I’d overestimated the length of the journey and parked outside an abandoned church at the foot of the Maumturk mountains shrouded in pitch darkness and absolute silence. As my eyes adjusted I saw the light of farm houses dotted around the landscape. Dawn wasn’t long in coming and I set off along a muddy track towards the shore of Lehanagh Lough. My way got progressively more waterlogged until I could go no further and all I managed to do was get my feet wet (I later read that Maumturk Mountains are one of the two wettest places in Ireland).

I had intended to climb up a mountain to Maumeen church next but I hadn’t had my camera pack on my back since the spring and I was really feeling the weight of it, so I decided to get back in the car and head on up the road, which is where I came across the view across Lough Inagh in the first picture.

I carried on along the Inagh Valley where I stopped at Kylemore to take a walk along a mountain track along which my way had been barred by the Kylemore river on a previous visit. My extra high boots still proved inadequate for the river crossing, and it was on heading back that I stopped to take this 2nd shot. I met a hiker coming towards me and as he read my map it started to rain, so we said good luck and went our separate ways. In no time at all I was walking along an exposed space in a hail storm and while pulling on my camera bag’s rain cover I got so comprehensively soaked that I stood no chance of drying off. Even my pants were wet, so I had no choice but to head for home.