Rathgormack Ramblers Archives: Rathgormack Ramblers Archives

New Club Website

This blog no longer functions as the club website but we will keep the posts relating to past club walks and away trips as a kind of club archive for anyone who wants to have a look.

Please consult the new official club website for club walks, news, trips etc. http://www.rathgormackramblers.ie

How GDPR affects members

Rathgormack Ramblers reminds all its members that your personal data re name, address, email address and mobile number, has been forwarded to Mountaineering Ireland for registration purposes. Furthermore, the club regularly posts photos from its walks on its website and whatsapp photo share. If any member wishes to have a photo removed please inform the website administrator.

Grading of Walks

Grading walks can be very subjective. For our club purposes they are:

Grade A: 5-7 hours – to the plateaux and ridges. Strenuous. May be some scrambling.

Grade B: 3-5 hours – to the coums and lower hills. Rarely above 600 metres.

Grade C: 1-3 hours – on forest paths and back roads. Rarely over 10 km long.

Walk Changes due to weather etc.

Check with the designated leader e.g. Mick 0872927077 or Irene 0872359598 or Josh 087 2346392.

Do you know about...

Coumduala

This coum is probably one of the Comeraghs` least known and least visited coums. Like many Comeragh places its name is gaelic in origin – “Com Dubh Fhalla” – the hollow of the black wall. Coumduala lies at about 468 metres elevation on the south-eastern flanks of Knockanaffrin Ridge, just over one kilometre north of the Gap. It has the typical cliff-edged back and side walls of a once ice-occupied mountain hollow. The hollow/coum is home to a fine lake and its eastern flank has one of the best examples of an impounding end moraine in the Comeraghs.

Knockanaffrin Ridge offers us an insight into the vagaries of ice action. Its south-western flanks overlook the Nire Valley and have little evidence of erosion by ice. Its north-eastern flanks however have two fine coums – Lough Mohra and Lough Coumduala. The darker and colder north-easterly aspect it would seem was enough to guarantee long periods of ice action on this side of the ridge, culminating in the creation of two impressive coums.

The easiest way to access Coumduala is probably from an old farm yard at Curraheen – Grid Reference S 307154. Travel west along the R678 from Rathgormack. After about 3 kilometres, turn left/south towards the mountains at Clondonnell Cross. A further 3 kilometres brings you to the farm yard. This is the trailhead for a couple of way-marked walks. One of these is a 2 hour/5 kilometre out-and-back walk to Coumduala. Follow the way markers down an old boreen, across a couple of fields and stiles to the open mountain. The “saddle on the horse`s back” to your left is the Gap. You must travel right or west and uphill from here however - towards the dark hole in the ridge.

We are talking about one of the Comeraghs` loneliest coums. You are unlikely to meet another soul should you seek it out. In summer you may hear the cuckoo. In winter the coum is dark and brooding and living up to its name. In wet weather small cascades may be encountered as you follow the headwaters of the Clodiagh into the coum. Spot the mountain ash growing up through the huge erratic boulders transported down slope by ice. You negotiate two recessional moraines before you eventually have to climb over the lip or end moraine holding in the lake. A sheep path on the other side of the outlet stream leads across the mountainside to the Gap if you feel like exploring further. Go on – discover this lovely place.