Hike Hares Gap and Slieve Bearnagh, Mweelmore and Mweelbeg

Today we travel to Northern Ireland and the Mourne mountains of Co. Down. The Mourne Mountains are the highest and most dramatic mountain range in Northern Ireland; its summits are crowned by granite tors.

From the carpark we will head south and connect with the old smugglers path, the Brandy path. From here we steadily gain height as we walk alongside the Trassey river before arriving at the HARES GAP Col. from here we get the amazing vistas of much of the Mournes ,it’s many peaks and  long  glaciated valleys. We continue SW following the famous Mourne wall as we head to up steep ground to our high point of today and the first of our 3 peaks, Slieve Bearnagh with its amazing granite tors.

Then we walk down and back up to Mweelmore and again the same to Mweelbeg (which is 6m taller!) our last peak of the day. From here we will see out to all the flat lands west and south and the peaks of Lamagan and the huge tors on Binnian as well as the Silent valley and the Ben Crom reservoir.

Now we follow the broad spur off Mweelbeg NE, where we pick up the Mourne way trail and head back to the carpark.