Near the Coillte carpark, Rossacroo Woods
Just behind the carpark...
Heading up to the break in Rossacroo woods
Hopping over the wire fence
This darksome burn, horseback brown..
Onwards and upwards...!
Windswept tree
Hopping across a stream
Biggish spider
Still lushly green
The intrepid hikers at Lake Crohane
Lake Crohane
Down dale and up hill
Up
...and up
Ed admiring the views after all that climbing
Dried-up riverbed
...which I followed to its source
it was a bit further away that I thought
...and turned out to be this: Lough Fineen
View of Lough Fineen from higher up - wind farms in the background
Our destination - Stoompa!
The Devil's Inkwell...
..which flows into Lough Managh
Path to summit of Stoompa
Wider view of Devil's Inkwell
Lough Managh flows down the Horse's Glen to Lough Garragarry
Path winds upwards to summit - see if you can spot the other climbers!
Another view of the Inkwell
Zoomed
Lough Fineen far below...
Distant Killarney with Lough Garragarry in the foreground
View of distant mountains from Stoompa summit
Ex-MCS pupils Turly & Eddie pose with 'Meas Ar Gach Craobh' logo on the summit of Stoompa - Devil's Inkwell in the background
And now the descent...!
A welcome spot of colour in the still-boggy uplands
Hello Dolly
Descending on the banks of a stream - I'd say it's a lot more than a 'stream' in Winter!
L'eau qui coulait...
Bit slippery here...
Hikers pose - John looking the part!
Another mountain stream meets the one we're following down...
Water falling off the hillside
Tortured tree
Waterfalls
Bit of a minor climb back upwards after our path down turned out to be a dead-end...
We need to get down there...
Picking a path down the steepish descent to the valley floor (and at this point the battery in my cr@ppy camera ran out, but suffice to say we made it!)
