Bluestack Mountains Scenic Route

Trekking in Ireland: The Bluestack Mountains Traverse, County Donegal

This 34 km east to west route across the remote Bluestack Mountains has over 1,700 metres of ascent and takes in 13 summits, including Croaghgorm, the highest point in the range. We did it over 2 days, bivvying out overnight at the summit of Croaghbane. The route we took starts from the Barnsmore Gap road where we were dropped off by a taxi, hired in Glenties. We arranged for the same taxi to collect us from a picnic area at the end of a boreen in the Owenroe valley the next day. On a clear day from the Bluestacks, the scenery over the Province of Ulster is fantastic, rewarding the walker with spectacular vistas and sweeping panoramas.

There is little foot-fall on these mountains and almost no visible tracks to follow; it is impossible to move quickly over the terrain. A maze of peat hags are encountered in some of the valley bottoms and steep gullies require careful scrambling. In one gully below Croaghgorm, is the wreckage of a WW2 aircraft that crashed in 1944 claiming 7 lives.

We tackled this route on probably the hottest days of the year so far. The heat and very high humidity meant that it was important to remain well hydrated. Fortunately, numerous loughs en route provided ample drinking water, but it had to be sterilised first. We used a UV Steripen. The bog flora is abundant: species include bog cotton, bogbean, bog asphodel and sundew. Fauna spotted included skylarks, grouse, golden plover and a fledgling meadow pipit. But less pleasing were the swarms of midges and horseflies making the application of DEET an absolute necessity in summer!

For more detail about the traverse see the blog:

ATLANTIC DRIVE, DONEGAL, IRELAND

Driving through Atlantic Drive and taking in the great scenery
in County Donegal, Ireland.