Northern Ireland Wild Camping Trip

[jonnno]

I'm organising a wild camping trip in the lower Mournes next weekend (8th Aug). Plan is just for a bit of r'n'r round the campfire with maybe a walk and some bushcraft! Intention is to finally shake the dust off the hammock and perhaps work out how to carve a spoon along with the usual assortment of bushcrafty messing.

The location is still being determined but it will probably involve a walk of a mile or two for peace and quiet reasons but nowhere too far or hard going. (If anyone has suggestions on easily accessible, quiet wild camping spots that you can have a fire at let me know)

Allcomers welcome, anyone who's interested let me know.

(Is bushcrafty actually a word? If it isn't it blummin well should be )

 

[jonnno]

Probably about 12 people or so going this weekend from various forums. Anyone else who's interested just PM me.

 

[rapidboy]

I will probably be shooting in Newcastle on Saturday night / early Sunday morning all being well if you fancy a few rabbits for the meet.

 

[jonnno]

I will probably be shooting in Newcastle on Saturday night / early Sunday morning all being well if you fancy a few rabbits for the meet.

Sounds awesome but unfortunately if someone handed me a rabbit I'd have no idea what to do with it..I'm not too experienced with cleaning and preparing animals but it's on my list!

 

[Shewie]

Sounds awesome but unfortunately if someone handed me a rabbit I'd have no idea what to do with it..I'm not too experienced with cleaning and preparing animals but it's on my list!

Sounds like a good excuse to learn then Johnno

Have a good meet though fella

 

[8thsinner]

God darn it, We have been fidgeting about which weekend to go away on to the mourns. We eventually decided on a midweek around the 17th...Anyone else going to be in the area then?

Have fun everyone else thats going.

WHere did you decide on in the end to camp it down?

I remember a place there, over sleeve donard, then down on of the valleys to the left as you pass the peak, But cannot remember which one. THeres a pool of georgous water there about half way down it, it's about 3miles max from a carpark, has a 20ft or so ridge on the south edge I think... a little further up theres a bunch of nice caves you have a look around...
Does this sound familiar to anyone?

 

[madfaxman]

Are you talking about the Annalong Buttress??

or

Lower Cove?

 

[8thsinner]

I have no idea what the area was called.
If you have pictures I should be able to recognise it.
And I am hoping once my feet start moving up the bridges the homing instinct will take over...

Looking over on google maps wasn't much help, but the area would be about right.

 

[jonnno]

God darn it, We have been fidgeting about which weekend to go away on to the mourns. We eventually decided on a midweek around the 17th...Anyone else going to be in the area then?

Have fun everyone else thats going.

WHere did you decide on in the end to camp it down?

I remember a place there, over sleeve donard, then down on of the valleys to the left as you pass the peak, But cannot remember which one. THeres a pool of georgous water there about half way down it, it's about 3miles max from a carpark, has a 20ft or so ridge on the south edge I think... a little further up theres a bunch of nice caves you have a look around...
Does this sound familiar to anyone?

There's13 of us just heading for Donard Wood. Didn't want anything too far or taxing and there's kids coming. Weather's looking good and the hammock's packed - I'm quite excited now

 

[jonnno]

There were 10 of us in the end and we had a really good time. There were more hillwalking / bivvying types there than bushcrafters so since the weather was so good we found ourselves at the top of Slieve Donard at 330am with miles of clear views in all directions (an awesome experience - I'd do it again in a heartbeat).

I took the hammock but since I only got into it at 5am and was back up again at 9am it wasn't much of a test. The mozzie netting was a total godsend (rotten Mournes midges) but once I was in the hammock I felt like I was sleeping too much to one side and a bit unbalanced (think the mat wasn't in the middle). I also suffered the well documented issue where I kept sliding down to the middle which made my feet really constricted. However I was far too tired to get out and try and fix any of the probs so I'll need another weekends testing. That said when I woke up and was just lying there it was mighty comfy...

Bottom line is some of the other guys had just small tarps and bivvy bags or just slept by the fire. The amount of time it took me to get my setup right compared to their 3 minutes with some bungy cord made me want to do the tarp/bivvy thing next time!

Piccies here:
http://www.ni-wild.co.uk/forum/index.php?action=mgallery;sa=album;id=16

 

[8thsinner]

I bet the view was fantastic.

The one greatest memory I have of the mourns is being in that place I mentioned, Right there in the valley, the sky and stars are absolutely magnificent on a good night.
I can only imagine at 3am what it was like, But with luck I shall find out next week.