A Sunday Walk
The Sunday Walk series is intended to introduce you to some of Co. Wicklow's lesser hills - not lesser in beauty, history or interest, but certainly lesser in height. Consequently, many walks are only 90-180 mins long, which makes them perfect for A Sunday Walk! While perhaps you may not need your full mountain kit for many of these walks, proper boots are a must, as well as waterproofs and a map and compass. Chicken sandwiches are optional.
Sleamaine 430m to Ballinafunshoge 480m to the Scotch Village
This walk takes you from the Military Road, briefly along the Wicklow Way, then over Sleamaine 430m to Ballinafunshoge 480m and then to the Scotch Village, before looping back to the start point. It should take about 2.5 hours roundtrip. This location first caught my attention while watching an episode of Tracks and Trails (take a look at 3:05) on RTE recently and the wish to walk here was further heightened when I discovered that the two hills were remaining on my list of 100 peaks closest to home.
Both Sleamaine 430m and Ballinafunshoge 480m are classed simply as a Carns - the technical name for a bit of a lump - neither high enough, nor prominent enough to join the glory lists of the bigger mountains, but the views from both of these two lumps are more than worth the effort! Walking World Ireland published a similar route back in 2010 and had a nice feature article in the magazine that is worth a look - some nice photos, a little background...
There is little written history about the cache location. The Scotch Village itself was by most accounts occupied by Scottish plantation farmers until the great famine of 1845, when the residents emigrated to Canada. Some reports however, suggest that occupation continued here until 1952. Either way, if you visit here in the spring, you'll be surprised to see that daffodils, snowdrops, crocuses and other garden flowers still bloom here in near some of the cottages. A little poking around will reveal an assortment of recent archaeology also - barrels, pots and pans, crockery and the like; there is also a small and still serviceable well.
It all seems at odds with the cottages themselves, which are truly ruined - no sign of roofs or doors or windows - all perhaps removed by the landowners to prevent further occupation?
In any event, it is a fabulous place to have lunch!
The Route
At 12.2 km roundtrip, the walk itself takes about two and a half hours, and takes in a princely 222m of ascent - including one reasonably steep descent and a gentler recovery! Park at the Military Road where the Wicklow Way enters the forest. At Point C, turn off the track - the ground is a little rough - and following the telegraph poles and track uphill and turn towards the summit of Sleamaine (430m) - there a rough trail to follow. You should, weather permitting, have fabulous views of Luggala's corrie and a peak at Lough Tay from here.
Once you have taken in this summit, return via the same route to the track and continue onward to point D, where you turn upwards when you get to an obvious junction at E, you enter the forest and follow a lovely track to the unmarked and uninteresting summit of Ballinafunshoge (480m) among the trees. I found the summit to be somewhere a few meters closer than the point marked on the Open Streetmap. After such excitement (!) turn left down the track, either straight to the bottom, or cut through the forest if you prefer intersecting another track, until you come to the corner of the forest at F. Here follow the wider track straight downhill to the cache, ignoring the tempting looking trail that enters the forest.
As you approach GZ, you'll get a nice glimpse of the Scotch Village through the trees. A word of advice: approach the cache from the track below - don't be tempted to take route 1 - there's small a hidden drop.
You can then wander through the trees to the village. You can then follow the main track at point H/I back to the starting point.
Leave No Trace
The cache has been placed in accordance with the "Leave No Trace" principles. Please respect these principles when searching for the cache.
