Slieve Donard | Height:- 853m / 2,798ft | Summit Grid Ref:- 329,602
From The car park at Bloody river cross the road and follow the track along the right hand side. You will cross several smaller streams running into the main channel. Cross the stile by the water pipes and continue up towards the quarry.
The path becomes hard to follow as winds its way up and becomes very rocky and marshy in places. There are some superb waterfalls along the way that become more impresive after a lot of rain.
Looking back over the barren ground there are good views of the moutain sweeping down to the sea. It is possible to walk up the left hand side of this waterfall but only in dryer conditions..
Now the hard part of the climb, when you reach the Mourne wall at 550m with still 300m verticaly to go and 1km horizontally the 1in3 gradient can be very strenuous, but the view from the top is well worth it..
As you can tell from the previous picture also taken from the summit 5 mins earlier, the weather can really take a quick turn for the worse so always be prepared when walking in the mountains. Note the Trig point on top of the walkers hut.
Its real handy having steps to get over the wall can make getting down a lot easier. Back towards there are great views over towards Slieve Binnian nestled in the clouds.
Looking back up what you've accomplished scaling the Highest peak in Northern Ireland is a great feeling. Just time for a quick shower in the quarry before heading back down to the car. From here you've still got 3km to cover across the difficult terrain so take your time as its easy to turn an ankle.