Walk This Way [Extended]

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Mark at Jam Art Factory writes:

Offaly-born, Dublin-based graphic designer Emily McKeagney’s beautiful new Irish Walk prints include Croagh Patrick, Carrauntoohill, Sugarloaf and Benbulben and are available now at Jam Art.

Emily’s work often features ephemera, cut-ups, vintage photography and the overlaying of images, drawing on her impressions as a young person in a rapidly changing Ireland.

We would like to give away a set of four prints to a a walk-loving Broadsheet reader.

To enter, just tell us your favourite walk and why….

Lines MUST close at Wednesday 2.30pm.

Emily McKeagney (Jam Art)

Jam Art Prints

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32 thoughts on “Walk This Way [Extended]

  1. Fergalito

    When I’m down home I like nothing more than walking to the top of Knocknarea near Strandhill in Sligo. Spectacular views on a clear day of the Atlantic ocean, Benbulben and the surrounding lakes and landscape. Atop the mountain you’re greeted by Queen Maeve’s cairn, buried there they say standing up facing her mortal enemies in Ulster. There’s also a curious little brass plate which I’m told is placed there by OSI to indicate the mountain top is a trigonometric point. It’s not a tough climb, a rush and a push near the top and the land is yours.

      1. Fergalito

        Sure is Janet. Couldn’t wait to be rid of the place when i was a know-it-all teenager and now i know i’d move back in the morning. I’d love nothing more to ramble on about how the landscape and the energy of the place makes me feel but i wouldn’t be able to do it justice.

        1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

          running through Connemara is the closest I came to believing in a God, so I know what you mean, something undescribable about those kind of landscape

  2. Lilly

    These prints are beautiful. I wish I had the energy to describe my favourite walk but It’s too late in the day to do it justice. It’s a narrow overgrown lane that curves through a tiny village – just a cluster of farmhouse cottages that line the way – where a farmer takes a breather from feeding calves to come over to the gate to say, ‘ara did ye bring the rain.’

  3. Emer Mc Loughlin

    My absolute favourite walk has to be Ben Bulben. It has everything – spectacular geology, unique flora, challenging gullies, peaks and plateaus and is also rich in mythology and history. It’s a mystical mountain whose plateau can be seen and recognised from near and far. I’ve walked in every continent in the world but returning to Co Sligo, Yeats Country and walking Ben Bulben is like coming home to me, to wonderful childhood memories and stories from my mother and grandparents.

  4. Feargus

    What stunning prints of big mountains! My favourite walk – especially in lockdown – has been the short but steep climb up Croghan Hill in Emily McKeagney’s native Offaly. It may only be a little over 200m high but the panoramic views are amazing at that elevation; across the local bogs and meadows; over to the Hill of Uisneach and down to the Slieve Blooms; and further afield to Wicklow, Down, Tipperary and Galway. Catch it on a day of scudding clouds and the play of light across the landscape is mesmerizing. The beautiful carvings and haiku engravings at the summit are an intriguing interpretation of the hill’s volcanic origins and its folklore. A plaque at St Patrick’s Well commemorates the time pope John Paul II flew over the Croghan Hill on his way to Clonmacnoise, although it doesn’t mention that he was in a helicopter at the time. Hopefully Emily will be inspired to add it to her series.

  5. Papi

    Working near the Comeraghs back in the day, we used to love having a wander up and down the tracks and wee climbs, great history too, highwayman treasure and bandit hideouts, magic optical illusion road where the car goes uphill on its own and a corrie lake that the OS couldn’t find the bottom of, even with a mile of chain. The colours of the place though, that’s the real take your breath away, shock you into silence thing about the place, every few minutes the sun or clouds would change the landscape and heather in front of you from gold to purple to green in the blink of an eye. You feel small there, which is a good thing.

    1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

      Out beyond ideas
      of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
      there is a field.
      I’ll meet you there.

      Rumi

  6. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

    It’s not the most scenic walk I have ever done but the views out to see are gorgeous on a good day, the coconut smell of the gorse mixed with the sea air is everything summer should smell like. It’s often too busy but as a Dub it has to be the Howth Cliff walk. I have desperate vertigo and parts of it make me feel like I’m superwoman after I get through them with minimal shaking, I was dragged around it as a child in all weather, I used to dread it, my Mum pregnant with my sister and determined for her to come on her due date and not late like me. Many a young fella was kissed on those cliffs the fear of falling to my death adding a certain frisson to teenage love and every visitor from France did the pilgrimage with the reward of pints and seafood in the harbor after. We were walked up it for charity walks from our school in full uniform of course freezing our butts off in too long tarte skirts and I have even done a work team building day on those for me dizzy heights…sure that walk is now part of my DNA….and part of me has grown to love it for the memories alone .

  7. Bertie blenkinsop

    At the risk of being a cliché

    My favourite walk is from Gaffneys in Fairview to Croke Park on match day with my Da, son and brother in law.
    Few pints on board.
    Sun shining (occasionally).
    Down past the old Jewish cemetery (that my Da tells us is an old Jewish cemetery every time we pass and we feign surprise).
    Past the off license that the taxi went through the front window.
    Buy the young fella a flag that he’ll invariably lose.
    Over Luke Kelly bridge and we reminisce about the time my brother in law went on the hop from school, went down the Tolka on a barge and a photographer from the evening press took his photo from the bridge and he got suspended.
    Up Clonliffe road, butterflies in the stomach, nodding to lads you know, answering a million questions from the young fella, “who did You just say hello to, is the stadium named after a crow, can we get hot dogs”…
    The best days.
    We took them for granted.
    Hopefully we’ll be back there soon.

  8. Hector Rameriz

    A walk around town after work (I’m working from home), especially when my partner can come with. She’s a nurse who in these times can work long hours. We spend the time just talking, some planning for our wedding this year, which come what may will go ahead. Be it 6 or 106 guests.

    It’s the simple things when it’s been a long long year.

  9. Adam Baker

    Diamond Hill Letterfrack. The most beautiful view. Walked on a first visit to the area with my wife and inlaws,, married in front of it it, and am currently threatening our two boys that we’ll be climbing it. (they will be!)

  10. Bodger

    From David Cotter (via email)
    ‘One of my Favourite walks is Tralee Town Park as it is so beautiful and easily accessible for me living in town and has wonderful wild meadows and variety of plants. Great place to safely meet locals living in town in Covid times with everything else closed. It feels like our town’s garden.’

  11. Donald McCarthy

    My fave walk is a weekly processional walk in the little hills of N.Leitrim, culminating in the participating doomers jumping off a very small cliff. It represents, well, you know what it represents by now.

  12. Michael

    Near Tralee in Co. Kerry, Glanageenty has everything: tall evergreens, noble native trees, a babbling river, birds of all feathers, ups and downs (as in life), hilltop viewpoints, historical sites harking back to the Civil War, wild garlic, bluebells, butterflies, bovine cud-chewing companions, wide-open expanses, narrow trails, loops of varying lengths, picnic areas, amateur artworks, moss-covered rocks, dappled sunlight on summer days, quietude… What more could a walker want?

  13. Patrick

    I would wholeheartedly agree with Fergalito, the views from knocknarea are spectacular, however I will keep in closer to home and nominate one of the many varied walking routes across the Curragh Plains, one of my favourites is around the Curragh Training grounds where from the top of walshes hill (It’s a very mild hill I should add) you can view a 360 panoramic taking in the hill of Allen, Kildare Town, the Wicklow Mountains, the Curragh Camp, and the Curragh Racecourse.

    Cill Dara abu

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