The Paps of Anu

After enjoying two days of unsettled weather when the sun was choosing to settle upon us rather than the showers which were never too far away somewhere else, we were kind of due for some rain. After a promising start, with a fair bit of blue around, we stuck with our plan of climbing the Paps of Anu, a pair of summits steeped in mythology. The start of the walk was rather inauspicious, parking the car on a back lane surrounded by run-down farmland and with any brightness in the sky now occluded by a uniformly grey sky. We followed a good track north to the top of a col before hitting the hillside and picking a route upwards on narrow trods through featureless heather. It felt like a long haul to the summit with no landmarks to sight on the way.

As we climbed it started to drizzle and that was the order of the rest of the day. This shot was taken from the eastern pap looking towards the western one. Photographic conditions were difficult with the wind driving the rain into the lens of my camera, but the moment had to be recorded. The Paps of Anu are the breasts of the ancient mother Goddess Danu. From this point it was easy to appreciate the powerful symbolism. Both summits are home to huge stone nipples, believed to be of neolithic origin and quite possibly containing burial chambers. TJ was happy to descend from this top, the slightly bigger boob at 2,277ft, but understanding the deep mythic significance of these ancient mammaries, I felt compelled to run down into the cleavage and climb up the other side to pay homage to the other nipple. It felt like the right thing to do. I well understand the importance of balance in these matters.

I enjoyed a fast descent back down across a vast tract of boggy upland, providing for some very low impact running. I rejoined TJ and we walked further to the ancient site of Cathair Crobh Dearg, supposedly the place which has the longest continuing history of worship in the Western world. From here we took a path back up to the col, starting across an extremely boggy section of hillside but soon joining up with a good track. The mountains are far more imposing viewed from this side and the weather deteriorated to lend even more atmosphere to the scene. By the time we arrived back at the car the drizzled had definitely turned to rain. It felt great to change into dry clothes and head home to an evening in with friends and a roaring fire.

Despite the less than pleasant weather it turned out to be another fabulous day.