Today I went back to Killarney again with Frank to re-acquaint myself with my home mountains after my short trip to Wales. I didn't have a huge amount of time as I had to be at work for 19.00 so we opted to do a hike around the Horses Glen over Stoompa and Mangerton. The weather forecast was for rain to arrive in the early afternoon but we were on the track before 9am so there would be a good chance we would be down before it arrived. It was disappointing however to see cloud clinging to the summits and even some misty rain about. Normally for some reason people do this round in an anticlockwise direction (probably because it is normally with the wind) but today we decided to head for Stoompa first and this would get the rough wet boggy three kilometer trudge to reach Lough Garragarry out of the way first. This passed well enough and once we were across the river flowing out of the lake we climbed onto the spur that leads towards Stoompa. The strength of the wind came as a bit of a surprise and there was precious hint of high summer temperatures in the air but things were far form unpleasant. Eventually we reached the 705 mtr summit and here hat and gloves were required to stave off the chilly temperatures. The wind made sure we didn't linger so we set off gently downhill towards the low point on the eastern slopes of Mangerton before climbing the gentle slopes to the broad bleak boggy plateau at over 800 mtrs. Here we enjoyed a quick bite to eat before setting off for the ridge that leads to Mangerton North. Now the strong wings were to our backs and we positively glided the 80 odd mtr climb to its 782 mtr top. Lovely easy ground saw us quickly down to the pony track and then back to our car. The wind made it refreshing and the rain stayed away so all in all it was a good day.
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