ProjectVISUAL

I do a spot of mountain hiking every once in a while and during the middle of June a few fellow hiking friends and I decided to tackle two mountains on the west coast of Ireland; Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo and Ben Bulben in Co. Sligo. I say mountain but they are only 764 and 526 meters high respectively, Ireland is pretty flat compared to the rest of the world! Anyway, number one on this list was Croagh Patrick. The view from its summit is supposedly spectacular; composed of Clew bay, the Neiphin Beg mountain range and Achill and Clare island. It sounded like a great opportunity for some valuable photography time so I packed my camera and hoped for some good weather. Every year on the last Sunday of July (Reek Sunday) over 25000 pilgrims climb Croagh Patrick as an act of penance. Many of them do it carrying crosses and go barefoot!, some Irish don’t fell like they’re doing any good unless they’re in pain! I however would not advise doing this since most of Croagh Patrick is basically just a big pile of scree. There’s also a church on the summit, apparently built by St. Patrick, if you want to pray for an easy way down once you make it up there!

Our trek began in the car park at the base of the mountain….

In my eagerness I bought a high tech (if that’s possible) telescopic walking stick for a criminally priced €40 – as it turned out proper sticks, possibly cut from Sequoia Giant Redwoods, were being sold in the car park for a bargain €3. I felt cheated but I had to grit my teeth and accept it. From the car park our journey led up some steps and progressed to a rocky path that was really just too long, steep and winding for my liking. My mind soon wandered from taking scenic photographs onto my heart beating like a yo-yo – it actually felt as though it was going to explode on more than one occasion! To give you some idea of the path, check out the image below; we can see the carpark where we started in the background. This photo was only taken near the start of the first path that makes up the first leg of the climb! The second more difficult path soon followed!

Once overcoming the first, treacherous part of the walk it started raining in buckets and we took shelter beside a bank that gave us protection against the wind and to a lesser extent the rain also. The middle stage of the climb is generally flatter than the rest and gives you a much needed break to recuperate for the final stretch, which is made up of a 40° inclined struggle upwards while dodging falling scree and other pilgrims who lacked the willpower to keep going.

If you do manage to overcome this (and you should), you’ll be treated to a great panoramic scene of Clew Bay to the West. I’ve stitched together three images I took to the the photo below. Noise becomes very apparent as you move closer to the sides of the picture but the made focus (the Bay itself) is reasonably clear to see.

Despite my grumbles earlier about my walking stick I would thoroughly recommend bringing one along for this climb; the scree means that every step forwards is potentially followed by three steps back. The walking stick allows for greater balance and has a great swinging motion to it if you’re in the mood for a bit of a swagger. While it’s handy for the ascent, it’s practically essential for the descent – getting down Croagh Patrick is akin to rock surfing – sneeze while jumping down from rock to rock and you’re likely to have a scree avalanche in close pursuit!

As you can see from the next image I attempted to create a 360° panoramic shot from Croagh Patrick’s summit. It worked to a certain extent but the manner in which the summit is shaped (oval is the best way to describe it), the ground appears to ebb like a wave as it moves closer in and farther away. In spite of this I decided to post it here for your own judgments.

It’s one of the more difficult climb I’ve done in Ireland but the satisfaction at the end, combined with the great view to be seen makes it well worth it.