April 29, 2022 - Day 30 - Northen Ireland

 Friday morning dawned nice and clear and we felt the need to get out and about. I had read about "The four birds" mountains, meaning Hen, Pigeon Rock, Cock, and Eagle mountains and the nice trail around them. Grabbing a bottle of water we drove off. The Hen Mountain car park is a little over 7 miles away and a very pretty drive to get there.

The walk:

Dogs aren't allowed because there are sheep grazing loose in areas, we've seen signs like this that added "because of sheep worrying by dogs". The land is owned by The Batts Estate Trust.

Below is part of the Mourne Wall.

A little stream we had to cross and now the path really starts to climb. It is a gradual uphill walk for most of the length until you cross this stream.

Looking back at Hen mountain and the path walked so far.

We had walked for quite a ways and had come to a very rocky part of the path, just really hard to walk on so we turned back. We met an 81 year old man on the path going back (everyone here is in great shape, probably from hiking and walking the mountains all of the time) and he told us that the path doesn't go all the way around the mountains and that it just ends in a bog. Good thing we turned back! He also told us that he used to cut peat on these lands a long time ago.

Heading back.

We walked 3.5 miles total and probably went up about 500 feet in elevation. Coming down is almost as hard as going up, it makes my toes hurt because they slide forward in my shoes, no matter the socks or the hiking shoes. Also, the path was sometimes rocky and uneven, it makes for hard walking. We drove home, had lunch, and I collapsed like an empty balloon after dinner, I was reading and fell asleep in the chair before 9 pm, I'm just too out of shape anymore.