The Twentieth Cycle to the Nagle Mountains

I’ve been cycling to the Nagle Mountains since the year 2014. And I found this mountain range by sheer chance. One day I was just looking around places to the north of Cork city on Google Maps, and to my surprise there was a mountain range there, that I had never heard of, and that nobody had ever mentioned to me. It was like the world’s best kept secret! And that first trip would not be the last, in fact, yesterday, about eight years after that first trip, I made my twentieth cycle to the Nagle mountains.

Yesterday morning and the evening before my travel anxiety was in overdrive. The part of my brain that deals with anxiety didn’t want me to go. But I wanted to go, because the Nagle Mountains is one of the absolute best places on Earth. And this trip had a special significance, because it would be the twentieth trip. Also, I’d been waiting for the recent heatwaves to end, so that it was nice and sunny but not too much so, while at the same time I wanted it still to be a nice sunny day, that sweet spot where it’s sunny enough that it’s nice for cycling, but not so much that you fear you will go through all of your water in four seconds. Leaving it later in the year also presents another problem, you really have to budget your time or you’re cycling in the dark.

So I reassured my anxious brain as best I could. “You have enough water with you to keep an army hydrated for four thousand years!” “You checked that your bag was packed six times!” “The Nagle Mountains is perfectly safe, because unlike the surface of the moon, the Nagle mountains is not the surface of the moon! So with the anxiety center of my brain as pacified as it was going to be, I took off.

I cycled through Carrignavar, and my goodness, the scenery from this point on is amazing. Very flat terrain so you can see for miles in all directions, and so many forests. I was so happy from this point I was making loud exuberant vocal sounds, then having a quick look around to make sure there was nobody around, who may have thought I required an exorcism.

The last three or four miles of the cycle to the Nagle mountains are normally very difficult, but this time, I made sure they were easy. The last four miles are the dreaded gentle incline that goes on forever, worse than something really steep that’s over in thirty seconds. But this time, I managed the cycle well. Half the problem with hills is they tend to cause a weird surge in adrenaline, that causes you to cycle really fast, and before you know it you are gasping for precious oxygen on the side of the road. But this time I resisted the adrenaline surge, every time I speeded up, I told myself, “Slow down! You’re in no hurry, just enjoy it!” And going up that gentle incline, normally something I dread, was extremely enjoyable.

I reached the entrance to Knocknaskagh mountain, parked the bike, and begun the ascent. Ascent is probably putting it too strongly, Knocknaskagh’s quite a forgiving mountain, no mountain climbing expertise is really needed for it. So I began the, eh, leisurely walk.

As I walked up the mountain, I could see the forest below me, such a beautiful bright green in the sunlight. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera on this trip, so photos from previous trips will have to suffice.

I got to the top of Knocknaskagh Mountain. I have many pleasant memories associated with Knocknaskagh, initially this was the only part of the Nagle Mountains I ever visited, until I became more adventurous. There is a cairn on top of Knocknaskagh, and when I’ve come back from a few hours exploring perhaps the western or the northern part of the mountain, I love to sit for a while on the cairn, as if it’s a couch to rest my weary bones on after some tough travelling.

I had told my anxious travelling anxiety brain that I was going no further than Knocknaskagh, but my favourite part of the Nagle mountains is actually a mountain to the North (I don’t know the name of it.) So I kept walking! Because when I’m in the Nagle mountains, my need to go on a wonderful adventure, and to see the beauty of the mountains, takes over, so my anxiety tends to sit in the corner sulking.

I first found the northern mountain (I’m just referring to it as the northern mountain, wish I knew the name of it.) in March 2020 (OMINOUS!) Back then the music college I was in had shut down due to the plague, and my understanding was that it would be shut down for two weeks, so I used the little holiday as an opportunity to cycle to the Nagle mountains. I think there was also a part of me that knew that maybe this new virus was going to cause a considerable amount of trouble, so I thought better get in a cycle to the Nagles while I still could. The northern mountain I had been able to see in my binoculars for years, and in 2017 had made an attempt to find it, but took a wrong turn, and had largely given up after that. But this time, spur of the moment, I made an attempt to find it, and I did!

In fact, the Nagle mountains and visiting the northern mountain was part of what got me through the pandemic. One of the few things that did not change from previous years during those two years, is that I made a minimum of two visits a year to the Nagles, same as any other year, and over those two years I got to visit the northern mountain. Nothing keeps me from the Nagle mountains, nothing!

And on the top of the northern mountain is one of my favourite cairns. I love cairns, it’s something I find difficult to describe. Part of it is that these very simple stone structures have often stood for thousands of years. So when humanity first landed on the moon, they were almost as old as they are now. I can happily spend hours sitting on this cairn on the northern mountain. I have visited this cairn five times, and sometimes it is so beautiful up there I’m close to tears. Here are some photos of what I can see from the cairn (all from 2021):

I learned something interesting yesterday, on top of the cairn there is excellent reverberation. I discovered this when I was so happy I started making really loud joyous sounds, and the sound of the reverberation was amazing, like three different reverb guitar pedals on at the same time. So if you’re reading this anyone from Boss, or Earthquaker Devices, or Red Panda, I will pay a handsome amount if you put out a reverb pedal that mimics the reverb I heard on the Nagle mountains yesterday. “Northern Cairn” even sounds like a good name for such a pedal!

