EI/IE-071 - last chance this Thursday

Just noticed that EI association is getting an update on July 1st: couple of summits added, lot of grid and name corrections, and one summit with low prominence going away.
The victim is Croghan Hill, EI/IE-071 in Midlands, Co. Offaly. According to mountainviews.ie it is the most isolated hill in Ireland and they still list it with 159m prominence. There should be some great views and places of interest like the prehistoric cairn on the top and early Christian site at SE slope. The hill itself is an ancient volcano.
It has been in my plans for a while - sounds like a nice kickscooter trip by Grand Canal Way and up the local roads. Fortunately I am off work on June 30th and so far the WX looks dry in the morning. If I go for the farewell activation, I’ll post an alert when I’m on the bus.

Hi Marek,

The EI associations was well overdue for an update and I worked on getting the EI association up-to-date earlier this month. All the changes were approved by the EI Association Manager John EI3KA.

Croghan Hill EI/IE-071 was demoted from a Marilyn 5 years ago. Hill-Bagging shows it has a prominence of 145m. I cannot see any prominence anyway on Mountain Views for this hill. John EI3KA did advise that that this summits was off limits due to a wind farm development when he tried to activate it last year, not sure if this is still the case.

There will be 3 new EI SOTA summits as of Friday 1st July. These are Corronoher EI/IS-132, Cullenagh Mountain EI/IE-073 and Knockmannon Hill EI/IE-074. Corronoher EI/IS-132 was found to be a new Marilyn 2 years ago and Cullenagh Mountain EI/IE-073 and Knockmannon Hill EI/IE-074 were found to be new Marilyns back in 1998 which is one year after Hewitts and Marilyns of Ireland was published. The 2 new EI/IE summits could have been SOTA summits when the EI association was set up. However the association was set up using the original Hewitts and Marilyns of Ireland list so these 2 hills never got included until now.

Jimmy M0HGY

Thanks Jimmy, I didn’t know about the wind farm - will do more research tonight before I head off.

73 Marek

Searched for a while and didn’t find anything about a wind park at Croghan Hill - just a notice about another one at Croghan Mountain on Wicklow/Wexford border and public access being temporary closed. The last report on Mountain Views is from May 2016, so I guess it is worth a try. BTW you can see a prominence of a MV summit if you click on the More Details button.
The forecast for tomorrow keeps changing, I didn’t decide about the time yet - watch the alerts in the morning.

73 Marek EI7KH

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Hi Marek,

Thank you for the useful information on getting seeing summit prominences on Mountain Views. I see from this Mountain Views have not updated the prominence for Croghan Hill EI/IE-071 when it was found to have a prominence of 145m 5 years ago.

Looking at this further it appears that it is Croghan Kinsella EI/IE-013 that is having a wind farm development, not Croghan Hill EI/IE-071. This means that Croghan Hill EI/IE-071 is still accessible for walkers and I think you should go for this activation tomorrow unless the weather is too bad for you as tomorrow will be the last day this summit is valid for SOTA.

Jimmy M0HGY

I am sorry to see Croghan Hill EI/IE-071 go. From this isolated hill there are beautiful views over the Co. Offaly turf fields. Nice weathered trig on top too. Still worth it if you are into hillbagging and keep a score on Mountainviews.
Access is easy from the path at the Croghan Demesne junction, going up through a couple of fields near the top.

73 Phil ON4TA

One for Jimmy. EI/IE-054 was known as Mohercrom when I activated it last year., I notice on Sota mapping its known as Cornasaus. Neither of these are correct as I grew not that far from there and it is and always has been known as Loughanleagh Mountain. Here is a link showing trig point in the first pic. Loughanleagh Mountain – Loughanleagh & Muff Heritage Trust (CLG)

Hope you can sort this one out with the correct name.

