Tag Archives: mourne mountains

Dean & Bertie’s On-Sight Round

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Having a significant birthday, I had wanted to do something special, memorable and maybe a bit gruelling.  I had been throwing the idea of the Bob Graham around, but with too little time in the lakes and a recurring knee niggle, I started to search for other lesser known rounds that were shorter. With my closest adventure buddy, Bertie Goffe, like me having never visited Northern Ireland, the idea of turning up and running all the Mourne Mountains in under 24 hours sounded exciting and satisfied the pre-requisites. Standing under the entrance to Donard Park at 2.00am with 90km and 6,500m of ascent ahead of us I started to wonder if going out for a nice meal with friends would have been a better idea than attempting to onsight the Denis Rankin round!

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Steve Wathall’s Round Report

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Introduction

Charmian and I have been coming over to the Mournes for a few years and have enjoyed the Mourne 2 Day and the various British Championship races.  I had heard vaguely of the Denis Rankin Round but my interest was piqued when Konrad Rawlik set the current record in April 2017.  We made a concerted effort to recce all the legs at least twice and Dale and Denise Mathers were able to offer valuable advise regarding route choice especially around the tricky Crenville area.  It has been in the back of my mind for two years and so with an extended holiday planned after the 2019 British Champs race, I hoped to give it a good go.

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Simon Barnett’s Round Report

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28 July 2018

Six weeks after making a casual comment to Brian Layton as we were leaving Tring Running Club and the two of us were stood side by side beneath the Donard arch in Newcastle a few minutes before midnight on the last Friday of July.   It felt familiar but all so different.  We were setting off on a joint attempt of the Denis Rankin Round – a loop of 39 of Northern Ireland’s most significant mountains – to be completed within 24 hours.

The attempt had been somewhat thrown together during the tremendous heatwave that was taking place.  A start date and time had been agreed in advance to try and coax some local support and knowledge out onto the hills.  The only disbenefit of the fixed start time was being at the whim of the weather…

Leg 1 – Newcastle to Silent Valley – The Dark leg

A brief lull in the rain a couple of minutes before the start

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