Over the years I have explored quite a lot of the Nagle Mountains, in fact it’s getting harder and harder to find parts of it I haven’t explored yet. In 2016 I explored the Western more forested areas of the mountain, and saw these lovely trees, and even an adorable stream!

And in 2017, I explored more of the Nagle Mountains in a single day then I ever had before. This was during a period where every Thursday I would set my alarm clock to 7:00 am and go on a big adventure on the bike. Maybe I need to start doing that again, or maybe I’m getting too old for that shit!

And in 2018 I went on my most ambitious journey, starting on the western side of the Nagle mountain range (though not including Corran mountain, it’s the only part of the range separated from the rest by a road so I tend to think of it as it’s own separate mountain anyway), to the top of Knocknaskagh mountain, and back, so I walked almost the entire length of the Nagles in one day, starting here:

The Nagle mountains are beautiful in every type of weather, when it’s cloudy and misty, you will see things like this:

Or from your vantage point on top of the mountains, you can see some beautifully contradictory weather conditions, look at this amazing contrast of light and dark, as the sun and the clouds battle for supremacy (from 2020) :

Or in 2018, I was very fortunate in that there was snow on the mountains but not on the roads, so I was able to cycle safety to the mountains and see this:

And I love when I get to experience every season in ten minutes up in the Nagles. When the heat is splitting the stones and you’re boiling, then all of a sudden, it clouds over, and the cooling rain hits you and cools you down, then just as quickly, the clouds disappear as if apologizing for their intrusion. And I saw this on another trip from 2018, on what so far has been my only trip to the Nagle mountains during the Winter, the trees in the center adopting their Winter colours but not the trees on the outside, such a wonderful sight!:

And I’ve seen deer on the Nagle mountains, once on my first ever visit, the next time on a trip a few years later, but alas they were too quick so no pictures!

But yesterday was quite possibly when the Nagle mountains were at their most beautiful. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, so I’ll describe it.

The sun was shining, there was mainly a blue sky but also lovely fluffy clouds. And the heather was illuminated by the sun and looked amazing. I had such an incredible view, the fields and forests below me an amazing bright green in the sun. And it was such a clear day that I could see many distant mountain ranges, to the West, to the North and to the East. To The North was the Galtee mountains, I’m afraid I don’t know what the other ones were.

And I’m ambivalent about not having my camera yesterday. Yesterday was one of the days when the Nagles were at their most incredible. So I’m sad that I will never see again what I saw yesterday, and nobody else will. But also kind of happy that I could just take it all in without worrying about getting the best shot. I was fully focused on the sounds, on the wind, on the lovely sound of the birds, and seeing for miles and miles around me.

Since this was my twentieth cycle, I decided to do something special, so I took a different route back. On my usual route back, after Carrignavar is a complete gobshite of a road. That’s the technical term, look it up. It’s a steep road with a bad bend, so you don’t know what’s pissing you off more, the ache in your legs or that you’re concealed behind that bend from any car that comes your way. So to change things up I took a route back via Glenville.

Towards the end of this route it’s mostly downhill and you can get up a great speed, and I was so delighted I was yelling my lungs out and singing and laughing I was so exited.

Fortunately on this route the killeriest hill is when there is only about two miles left.

During the last two miles I was mainly standing on the pedals. And this wasn’t just because it made me look like a really cool dude if I do say so myself, it’s also because, well, the term saddle doesn’t really describe what a saddle is, which is why I’m proposing that by law saddles should have to be called Ass Murderers. So you’d go into a bike shop and you’d say, “Good morrow sir, may I purchase a blue ass murderer?” And the shop assistant would reply, “I’m afraid we are out of blue ass murderers, we only have purple ass murderers left I’m afraid. And then you would reply, “While I can’t deny that a purple ass murderer is quite garish in my opinion, I would take it home with me today, and save me the trouble of waiting for the blue ass murderers to return to your store.” “Hurray, then we can complete this purchase of a purple ass murderer with good speed.”

And around this time, I had an “Oh yeah, that’s what that is!” moment. The bike had been making a troublesome noise for most of the trip, and I was thinking, is this bike going to collapse in on itself? Turned out all it was was that as the day warmed up I wrapped my jacket around my waist, and the zip was hitting against the bike.

Then I got home, and ate a large amount of junk food, and had no energy for the rest of the day, and went to bed early. And I will feel good after this trip for days if not weeks to come, I feel so so fortunate to have found these mountains that day so many years ago by pure chance. So now that you have read this, you can’t unread it, you know what you must do, go to the Nagle mountains immediately!