Inspired by the Howlingmist-blog, I decided to check out Cappagh Glen in Kerry – an impressive valley not known by many.

I love winter hikes as they offer a bit of drama and can make one feel delightfully isolated. However, I had one obstacle: my bicycle.

With my theory test literally gathering dust at home, I decided to board the bike on to a bus aiming at Glenflesk and proceeding from there as the best option.

Riding my two-wheeled iron horse into Healy-Rae territory, I went on a detour to explore Rossacroo Forest first and to approach the valley from the south. It’s a lovely spot by many measures, especially with chunks of snow sprinkled throughout.

A forecast and a keen eye on the clouds kept my upper body dry, while unstable bog surface and a few stream crossings drenched my lower half.

At the end, I made it to the valley which is one of the most fantasy-looking landscapes I’ve seen in Ireland!

The geology is largely as most of Kerry: Old Red Sandstone, specifically one with the mineral chlorite in it yielding shades of blue, cyan, green and black in the rocks. WestCorkPalaeo.com states that the presence of chlorite in these chloritic sedimentary rocks is owed to the chemistry of the source rocks from which the sediments came from back 380 million years ago.

However, there are also traces of volcanic activity in Cappagh Glen!

Much of the rock here is covered by lichens, weathered elements and other saucy things, so it can take a while to find a fresh surface of a volcanic rhyolite sample.

Rhyolite stems from granitic eruptions and these eruptions are often quite explosive. According to geologists at UCC, this volcanic activity may have come about 380 million years ago as the crust was flexing and extending due to stress from mountain-building events millions of years earlier.

In any case, I managed to find the northern entrance (in my case: exit) to the valley, bypassing a sheep farm and escaping into the night.

Treated myself with a stay in Killarney that night.

Music licensed from soundstripe.com.

References:

Avison, M., 1985. Metasomatism in the Lough Guitane Volcanic Complex (southwest Ireland) — An application of composition—volume computations. Vol. 48, Issues 1–4, p. 79-92. doi: 10.1016/0009-2541(85)90036-1

https://westcorkpalaeo.com

https://www.gsi.ie/en-ie/data-and-maps/