The return leg (and part three) of our road trip took us from County Donegal and out of the province of Ulster for the first time, and into Connaught to catch a glimpse at Ben Bulben Mountain, and Glencar Waterfall, before venturing back into Ulster to climb Ben Bulben mountain.
A rural drive from Downings, through Donegal’s gaeltacht and sparsely populated countryside eventually took us back to Letterkenny, before we ventured South, passing the popular Irish seaside resort of Bundoran. The sole purpose of our prolonged detour was to allow us to catch a glimpse of Ben Bulben mountain, which normally looks like this:
Though of course when we arrived, it looked like this:
Rather than jettison off onward to Enniskillen, we‘d decided to have a meal at Henry‘s Bar on the road that zips by Ben Bulben. Miraculously by the time we‘d finished eating, the mountain was clear to see.
Next on our itinerary was Glencar Waterfall, but again, the weather impacted our experience. Although there were no clouds obstructing the view – they did open up and soak us with rain. We parked the car along the road at Glencar Lake before venturing to the walkway up to the waterfall
The waterfall itself was quite meagre, but when in Rome (Leitrim).
After returning to the car, we quickly scurried off to Enniskillen where we‘d booked our accommodation, to drop off our belongings, before venturing out for food and calling it an early night, as the next day we‘d be climbing Cuilcagh Mountain, or the “Stairway to Heaven” as it has affectionately been nicknamed.
The next morning we embarked rather early and headed for Cuilcagh as we knew it’d be rather busy. Despite the heavy rain, many were unperturbed and sought to climb it too.
It isn’t the best signposted location. Google Maps was often telling us to drive through fields of farmland to get to the entrance – but we eventually found it.
It normally takes 5 hours to complete the 7.5km walk to the summit of Cuilcagh and back, we completed it in roughly 3. However it was not an easy walk. My calves were rather sore and I required multiple stops to let my legs rest. But apart from the staircase at the final ascent up the mountain, it isn’t an overly gruelling walk.
Similar to Ben Bulben, Cuilcagh normally offers views like this
But on the day we decided to climb it, our views were limited to this
I guess I’ve a valid reason to return. And hopefully now that I’ve done it once, I’ll find the staircase less gruelling to complete next time.