Solstice Activation on Barrclashcame EI/IW-004
It’s been a pretty dismal Autumn. Seemingly endless wind and rain, particularly out here in the west of EI. At last, the weather has settled down somewhat allowing normal SOTA activity to resume. There has been a lot of EI activity in the last couple of weeks, as the 2025 winter bonus season starts and before the SOTA counters reset for another year of fun. I travelled across country last week to activate 2 summits in EI/IE. It was great to get on a summit again after a couple of months, although the enjoyment was tempered by the queue on Dublin’s M50 on the return journey.
Yesterday, I activated Barrclashcame EI/IW-004 in County Mayo and was rewarded with some fine winter weather and excellent views, which made the radio bit somewhat incidental! The standard starting point for this summit is just west of the Famine Memorial at Doo Lough, joining the ridge which you follow pretty much all the way to the summit. Conditions underfoot were relatively good considering the volume of recent rain. Total ascent is about 700m, quite steep in the mid-section and there is a short steep scramble over shale scree to get to the summit plateau. The summit marker is at the far end of the plateau. Not a soul around, nor did I expect to see anyone.
I used my standard set up, KX2, 58-ft end-fed with 9:1 unun. My Palm Mini paddle has been acting up lately, sending only dits and again refused to play ball despite me re-wiring the lead the previous day. Back to the KXPD3 yet again, which works ok, but I seem to make many more mistakes with it and the paddles freeze my fingers quickly. Band conditions were pretty good, with a lot of familiar friends. Only one dx, Dan W4DKS, who was a bit stronger than usual. Just one S2S, Fabio IK2LEY/P on I/LO-273.
The descent is by the same route. A bit of care is needed to find the top of the scree path leaving the plateau as the ground falls away rapidly with cliffs to the left of this point and very steep ground to the right also. Once you’ve navigated this, it’s a pretty straightforward descent. I stopped a number of times on the way down to try capturing the views, including a cloud inversion which turned Croagh Patrick EI/IW-005 into an island in a sea of cloud (photos below).
A memorable day out.
73, John EI3KA
