Croagh Patrick mountain

Croagh Patrick mountain
Waking up nice and early I had breakfast packed a few snacks and made sure my bike was working alright then headed off to the mountain. After a short bike ride to pilgrims route up the mountain, during the summer there are 1000 of pilgrims that climb up the mountain to pray both Christian and pagan. They even have a huge festival type thing in the top near the summer solstice. I attempted to bike up as much as possible, which wasn’t that much I ended up half pushing half carrying it the first 500m then gave up and locked it up behind a little hill. The first section of track is rocky water eroded and very green, which moves on to an incredibly steep shale surrounded by grass and heather, but even after the first 30 min there are amazing views of the whole area, up the top of the first section there are little rock hut type things 3 sided to block out the weather and with out roofs all mad of stone. Along a short flat section and there is the mountain proper with a massive steep slippery shale path with was almost like climbing snow, I found myself hitting my toes into the rocks to get a good grip at times. Finally making it to the top totally out of breath, there was a little plaster church at the top. And the most amazing views all around. At the top I did a little exploring and settle a little way down the one side for a bit of a break and some snacks. After a little while it headed over to the other side and had a short meditation(or as close as I could) which was really relaxing and nice. The calm before the storm perhaps after a relatively speedy(but safeish) return to the bike, the really exciting part began I got to do the real mountain biking down the sections I had carry the bike up! It was great, the suspension and my reflex’s were working overtime, I have to say I was really impressed with my balance as I didn’t fall once, although I won’t pretend there weren’t a few close ones. At the bottom I found the eerie monument to the great plague, but was happy to see a bird had made a nest in one of the skulls haha.

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