An Sás

12 Nov

Hike around Sauce Creek in the Dingle Peninsula

Parked up at the very tip of the Peninsula at Brandon point, Shron Bhroin. Map. Theres room for a good number of cars and is a proper car park.

It started wet. Yes, i have all the waterproof gear, but starting any walk wet , for the sake of waiting a few minutes, i try and avoid if possible, it’s not a race after all.

Spent 20 mins in the car waiting for a shower to pass and made a start of Irish Fairies – A Short History of the Sídhe while waiting. Heard the author being interviewed on the radio around Halloween and it sounded interesting.

Soon after passing the WWII lookout post just after the stile you branch off to the right following the wall. I hadn’t been this way before, indeed i hadn’t ever started the walk from this side, having in the past always ended up coming from the other direction. The route taken is from the Más route on the CFLT.ie website. The route i have taken before is the Sás Route on the same website here.

Not sure if i’ve said it elsewhere but this website, CFLT.ie Comharchumann Forbartha an Leith Triúigh, really is a great resource for walking in this area and further in the peninsula. i dont know anyone involved, but whoever ye are thanks….

As mentioned in the video, i randomly happened to met two strangers at the car park, who turned out to be great walking companions, Raphael and Mags. We walked up to Sauce creek working our way along steep enough sections, crossing one fast flowing river while all the time having a great old chat. It was really enjoyable. We said our farewells on arrival at the Creek , they had rugby to go watch altho i think, maybe the second half if they were lucky..

From here on then, i was solo. It was fair windy but not wet and not cold. I had been considering Más and had started the walk down to the Dingle Way , but decided i’d leave it for another time. I’d have been going just for the sake of it and with the wind i wouldnt have been staying up there long, which was the same as the last time i was there. It can wait for a fine day.

Walked around the top of the Creek. I still can’t see how someone could have walked down there, safely. You can see many possibilities from up top, but nothing that would inspire enough confidence to attempt. Not too bothered going down to be honest, they advise against it on that website and thats good enough for me.

Then it was just a case of walking back to the start. I intentionally veered off track a bit as i had done the main route twice already this year. The way i went was a bit wetter than the main way, but nothing too bad. The peat hags were sizeable enough and the ground around was very soft and took a bit of navigating. The one plus to going this way, was not having to go down the valley between Cnoc Dúiléibhe and An Buaicín.

It was an enjoyable day overall. I’ve been there in a lot better weather, and a lot worse, but i still like the walk, and have found a few new interesting section i hadn’t seen before. The waterfall area will have to be revisited for sure, and more time will be spent there.

It really is a nice, almost hidden secret, walk.