Bofin Shark Challenge

Inis Bó Finne

BEANNA BEOLA WALKING CLUB

Bofin Shark Challenge

Sunday 1st June 2008.

Provisional Timetable (subject to numbers booking in advance)

Meet at Cleggan (6 miles from Clifden, Connemara) between 8am and 9am for a boat departure at 9am.

Arrive on Inishbofin at 9:45am and commence walk.

Inishbofin

We’ll be heading around the island counter clockwise. From the harbour we’ll cross a narrow beach to Cromwell’s Barracks, the fort on Port Island at the harbour mouth. Then we’ll be heading east over Knock Hill (81m), then heading southeast to pick up a track which will bring us onto one of to beaches at the east end of the island.
Then we will walk a short distance along the road through the East End Village and across the beach, picking up a bog road which runs from the beach to a series of low hills.
From the hills we will head east to Gubaranduff before heading west again along the cliffs (passing Doonahinena, a sea stack and fort – not to be missed by taking a more inland route).

After Doonahinena we will be continuing along to Ardlea Cove, will circuit around southwestward to Bunnamullen Bay and then go on along slightly more gentle ground as far as the North Strand shingle beach (along the North-central coast of the island).
We will cross the North Strand Beach and follow the road for c.1km until the walls on either side run out and then strike north to an opening in the ground c.300m away.
This marks the entrance of a very spectacular sea cave, the roof of which has broken in places. Make sure to go right down and have a look out through the cave.

From here we will continue along the coast, passing a memorial to two drowned American students, from here the Stags (a series of rocks) are visible, together with their normally resident seal population. We will continue along the coast until we reach the Doonmore Iron Age Fort.
Make sure to climb up onto the fort, there’s a wonderful panorama. From Doonmore we will head East again, taking either a lowlying route edging the sea and passing Trá Geal (dangerous for swimming) or a higher route heading up over Cnoc Mhór and down (or up) onto the Green Road which will bring you into Westquarter Village.
You will pass Murray’s Bar (a great stop for a bite of lunch) and continuing on for another mile will take you to Day’s Bar, overlooking the inner harbour. From here a high speed rib will be available from 2 O’Clock onwards to take people to Inishark (travel time ten minutes and up to 15 minutes to offload depending on the tidal conditions).
The rib will depart on a first come, first served basis but will wait until its full before departing. Depending on numbers on the walk there may be a cut off in terms of numbers able to go to Inishark to make sure that we can get back from the island in a reasonable time.

Inishark

This is a beautiful, abandoned island which was recently featured in the documentary Bás an Oileann by Ciaran Concannon.

The rib will offload at Inishark Village. From the incredible abandoned village, we will head west past Clochán Leo and then contour around the island following the coast.
After 2km we will pass a large boundary fence cutting off the SW of the island, immediately beyond this are the remains of a prehistoric farm. From the very SW tip of the island the walk takes you above a marvellous set of cliffs and a spectacular sea-stack called buachaill (note the small man-made cairn on top of it).
Shark head is the very western tip of the island, after reaching it we will continue following the coast around until we return to the village. We will be walking though one of Ireland’s best preserved prehistoric landscapes.
There are wonderful cliffs all around the coast and lots of seals, Choughs, Falcons and Skuas for Birdwatchers.

We will be taking the rib back from the village to Inishbofin and then the ferry back to Cleggan.

General Considerations

There will be a minimum of regulation attached to the Challenge. We will check people onto and off the boats. Other than that the route people take will be based on their own decisions of how much of the route above to do. In order to cover ferry costs etc there will be a charge of 40 Euros to register. The bulk of this will cover chartering the ferry and rib.

We need a minimum of 25 to charter our own ferry, so early booking is essential so that the ferry operators can fit it in with their busy bank-holiday special. If we have less than 16 entrants the price will go up to 45 Euro I’ll get the rib to drop us on Inishark first and we’ll come out on the regular Inishbofin ferry (returning at 5). The absolute minimum number is 10 people.

At no point on Inishbofin are you more than ½ mile from a house and there are a series of bog roads linking the northern coast route back to various villages on the island.

Inishark is ideal for walking. It is generally smooth underfoot and much of it is coated by of a thin deposit of turf. Inishbofin by contrast is much rougher underfoot with a greater variety of terrain.

Though there is no great height on the route (a maximum of 100m) there are a number of obvious dangers, the principle ones being the sea cliffs which are unstable in places. Extreme caution must be exercised. In particular, you must be extremely careful if the weather is squally as sudden gusts can be strong enough to knock a person over. Apart from the two pubs on Inishbofin, there is also a small shop on the island where people can buy a snack or buy water should they need it. You don’t need to come heavily laden with food for the day – if one wants one can travel light and pick up supplies between the islands (ie at Days, Murrays or at the shop in between).

There is a very nice hostel on Inishbofin and three hotels as well as a small number of B&Bs. If anyone wants to stay over please let us know as we need to know the numbers for the ferry, it being a bank-holiday weekend. I’d appreciate it if anyone booking contacted me no later than the 26th of May if at all possible.

Anyone who is nervous about getting in and out of boats should only do the Inishbofin portion of the walk. There’s often a swell between the two islands – making landing on Inishark awkward and sometimes impossible. The skipper of the rib will have the final say as to whether or we can land.

We will be having a few drinks in Oliver’s Bar, Cleggan at the end of the walk and carparking is available in Cleggan for a few Euros a day.