73

John VK6NU

There is a little bit of confusion over the wind farm, which may be my fault. There is a wind farm development on EI/IE-013 Croghan Kinsella, previously named Croghan Mountain up to the latest revision of the ARM. Apologies for any confusion here. I agree it is a pity that EI/IE-071 will go.

On a wider note, I have noted in the latest revision of the EI ARM many summits have been re-named to favour traditional Gaelic naming over (often the much more widely used) English equivalents. This may be due to a similar trend in OS Ireland mapping. One in particular stands out to me - EI/IS-053 Sliabh an Iolair on the Dingle Peninsula, which is (almost) universally known as Eagle Mountain. On the other hand EI/IW-010 Binn Idir an Da Log was previously referenced as the much more obscure Barrslievenaroy You will appreciate that the use of the Irish language is a sensitive subject in Ireland and the policy is always to tread carefully! However, the purpose of the ARM is to inform activators from anywhere and it should be the policy to use the most widely known title for summit references. As John VK6NU has demonstrated, traditional naming may be superseded by a less appropriate Gaelic title. Getting the balance right is difficult task and often requires local knowledge - maybe we’re not quite there yet.

John EI3KA

The Hills Database is the official reference for all data in the G, GM, GI, GD, GW and EI associations. If you think any hills are named incorrectly, lobby DoBH. If it changes in there, it will change in SOTA accordingly.

Hi,

All summit amendments for all UK and Irish summits are taken from the Hills-Database http://hills-database.co.uk/ I used this for the EI SOTA update and all names that were amended match up to the hill names on the Hills-Database. I understand that a lot of hills have names known more locally. Some of the English hills are known by more than one name as well. In terms of English equivalent names there are quite a lot of Welsh and Scottish SOTA summits that have English equivalent names to them and with these it has always been the case to use the official names.

Jimmy M0HGY

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Interesting info guys I’ll have a look and dig a bit deeper into that site… On the Loughanleagh issue, I amazed it was not know as that from the start Mohercrom and Cornasaus are only townlands in the area. Goes back to someone from outside the area probably doing the naming from a map with townlands on it.

Doesn’t mean its right, it will always be Loughanleagh to people within many miles of there. That particular trig point was referenced to many other points in Ireland, I remember seeing a map and I think there were 9 lines connected to it from other trig points, more than any other one in Ireland…, You can also see 14 counties from there even though its not that high.

Hope to get back to activate it next July via a trip to Germany for a certain radio Show :).

73

John VK6NU

Hi John,

Thank you for your information and knowledge regarding this summit. Maybe you could send an email to rhb@rhb.org.uk and Chris Crocker who runs the Hills-Database (you find find Chirs Crocker’s email address by clicking on his name on the main page on the Hills-Database) and mention this information to them regarding the summit name. Maybe then they will update it to the name you think it should be and also the name maybe updated for SOTA if there is an EI SOTA update next year.

Jimmy M0HGY

Dr Marek,

thanks for working you today from EI/IE-071. It’s a new one for me. Nice signals on 20 meter.
Tonnie 73, PA9CW.

Back from the trip, dry and warm, I went for an afternoon activation and caught a persistent drizzle on my scooter ride from Edenderry. Fortunately the trigpoint provides some shelter from the wind, I made 11 QSO on 20m CW - mostly PA and DL chasers. Had a mike with me as well but given the QSB reports I didn’t even try SSB. Down to the road, slightly straigher route back, and just in time for a pint and the 19:30 bus to Dublin. Thanks to all chasers for the QSOs and fare well EI/IE-071.
Photos from the trip: https://goo.gl/photos/8T6MU1RFhoHTqrj28

73 Marek EI7KH

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Well Done Marek
73 David EI7GEB

Hi John,
EI/IE-054 This is one of my closest summits and I also would refer to it as Loughanlae
I have used it for the EI VHF contest . Not for the height but to have a station from cavan.
Managed 18 counties with 5w once.
Great views

73 David ei7geb

Hi Marek

Well done and thanks for giving IE-071 a proper send off!

73 John EI3KA