Father and son duo Shae and Andy Maguire conquer all 36 of Ulster’s mountains
Around the past two and a half yrs they have climbed every single mountain on the Vandeleur-Lynams in the province. That is 36 peaks, all in excess of 600 metres, in total.
Andy clarifies that the concept for their epic mountain-climbing journey came to them in November 2018 when they had been seeking up at their house peak of Sawel from their residence in Claudy.
“We took the notion that we would hike Sawel Mountain in the Sperrins. This arrived about partly owing to boredom, but we were fascinated with a dominating peak that we could see from our household,” says Andy.
Regardless of remaining aged only eight-and-a-50 % at the time younger Shae, who attends St. Eugene’s Key Faculty in the metropolis, battled as a result of the cold and the wet to attain the top and take in the beautiful views with his father.
Standing 678m tall in between Park and Cranagh, Sawel is the highest level in both counties Derry and Tyrone. From the summit Shae and Andy could evidently see all the other mountain ranges of Ulster Loaded with an enormous feeling of achievement they resolved to deal with Errigal in the Derryveagh mountain array in north west Donegal two months afterwards.
At the time they experienced conquered Errigal there was no stopping the Maguires.
“With two peaks in the bag we resolved to investigation how lots of mountains there ended up in Ulster,” claims Andy. “We proven that there are, in actuality, 36 officially recognised mountains in the province that are 600m or higher than (recognized as Vandeleur-Lynams).”
They established about the extended and arduous task of ‘bagging’ all 36 Ulster peaks, which took them close to 26 months to total.
From Down to Donegal, from Muckish to Meenagh, they battled by all the things to get to their objective.
Andy remarks: “Some of the most memorable hikes were being in Donegal, with the Bluestacks furnishing some of the most demanding terrain. When we ended up mountaineering Croaghgorm [the tallest peak in the Bluestacks which rises to 674ms in remote south west Donegal] we arrived throughout the wreckage of a Sunderland Bomber from Earth War Two.
“The wildlife was also interesting. We observed deer, birds of prey, dragonfly, and even a lizard – while we initially thought it was a snake!”
In the course of their adventures, they lined 195kms, climbed in excess of 42,000 ft, went by way of six pairs of boots and consumed a couple tins of beans!
“The plan is to hike just about every peak in Ireland of which there are 273, with Connacht the following province on the list,” suggests Andy.
