Tourism \ Activities \ Walking \ Rocky Mountain

Rocky Mountain

An outlying dome of the Mountains of Mourne, the walk can include a stretch of the Ulster Way and an ascent of Tievedockaragh.

1. Start - leave the Leitrim Lodge car park by following a concrete path down to a stile beside a gate. Cross over Shanky's River and follow a stony track onwards. Turn right to cross a river and go through a gate in a drystone wall. Follow a clear track across a slope of grass and bracken, dotted with large boulders, with attractive pine trees scattered around. The track is part of the Ulster Way rising gently across the slope, then it passes a mass rock at the corner of a more regimented forest plantation.

2. 1¼ miles / 2 km - the path drops to cross a stream, then rises across a rough slope of boulders and bracken. Follow the path down towards another forestry plantation, crossing a stile beside a gate. Continue along a clear forest track, passing tall trees, clear felled and replanted area. When you reach a track junction at Yellow Water River, turn left.

3. 2¼ miles / 4 km - follow the track uphill as it drifts left, away from the river. The banks alongside the tracks are covered with heather, bracken, bilberry and rosebay willowherb. When you reach a track junction, turn right and drift back towards the course of the Yellow Water at a higher level. When another junction is reached turn left through a gateway, following the track roughly parallel to the Yellow Water River.

4. 3 miles / 5 km - the track crosses a bridge over a smaller stream, but before this point, turn left along a grassy, grooved track that runs through the forest. At first the trees are well away from the track and the stream, but later the track narrows to a heathery path and the trees grow closer to the stream. When the forest fence is reached, cross a stile then drift slightly to the left to climb the rugged slopes of Tievedockaragh. Initially boggy ground gives way to heather studded with boulders. There's nothing to mark the actual summit, which is a broad and featureless area at 473m / 1557ft.

5. 3¼ miles / 6 km - just beyond the summit of Tievedockaragh is the substantial Batts Wall, cross it using a stone stile and turn right and follow it. The wall gives way to a fence across a broad gap of heathery peat hags. Another length of wall continues over a rugged heathery rise, then a fence leads to a broad bog. When you see another fence joining from the right, turn left and look for an old bog road.

6. 4¼ miles / 7 km - head to the right to reach the granite tor of Pierce's Castle, climbing to the rock slab summit. Follow a narrow path to descend, crossing more granite slabs, then continue down to a gap. The path leads up a grassy, bouldery slope, then runs down to a gap of heather and peat hags. A path rises from the gap to a broad summit of heather and boulders. Pass left of an undercut granite tor called Tornamrock on the descent to the next gap. Cross a clear path on the gap, then climb steeply uphill on grass, heather and boulders to reach a small cairn on the summit of Rocky Mountain at 405m / 1326ft.

7. 6 miles/ 10 km - walk along a gentle shoulder of the hill, then descend roughly southwest. A vague path avoids rocky areas and leads down to a bend on a track at the foot of the hill. Turn right to walls down the track, crossing a granite bridge over Shanty's River. There is a stile beside a gate and a concrete path leads back into the Leitrim Lodge car park.

Approximate time: 4 hours