Blarney

They said there was a mountain at the top of the valley.

Apparently it is Ireland's tallest - Mt Carrauntoohill, 1010m. The donkeys at the start of the walk were friendly and gave nothing away.

The weather was not so friendly. Not cold but a strong head wind blowing threatening clouds toward us. We kept walking.

And mist and cloud racing...the high-vis orange sheep should have been a warning but we kept on going.

We walked for a couple of hours until we saw two beautiful small lakes surrounded by steep slopes and rocky cliffs, buffeted by the wind throwing rain drops at us. These lakes allegedly, sit at the foot of Carrauntoohill itself. But we could see no sign of a big pointy mountain. We put our rain jackets on and walked back down the valley.

Were we the victims of Irish blarney or a leprechaun's joke? Was there ever really a mountain up in that cloud? Who knows? It was a good walk in the kind of wild, and not over crowded, landscape that I do really enjoy.