The viaduct has recently received work by Carlow County Council to make it safer and more accessible. They have added a new car park and installed railings along the top of the viaduct to stop small children from falling over the edge.

Key information

• Buddy friendly
• 2 Car parks
• Out and back walk
• lots of information signs
• Child friendly
• 1km long with the option of 500m additional section
• Picnic tables down at the river

Viaduct Parking

Every good walk needs a nice car park as a starting point and Borris viaduct walk has 2 car parks, one at each end of the viaduct, happy days. We parked at the old car park on the R702 main road. The new car park is beside the school here.

Both car parks have good signposts but the new car park at the school has lots of interesting historical information about the construction of the viaduct and great quotes such as;

“A bridge to the past and a link to the future”

This car park also has a very cool winding path to the top of the viaduct. This really suited our 2-week old baby in her buggy.

Borris Viaduct Walk

We walked from the car park on the R702 and walked 50m up the small quiet country road and turned down to the viaduct where we saw the “Viaduct walk sign”. The small path is concrete and quite steep but perfect for a buggy to descend to the path below.

At the start of the viaduct walk, there is a small woodland walk that walks below the bridge and underneath the arches. We sat at the picnic tables here and enjoyed the lovely scenic area.

Walking across the Borris Viaduct

From one end to another, the viaduct walk is 500m long. Carlow County Council added new visible barriers to both edges of the viaduct as they were quite low before. The new addition allows families to walk over the top of the viaduct without worrying about the children’s safety.

Borris Viaduct Walk length

If you decided to walk over the viaduct and back that is 1km long but if you decide to walk down below the arches and along the river that is another 500m long. The whole trial is buggy friendly and really fun for young children. Our daughters loved this Carlow walk, especially the new additions.

The post Borris Viaduct Walk Carlow Family walk appeared first on Our Family Hikes.

• Good path to the summit

• Limited Parking

• 8km out and back

• Hiking boots required

• No sign posts

• Amazing views

Knockroe Blackstairs Mountains/ Mount Leinster Carlow

Our little family hike on Knockroe in County Carlow which borders County Wexford and the Blackstairs mountains. The mountain sits at a height of 540m and is overshadowed by its neighbour Mount Leinster. The hike can be started from Scullogue gap car park or from Mount Leinster/ the nine stones. The hike up Knokroe from Scullogue gap is 4km out and 4km back- 8km in total.

Knockroe Bombing History

To give a very brief history of the bombing event. In 1941, a German bomber dropped 8 bombs at Knockroe with the third bomb hitting the Shannon Family farmhouse and killing 3 members of the family. Additional information can be found here and here.

Parking to hike Knockroe

This guide will detail how to hike Knockroe from the Blackstairs/ Scullogue gap side of the mountain. It is also possible to park at the 9 stones and hike over Mount Leinster and then onto Knockroe. The section of the hike is done on the Blackstairs mountains challenge.

Parking at Scullogue gap is done in two places “Scullogue Gap car park” and “Shannon’s lane parking”.

The hike starts at the bottom of a Shannons lane. The Eircode of the farmer’s house at the bottom of the lane is possibly the easiest way to find the parking/starting point. The Eircode of the farmer’s house is R95A5X2. There is enough space in both places to park 4-5 cars at each location.

Knockroe Hike – Blackstairs mountains

We started the hike at the sign of the 1941 bombing. Initially, we felt we were walking up a private lane but the lane is a trail to Knockroe.

The hike to the summit of Knockroe is a steady climb to the top. The hike is a nice quiet, safe hike. The cottage that was bombed in 1941 is 300m on the right-hand side.

We eventually reach a pedestrian gate and start gaining in height. We walked sandwiched between two stone walls and the Blackstairs mountains start to become visible behind us the higher we walk.

At the start of the forest, we reach another gate. After the gate, we are greeted with two very old abandoned stone cottages. Ourlittlehiker cannot understand why these houses have no roofs and why sheep are living in the house :)

After the forest, the stone walls disappear but the trail is still very prominent. We continue to follow the trail and now we can see mount Leinster in front of us.

Between the base of Mount Leinster and Knockroe, the trail up Knockroe starts to circle around the base slightly but then zig-zags to our left-hand side gaining height upward toward the summit.

Summit of Knockroe

At the summit of Knockroe, there is a ruin of an old house/building. We briefly had a quick look around but continued our hike down to the Holy cross on the other side of the hill.

We followed the trial already warn into the top of the hill downhill toward the cross.

