the walks on Slieve Bearnagh
The walk
There are lots of great walks in the Mournes; some of the most spectacular hillwalking in Northern Ireland, that's for sure. If people were to go up the Trassey Track and over to Slieve Bearnagh, that would be a really good taster.
There's a great view over to Slieve Donard, and south to the Irish Sea. Provided it's not misty, you can see Lough Neagh and on up towards Strangford as well. But then, if it's misty, it's got its own special atmosphere because Bearnagh has huge granite tors on the top - massive, 150-ft cliffs on this big lump of granite sticking out of the top of the mountain. So when it's misty, walking through them is pretty eerie.
You park in the Trassey Track car park and take an old quarry track through a forest. I grew up in Wicklow, so I'm used to boggy open spaces and long heather. This is different - it's either a path or it's pretty short grass, so it's pleasant walking. The Mournes are also unusual in that, nearly everywhere you go, there would be signs of people working on the land; so you see very old sheep pens, quarries on the hillsides in the distance, and old stonemasons' shelters built from discarded quarry blocks.
You walk to the summit alongside the Mourne Wall, which runs for 20-something miles, and is up to seven feet high and three feet thick in places. It was built at the turn of the last century. Fresh water in
Belfast was becoming a really big problem, so the Water Commissioners decided that the thing to do was pipe water up from the Mournes. Basically, any water that fell within the area enclosed by the wall went to the Silent Valley reservoir.
Slieve Bearnagh is about 2,500 feet high. But because you start very low down, it always feels like a big mountain - it's a long way to the top. If I could add anything to persuade people to go hillwalking, I would. Even in the rain. Because once you get back, and you sit in the pub and look back on what you've just done, it's good fun.
For further information on walking in the Mourne Mountains, see www.mountainviews.ie. Tollymore Mountain Centre can be contacted on 0044-28-43722158
How did you get into walking?
My dad's a scout leader, so he was involved in taking people out and when I was nine or 10, we tagged along.
How regularly do you walk?Personally not that regularly, because we have baby daughters. But through work, regularly.
What's the longest walk you've ever done?I've done reasonably long walks in the Rockies and the Tetons.
The most magical walk you've ever done?Oh, there's lots and lots. I once did a fantastic walk in the Alps with my wife - a really early start, sunrise on top of a mountain, that sort of thing.
Also, I grew up in Greystones, so I've had some pretty fantastic times in Wicklow. I remember when I was 15 or 16 camping below Lugnaquilla one winter in really heavy snow and ice. That was something my parents were never supposed to find out about.
And the most miserable?Easy. Once upon a time I was working on a mountain-leader assessment in Kerry, and it rained continuously for three days. Wet socks in the morning, wet sleeping bags, the whole works.
