In spite of the bad weather, lots of people are enjoying the mountains, beaches and towpaths of our National Waymarked Ways. In the first of a weekly series, Arminta Wallaceasks some expert walkers to share their favourite route
Shane Connolly of Burren Hill Walks, who specialises in guided walks in the Burren region of Co Clare, talks about his favourite walk on Mullaghmore mountain
The walk:
"You begin from the town of Gortnalecka, the middle of nowhere. It's where they take the picture that's on all the postcards. There's the road, there's a spectacular lake in front of it and behind it there's Mullaghmore mountain. There's a path by the side of the lake and then you follow cattle paths up the mountain. You can do a few hours or you can do a whole day - you can make up the rules as you go along, depending on your own time.
"You've got some great geology on the Burren. It's all about terraces. Most are dead level, but the thing about Mullaghmore is that it has totally collapsed - so it's all very lopsided. It's kind of a strange place; it's all limestone pavements and they're all full of flowers. You hear a lot about the flowers on the Burren and actually, 95 per cent of them are there on that walk. Recently I saw six varieties of orchid, including the shrubby cinquefoil, which can be found in only three places in Ireland. It's on the right-hand side of the lake, so when it's in flower it's one whole mass of yellow. Another yellow flower at the moment would be the lady's bedstraw. Just now it's also covered in purple flowers: wild thyme and bloody cranesbill.
"Every level is slightly different. Some are smooth limestone, others are totally shattered. And you get some spectacular fossils from the coral reefs - sponges and such-like. There are so many different habitats on the mountain. Lower down, it's bare rock. Then you go through native woodland, which is all coming back again; hazel and blackthorn and whitethorn and, if you look closely, holly. There are grasslands full of flowers, and another part where you go in and the wood is quite high, with big ash trees and birch trees and the fronds of wild garlic, wood anemone and so on. And stone walls, of course. So within an hour you go through all of those - and you see glacial erratics, as well.
"I've been taking people on walks around this place for 14 years, and every day is different. Some days you'd stand on the Burren and you can see all the way to Kerry and Connemara. Other days you couldn't see a stone wall 100 yards away."
How did you get into walking?"Well, I live in the Burren and I've got qualifications in nature and archaeology. I have a farm, and there wasn't much going on in 1993 and 1994, so I needed a second income. That's how it started.
How regularly do you walk?"I usually do two walks a day. Some are two hours long, some are eight. The average would be about three to four hours."
What's the longest walk you've ever done?"About eight hours. But you'd have a packed lunch with that - or you'd have a revolution on your hands."
The most magical walk you've ever done?"Oh, there have been a lot of them. Some days you'll see spectacular rainbows; other days, it'll be wildlife - a hare or an owl, or the odd pine marten, which few people ever see. You see showers coming across from the Atlantic, across Galway Bay. And when you're high up, you see things at funny angles. It's different every time. Early in the morning can be quite good, or at sunset."
And the most miserable?"I've done a lot of those too. Mist. That's miserable. Of course, it depends who's behind you. The company's a big thing on a walk. Sometimes you could spend the whole day up on the mountain with people and it's great. Other times, you'd wonder if they came in from a different planet."
For further information on the Burren Way, see www.walkireland.ie
Shane Connolly can be contacted at burrenhillwalks@eircom.net
