The Art O’Neill Walk 2007

It’s always exciting making one’s way to Dublin Castle for the Art O’Neill Walk. What adds to the anticipation is wondering how many are going to turn up on the night since this is a no fee/no pre-entry event. Sometimes the plans made after too much Christmas pudding and turkey fade away as the night of the event approaches. In 1998, before the walk was promoted on the internet, only four people turned up. Since then things have changed somewhat. Indeed, on this Friday night, 5th January, 2007, four hundred and fifteen years after the escape of Red Hugh O’Donnell and Art and Henry O’Neill in 1592, over sixty walkers turned up for the challenge. The challenge consists of forty-six kilometers by road and track and 18 kilometers over open mountain, with half the walk taking place in darkness.

Without any fanfare (we didn’t want to awaken Queen Elizabeth’s guards) the long column of widely varying shapes and ages headed off into the night as the midnight hour arrived. Very soon a few runners from Belfast careered into the night, leaving the main body of walkers in wonderment at their fitness. Up Patrick Street, out to Harold’s Cross, on to Templeogue and past the Old Mill in Tallaght, the group soon found itself without street lights, in outer darkness, as the Dublin Hills were reached. Passing by the Kilbride Army Camp at 3.30am, a welcome cup of soup and a slice of cake was generously supplied by the small group of regular volunteers from the Wayfarers Hillwalking Club, led by Grace Dobson. Pat Lynch, who was to provide backup throughout the length of the walk, and also other Wayfarers, had transported carloads of backpacks to this point. With a quick change into boots and head torches, the journey through fields and along country roads to Ballynultagh Gap began.

Very soon, however, it started to rain and would continue for the next three or four hours. It’s at Ballynultagh Gap that the first mountain, Black Hill, is tackled. Up till now the hikers had been walking at their own individual paces without concerning themselves about whether they were in touch with the group. However, at Ballynultagh Gap nobody seemed to want to wander up Black Hill alone and around to Billy Byrne’s Gap in mist and darkness. They gathered here waiting for someone with a compass to appear, looking as if he knew how to use it. One fast-footed pair nevertheless headed off ahead of the group and soon disappeared into the murky night. Unfortunately, lacking a compass and only equipped with ‘a good sense of direction‘, they soon found themselves sitting on the slopes below Billy Byrne’s Gap waiting for daylight so that they could find out where they were! Fortunately, the main group of fifty-eight (two had fallen behind at Kilbride) spotted their head torches as they contoured, using a compass, around to the Gap and all were united again.

Daylight came on the descent to the hamlet of Glenbride, and the tiring walkers stretched out in a long line as they made their way downwards through broken ground and rough heather. It was 9.30am at Ballinagee Bridge and the forty kilometer point had been reached. It was time for a rest, food and drink and a change of socks, etc. Unfortunately, two walkers withdrew at this point due to blisters and knee problems. The other two who had fallen behind at Kilbride were also out of the equation. With a bright day and pleasant weather, everyone now proceeded at their own pace up along the Glenreemore Brook to Art’s plaque and the final climb of the day to Art’s Cross.
The biggest group at this stage was the slowest moving, but gradually they made their way at a relaxed pace over to Three Lakes, down the Avonbeg river and along Table Track to Baravore in Glenmalure.

Many withdrew at this stage (formerly the finishing place) while others made their way to the finish at Greenane (64k) and the remnants of Fiach MacHugh O’Byrnes fortress. The runners from Belfast finished around 2pm while the earliest walkers were in Greenane after 3pm. Most would have finished between 4pm and 5pm. Once again, Pat Lynch of the Wayfarers provided transport from the finish to anyone who required a lift to the train in Rathdrum. As a long-distance walker himself, only he could appreciate small mercies like this at the end of a long trek. The next train to Dublin wasn’t until 7.30pm, but those who made their way to Rathdrum mixed with the Saturday afternoon café society as they enjoyed a well-deserved meal and a pint or two in the salubrious environs of that town.

Fifty-seven of the starters got at least as far as Baravore, the finishing place until this year, while about a dozen from that group went all the way to Greenane at sixty-four kilometers. Everyone who made a serious effort to do his or her best came away from the event very pleased to have participated in this commemoration of the journey of the two Irish Princes to the valley of Glenmalure (Henry O‘Neill parted from their company in Dublin), although Art O’Neill unfortunately died of exposure and exhaustion in the valley below the present-day Art’s Cross. This walk has a lot of road and track in it and half of it happens in darkness. Hillwalkers normally don’t like that arrangement of terrains, but the strangeness and unusual nature of the Walk, allied with the dramatic story it commemorates, makes it a journey everyone remembers with satisfaction, especially those who joined us from far-flung places like Sweden, Germany and the Sultanate of Oman.

Here’s to next year!