The weather forecast threatened  wet and windy and it had every appearance of a duvet day, nevertheless,  we decided to blow off the cobwebs with a circuit of Black Mountain. This is an excellent choice for a gloomy day. It’s close to Belfast and there are three well sign posted and very beautiful circuits mostly on paths but with some rough ground.

We started at the National Trust car park on Divis Road which can be accessed from the Upper Springfield Road, just after Hannastown.  It is clearly indicated on the right with a brown sign.

It was a gloomy one.  It was the kind of day when you would not be surprised to see Heathcliff striding across the open moorland with Cathy in hot pursuit, background music by Kate Bush or  glimpse the aquiline features of Basil Rathbone protruding from beneath a deerstalker and clutching a meerschaum, howl growl music by the hound from hell.

The going is good on paths, with only the occasional swampy, slippery section across open ground.  Staying with the Holmes/Baskerville analogy, the Great Grimpen Mire where innocent souls can be sucker down to a watery and lonely grave never to be seen again by mortal man, it is not.  However, occasionally, the water can come over the top of your boot.  So, enjoy and tread carefully!

The Tollymore Circuit is an easy, 16 kilometres walk on tracks and minor roads. The walk starts in Newcastle, in  Donard Park car park. For a map and more information go to Wikiloc http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/edit.do?event=info&id=13837800

Leave the car park and  walk along Newcastle’s sea front. When you reach the river, turn left inland and follow the Ulster Way signposts.  Cross the road to pick up another path,  go across two footbridges crossing rivers and then, follow a tarmac path alongside the Shimna River.  Exit the park at the main road, turn left, cross the bridge and enter Tipperary Wood on the right and continue to follow the river upstream on Tipperary Lane to a minor road. Turn right, keep left and climb up the hill.   Go through a gate, cross a stile and follow the zigzagging forest path. At the first intersection go sharp left.  Follow this track which handrails the old boundary wall of Tollymore and then follow the black arrows.  A series of beautiful paths and tracks will, eventually, lead you back out of Tollymore at Priest’s  Bridge and the Tullybrannigan Road.

Turn right and climb up the tarmac road. At the summit notice a narrow concrete road between the houses on the right.  This will bring you to a grassy track  on the left which will lead you, full-circuit, back  to the first gate and stile.  At this point you can retrace your steps to Tipperary Lane or go through the gate straight ahead and follow the track, hand railing an old wall, to Drinnahilly Wood which is clearly visible straight ahead, and back to Donard Forest and the car park.

On our various expeditions, my Dutch friend Niels had noticed signs requesting the passing hiker  to respect the local flora and fauna, including leprechauns.  In respect of the latter, treasure hunters and fortune seekers were not encouraged.  The signs all bear the logo of the European Union and were erected in those halsian pre-Brexit days.  In P.J. O’Hare’s pub , in the square in Carlingford, after the Barnavave walk, he noted a glass case containing, what purported to be, the worldly possessions of a missing leprechaun called Michael, including his clothes and various everyday accoutrements ( pot of gold not included).  A  substantial Euro reward was offered for the safe return of Michael to his friends and family and since leprechauns are notorious for going commando we can only assume that he is not only out there and missing but also bare-assed.  These displays are common, if not endemic,  in Irish bars, so we can safely assume that Michael not only has a few bare-assed friends, but they could be legion.

On the Tollymore trek, we stopped for lunch in a beautiful leafy glade.  The rain stopped briefly and a few  pale rays of sun filtered through the trees turning everything an intense green. Thoughts of the missing Michael came to everyone at the same time and we felt that he was close by.  As we munched our sandwiches and swilled our tea, it was comforting to think that, in spite of so many changes, the post-Brexit leprechaun, although missing and bare-assed, was still with us safe and sound.