Sheep's Head Way 6: Tooreen to Letter West

A crisp clear day, we dropped everything and headed out to do the next leg of the Sheep's Head Way. It was bright and quite cold with a sharp north easterly as we headed up onto the spine of the peninsula - masssive views in every direction and crips and vivid colours. The heather is nearly over but butterflies and bees still flitted about and the odd gull soared over head. We climbed up high and took brief shelter in an old WW2 lookout camp l (3 men, a small fire and a telephone with some pretty amazing scenery); passed a trig point and then on to the remains of the old signal tower- toppled by lightening in the 1980s - you can just see it to the right of photo. Downhill then, passed blue loughs tinged with orange, onwards down little boreens and through small neglected farmyards. We stopped to admire the oldmarriage stone and followed the tradition of clasping hands through the hole, then down through a field of sleepy cows and back onto the road.

I attempted a swim later but there was a refusal - it's a bit bone tingling now and a stiff breeze didn't help. I did spot a very unusual anemone though and had a bracing paddle.

A blipmeet tomorrow - we're rendezvousing under the statue of Wolfe Tone in Bantry square at midday!