A Stairway to Heaven

Just a 30-minute drive from Black Pig Lodge is a UNESCO Global Geopark. The first transnational Geopark, straddling County Fermanagh, in Northern Ireland and County Cavan, in the Irish Republic. The Geopark is an internationally significant area of geological heritage in terms of conservation, education and sustainable tourism. At the heart of the Geopark is the 2,500 hectare Cuilcagh Mountain Park on the northern slopes of Cuilcagh Mountain. The mountain is 665 meters above sea level and is the only true mountain in this part of the island of Ireland. 

‘The Stairway to Heaven’ - The Cuilcagh Boardwalk Trail takes you across pristine blanket bog and on to Cuilcagh Mountain. To get up the mountain you must climb the steep wooden steps, locally known as ‘The Stairway to Heaven’. 

There is parking at the start of the Cuilcagh Boardwalk Trail and you can find directions to it by going to www.theboardwalk.ie Parking is £6 and it is wise to pre-book, especially during the holiday season. The alternative is to use the free parking (and toilets) at the Killykeeghan Nature Reserve parking area and join the Boardwalk trail from there (an extra 20-minute walk). 

The walk itself is about 12km (from Boardwalk carpark to Cuilcagh Mountain viewing platform and back to the carpark).  It took us about 4.5 hours to complete the 12km, but we took our time. The walk starts on a wide gravel track with sweeping vistas across the heather cloaked landscape. Once you reach the blanket bog the track becomes a boardwalk, and this takes you across the bog to the mountain. 

The boardwalk with Cuilcagh Mountain ahead.

The pristine area of bog is one of the largest in Western Europe and is a specialised habitat for flora such as mosses and liverworts. The common lizard can be spotted here as well as hares, foxes, ravens and the Golden Plover, for which the bog provides an important upland breeding site. We saw several on our walk. The bog is an important landscape and is created by the remains of plants and animals compressed in cold waterlogged areas for thousands of years. This process results in peat, a rare type of soil. Peatlands, together with their unique assemblage of plants and animals, are a seriously endangered western European habitat. Ireland possesses 8 per cent of the world's blanket bog and is one of the few countries where a wide range of peatlands still exists in a near natural state. As you traverse the bog it is worth appreciating the rarity of this landscape around you. 

Cuilcagh Mountain lays ahead of you and as you get closer the wooden staircase, ‘The Stairway to Heaven’, comes into view. The steep steps (not for the faint hearted!) take you up to a viewing platform from where you can see as far as Lough Erne and Lough Melvin, and beyond. It is worth the effort!

The walk is described as difficult and certainly my legs ached for a few days after completing it. I am not a hiker, I’m a dog walker, but I enjoyed the challenge. It’s worth noting that the walk is very easy in terms of following a trail. It is virtually impossible to get lost if you stick to the track (and it is important to do this for your own safety as well as for the benefit of the fragile habitat that surrounds the walk). 

We completed this walk in December and saw only a handful of other people.

We very much enjoyed having the rusty coloured wintry landscape (almost) to ourselves. We will probably go back in spring and perhaps autumn, to see the heathers in bloom. I understand the trail can get busy in the summer months. But there is the opportunity to explore this trail any time of year because it is open all year (only closing in very icy conditions or during severe storms).

The Geopark has other gems to offer including the Marble Arch Caves, which is the most active river showcave in Ireland and the UK, and the Caven Burren Park, a mythological, spiritual landscape of monuments and neolithic tombs.