120 Socks Wilderness Adventure!

Gosh it seems like so long ago now, but our trip into the wilderness was only last week.  We had a great break, lots of fresh air, mountain and forest walks and we found a beautiful place to stay in the Glen of Aherlow, Co Tipperary.  It is truly a most wondrous part of Ireland, and one which I am really glad I visited.  I had hoped to do a long post covering our adventures, including some interesting people we met along the way, fab shopkeepers, and potters, and general great characters, but alas for now, I will just give you the pics taken during our forest walks, and a short myth (love these old stories) about Lake Muskry.

But before I give you the photos, just to say there are numerous forest walks you can take when visiting the area, all well signposted with length, incline, time required etc.  Mr Socks has always been a man in a hurry, so we tended to do 1hr walks in half an hour, and 4 hour walks in 2hrs - but sure what can you do.  I did give him the lecture about how it doesn't matter how long it takes, it's how you travel the path, which I repeated every time I stopped to take a photo, but we still managed to travel them far too fast in my opinion. 

The last walk to Lake Muskry was difficult enough, reaching 1,614 feet above sea level, and a pretty dodgy pathway with stones more like boulders than anything else,  but sure you can see the pics below (including Mr Socks miles into the distance).

Here's hoping my virus/cold will soon be no more, and I can get back to normality, but in the meantime, pictures are always good to look at!

Legend about Lake Muskry
Lake Muskry was formerly known as Lough Beal Sead (lake of the jewel mouth).  The legend tells that the lake was once the home of beautiful maidens who every second year were metamorphosised into birds, one becoming the most beautiful in the world.  To mark her pre-eminence she was allowed to wear a golden necklace which had a sparkling Jewel set in it, hence the name Lough Beal Sead.