Cuilcagh Boardwalk Trail (Stairway To Heaven)

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Weekend Notes | July 23, 2022

https://www.weekendnotes.com/cuilcagh-boardwalk-trail-stairway-to-heaven/

When you travel, do you ever check out the Meet Ups available in your new city? I’ve had great luck with Dublin’s groups, from getting me to the Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk to kayaking in Skerries. This time, Dublin’s Local Meet Up offered a trip to the Stairway to Heaven from Dublin City Center, Connolly Station to be specific, with round-trip transportation. Count me in!

I’d not heard of the Stairway to Heaven before but quickly learned that it is a 14.8 km hike (in and out) with stairs up the mountain into the heavens as the midpoint. The Stairway to Heaven is part of UNESCO’s Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark. Rough and wild, it was important to be prepared with sufficient water, good walking shoes, food, a hat, and sunscreen. Rain gear is helpful.

Camelbak filled, cameras and phones charged, I walked from my apartment to the Connolly Station Saturday morning and watched for the silver minibus. The group’s leaders worked out all the details, have everyone added to the WhatsApp group, and were great at communicating so everyone found each other in short order.

Carsick-prone people in the front, we sorted quickly and jumped into the mini-bus for our drive north. Our driver-leader, Davey, shared that it’s about a 2.5-hour drive. We’d stop about 90 minutes on for a bathroom and deli break, then another half hour where there would be a second break for a bathroom stop if needed, and about a half-hour more into the park itself. Grand.

As the rolling Irish countryside passed across the windscreen, we got to know each other. Small, sleepy Irish villages woke up as I learned a little about my seatmate, Kathy, from Meath, and heard some of the voices in the back from all over the world. I’d meet women from France, Spain, Ireland, and the Philippines. Two of the men were from India. Most worked in Dublin, many still remotely due to Covid. It was great to be able to get out in the fresh, albeit rainy, air and socialise again.

I enjoy learning what other people like to do, especially on rainy days. Kathy was grand. In addition to the museums and libraries in Dublin, she recommended walking on the beach in the rain, an arts and crafts day, and restoring furniture (she learned in her grandfather’s woodshop as a wee lass).

Stopping at a petrol / deli / restroom area, Davey shared that he bypassed the typical travellers’ rest because of the strong manure scent in the area. We appreciated this. We didn’t want to have the flavour of our sandwiches disrupted by those smells. There was a McDonald’s just next door and several of us availed ourselves of that. Turns out, they only accept credit cards. This leads to one other point. Have your international credit card with you whilst in Ireland. You never know when you’ll suddenly be on a trip that takes you cross border.

Using the restroom before you get to Cuilcagh is critical. The fields are wide open and there is no place for privacy until you reach the top of the mountain. “Going” over the side of the mountain is reported acceptable. Though, having been there in fog, I wouldn’t have risked it. We learned that we should have followed my mother’s old dictum: never forego a rest stop. When Davey asked if we needed that additional rest room break a half hour on, we’d declined. Oops.

We arrive at Cuilcagh Mountain. Davey had pre-booked our parking, essential at this active farm with two small parking areas. He cautions us to not bother the sheep.

At the end of the parking lot, we find this sign at the first gate:

Winter weather on Cuilcagh includes extreme cold, strong winds and poor visibility. This is a challenging walk so you should be well prepared.”

We climb over the gate, there will be five of them in all along the path. Do note, this is not a hike appropriate for the physically disabled. If you require a cane or walker, you won’t be able to manage well for that distance on uneven surfaces, or even on the slick boardwalk, made safer by chicken wire. In addition, there are many flights of stairs at the end.

Just past the gate, we’re greeted by the bucolic countryside and sheep amongst the rock that many of us associate with Ireland. The sheep baah to each other, warning our arrival. Some of the nearest leap further up the rock to safety.

Signs along the way of the Marble Arch Caves Global GeoPark tell us the importance of these areas of conservation and the process of becoming a GeoPark. This is the only one in the world, they tell us, that crosses the country’s boundaries. It also shares the reasons why many birders will enjoy the area. “These habitats support some of our most amazing species such as golden plover, red grouse, sundew, and marsh fritillary.”

Geologists have identified this area as existing up to 340 million years ago. Apparently, it was near the Equator at one point and sea creatures created sediment that formed limestones. A deep sea formed the mudstones at the base of the mountain and gritstone, or sandstone, at the Cuilcagh summit were formed in an ancient river delta.

I’m impressed that these habitats remain intact so many years later. We’re warned by signage regularly that our footsteps can cause serious damage and stay on the path. We don’t want to sink in the bog and have no issue following instructions. I’d like my grandchildren to be able to visit someday.

We entered the 2500-hectare park, which has experienced human influence as early as the Neolithic farmers (4000 to 2500 BC) with a drizzle, and fog encompassing us. We sometimes spotted brilliantly lit areas in the distance, gorgeous shades of green lighting up as though they’d been drawn in technicolour. But it never quite reached where we were.

Davey pointed us in the direction of the boardwalk over the Blanket Bog. He explained this area was one where people would cut out squares of land, lay them out to dry, then use them to burn to heat their homes. There are very few places with coal deposits in Ireland, so peat farming is common across the island. This area seems rich with peat.

While you can remain on the grey-rocked path, the farmer placed a boardwalk so visitors can better explore the Blanket Bog. I’m most familiar with bog from having visited the Bog Bodies at the National Museum of Archeology in Dublin. Viewing it in its natural habitat, vegetated and serene, was a very different experience.

The Biodiversity section of one of the signs fills us in:
“Blanket bogs are wet, squelchy places where the peat forms from the remains of mosses and other plants in the layer typically two to three meters deep and supporting unique plants, animals and insects that are adapted to the waterlogged ground.”

More signage told us about Cuilcagh Way. The total distance from the parking lot to the Stairway is 7.4 kilometres, with an estimated time to walk of 6 hours. It describes the terrain as gravel tracks, boardwalks, and exposed mountain paths.