Getting to Monaghan’s highest point

The previous day we had hiked Donegals highest point, Mount Errigal, so we were driving home back down to the south after a good weekend of hiking in Donegal and Mount Errigal. We put in the coordinates (54°19’12.0″N 7°08’59.0″W) for the carpark at Eshbrack Bog and drove on the road until we met a closed barrier. There is a large concrete are to the LHS of this road that has good car parking space.

Hiking County Monaghan Highest point- Slieve Beagh East

When we reached the carpark at Slieve Beagh in County Monaghan, the weather was very damp and foggy. We sat in the car for a few minutes discussing our options;

A) wait out the bad weather,

(B) drive home and forget the hike

(C) just hike it in the rain.

We checked the weather forecast again and it said “expect sunny spells with showers” thanks, Met Eireann, no help there then. We sat and had a small bite to eat and tried to kill a bit of time hoping we’d see a break in the miserable drizzly day. We got sick of waiting around and decided to start our hike and walk until we reach the bog and reassess the situation again.

We walked through the gate to the side of the road barrier and followed the road for about 1km, we passed a turn off to a lake on our left-hand side, Lake Antrawer. We continued straight until we reached a Y in the road. Our guidebook recommends that we walk straight over this hill here but we decided to follow the road to the left to try and keep off the boggy surface for as long as possible, this was possibly a mistake.

We walked until the road disappeared and turned into a bog, from here we started using our maps and ViewRanger app. Thankfully, when we reached this point the rain had totally stopped and we even anticipated some of that sunshine Met Eireann forecast. We walked up to the top of the hill, following a rough road cut out of the bog. We felt that with every step our feet sunk into the ground down to the ankles, this small hill hike was far more work than we expected. When we reached the top of the hill, we could see Slieve Beagh, we decided to aim for the top of Slieve Beagh and then walk over to the high point of Slieve Beagh east top, County Monaghan’s highest point.

We followed a small stream that flowed down into a valley. We aren’t sure if this is the best approach to hike Slieve Beagh because we had to cross some very deep streams that were hidden underneath shoulder-high ferns. When we reached the bottom of the valley we found an old fence that we followed up toward the top of Slieve Beagh.

When we reached Slieve Beagh summit, we walked over to the right-hand side of the hilltop until we reached the highest tuft of grass in County Monaghan. This high point reminded us so much of County Clare’s high point, which also had nothing to distinguish it from the surrounding areas. Just as we reached the county high point, we felt rain starting to spit so we took a couple of very quick photographs and started a near frantic return to our car. We didn’t want to get caught out in this terrain in wet conditions as there was no shelter plus the ground was very wet already

Thankfully the rain didn’t materialise and just as we left the county high point Ourlittlehiker decided to go for a nap too. So Mammy and Daddy were very quite hikers on our return trip to the car.

Our return route was totally different than our ascent route to the high point (not by choice either). We taught we were walking in the same direction but we both noticed it was much easier and we also didn’t meet any of the nasty deep streams. Needless to say, we were living on our OS maps on the Viewranger app. We knew we were walking in the right direction and we’d eventually hit the road but we would have been totally lost only for the OS maps.

This landscape really threw us, many other blogs talk about getting lost and it is hard to navigate but we taught it would be ok. It really is a tricky County high point, on our return hike, we walked below the road as we couldn’t find it for about 200m, it was perfectly camouflaged in the bog.

On the return to the car, the sun came out and with it, came a Kaleidoscope (the name for a group of butterflies, thanks to google). At this stage, Ourlittehiker woke up and we all became expert butterfly spotters, these are the best moments on our hikes.

Overview of Slieve Beagh East top

We had previously done quite a bit of research on Slieve Beagh before our hike and the general conclusion was to bring wet gear and there isn’t much in terms of scenery. This is partly true, it is a very wet area and the high top is quite dull but after you have been to so many county high points, they all start becoming very similar and the excitement dwindles for the amazing landscape views at the top. What Slieve Beagh was missing in panoramic views, it more than made up for in wildlife and flowers. We saw hundreds of frogs, birds, and insects on our hike, far more than any other county high point. We only saw 1 other person and he was birdwatching looking for a Hen Harrier hawk.

I’m not sure if we would be in a hurry to hike the whole way to the top of Slieve Beagh again but we would certainly recommend it as a stroll to see some pretty amazing wildlife.

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