Climbing Croagh Patrick!

In the last post we explored the Dooling Cave. Today I will take you on a journey on top of Croagh Patrick!

What is Croagh Patrick? Well simply stated, it is a mountain with a height of 764 m located on the western coast of Ireland that overlooks Clew Bay. The name itself goes back to its spiritual and religious roots. Apparently this mountain was long seen as a holy mountain starting in prehistoric times where rituals were performed. Later with Christianity it was associated with Saint Patrick, who is said to have spent forty days fasting on the summit. There has been a church on the summit since the 5th century; the current church dates to the early 20th century. Due to these associations it has long been a site of pilgrimage and is now climbed by thousands of pilgrims every year on Reek Sunday, the last Sunday in July, a custom which goes back to at least the Middle Ages.

I climbed this mountain with a friend and we were lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny day ahead of us. On the way up we met a woman who said that she had been climbing this mountains for years and it was the first time that the weather had been this good! That gives you an idea about the weather here in general... I made a shot of the mountain before the ascent and this gives you a pretty good overview of the area:

This is where it went "off road". As you can see there are quite a few people here who also thought that it would be a great idea to go hiking today. Luckily you don't need to any climbing gear, but I have heard that some people walk this rough stony path without shoes for religious significance (to feel and deal with pain)! Fortunately we had shoes with ourselves ;)

The ascent was really beautiful and I'll leave some impressions here:

Half way to the top we saw a little lake below us and I only saw the writing the second time I looked. People always like to leave their names or initials at any place with significance. So here you can try to read them all, perhaps you'll spot yours as well.