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!