Our Instagram Reel of the Hike

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ourlittlehiker's Adventures (@ourlittlehiker)

Knockroe Map

The post Hike Knockroe Blackstairs Mountains Carlow appeared first on Our Family Hikes.

This was the very first Mountain that we hiked as part of the 32 Peak county high points with Ourlittlehiker but we didn’t record much information from that adventure, we decided to hike it again but this time with our 2 little hikers. This will be our baby hikers first time up Mount Leinster and Ourlittlehikers second time.

Our Babyhiker is 7 weeks old and we pushed her to the top of Mount Leinster in her Quinny Buzz and carrycot. Ourlittlehiker is now 2 years old and she walked a good section of the road herself. When she got tired, we put her into her own buggy. This is the first time we brought the kids pushchairs on a hike. We previously hiked Mount Leinster with Ourlittlehiker, when she was 6 months old, the photographs are a mixture of both hikes.

Why Hike Mount Leinster?

Mount Leinster is an easy mountain to hike, as there is a tarmac RTE access road leading from the carpark at the nine stones the whole way to the summit. This is similar to Kippure, Truskmore and Cornhill, county high points. Out of all the access roads to the county high points, Mount Leinster is definitely the steepest hike to the top.

As this was our first hike to a County High Point with Ourlittlehiker, it was more of a recce mission than actually trying to complete a full hike to the summit. We really wanted to see how comfortable OutlittleHiker would be in her Deuter baby hiking bag, especially for a long period of time, potentially 2-3 hours in warm conditions.

2017 Hike to Mount Leinster

Hiking Mount Leinster

We walked around the metal barriers and started walking uphill. The road is fully tarmacadamed to the top of Mount Leinster. We initially walked beside a wood to our left that seemed to be filled with flies. We put some insect repellent on Ourlittlehiker, which seemed to be doing a good job of keeping them all off her and projecting them onto her parents.

As this was our first CHP with a baby, we wanted to see were we able to hike up these hills with a baby on our back and wanted to make sure that our baby daughter was enjoying herself. After walking halfway up toward Mount Leinster, we quickly realised that our fitness levels were not as good as they were in 2015, but we were loving the challenge and more importantly, Ourlittlehiker was amazed by all the views, wildlife and other families out hiking.

We reached a gate and cattle grid, we decided to swap the bag over to give Mammy an opportunity to carry Ourlttlehiker up the side of the mountain. Gina did a super job and carried her the remaining way to the summit. This section after the gate was definitely the steepest section of the Mount Leinster hike.

We reached a left bend in the road and then reached a right bend, we could see another long steep section of road ahead. When we reached the final corner we could eventually see the compound for the TV mast in front of us. The summit is to the right-hand side of the compound gate of the mast. We quickly ran over and got a few pictures at the top.

The verdict of Mount Leinster Hike

We were super nervous about this whole hike. As this would be the first proper mountain that we would hike with our baby daughter. We were initially afraid that it would be too warm for her in the bag, we then were afraid of all the flies. The higher we got, we started becoming fearful of the wind and cold but we quickly realised that we had chosen the right hiking bag in the Deuter. (Ourlittlehiker was 6 months old at the time of writing this)

When the wind started to become cold and stronger we put blankets around Ourlittlehiker and installed the windbreaker cover. This is a godsend and we definitely wouldn’t attempt mountain hikes without it.

The hike up Mount Leinster is very easy. Okay, it is steep but the road brings you straight to the summit and we were reasonably sheltered from the wind until we reached the summit.

Conclusion on hiking Mount Leinster with a buggy or baby Carrier?

After hiking Mount Leinster once before with our Deuter Baby Carrier and once with the Quinny buzz buggy, we found it far easier with the Deuter baby carrier. We found it hard to push the buggies up the steep incline and the kids seemed far more content in their carriers. Our new addition to the family (babyhiker) loves her Ergo Carrier and sleeps constantly in it but she doesn’t seem to sleep in the baby buggy. When she is in the Ergo carrier she is nestled up against her Mammys skin and can even breastfeed while walking, she sleeps 90% of the time when she is in it.

Ourlittlehiker likes being up high and looking around her in the Deuter carrier when she gets tired from walking. She didn’t really like been in her buggy and she kept trying to get out. She kept saying she wanted to be on her daddy’s back, we assume this is toddler code for the baby carrier.

In future, we are going to stick to the Deuter kids comfort for hikes.

Mount Leinster Map

The post Mount Leinster–County High Point Wexford & Carlow appeared first on Our Family Hikes.