Slieve League (Sliabh Liag) (Co. Donegal): traversing the One Man's Pass

The writer David Herman in his book 'Hill Walker's Donegal' says of Slieve League, 'The sea-cliffs are renowned, partly I am guessing because it is possible to view the entire stretch of mighty cliff without walking more than a few feet from your car. That is also the impression you might get from a search for images of Slieve League on Flickr. Slieve League is however a considerable hill, the highest and most impressive in the south west corner of Donegal. Venture further afield to reach the 595m summit and the gravelled walk from the car park turns into a proper mountain expedition with a good sense of height and exposure. The section on view here includes at the top the rock fin known as the 'True One Man's Pass', a thin rib of rock around 18 inches wide with a drop of hundreds of feet to the left and up to around forty feet to the right as you ascend it. Having reached the last point where escape was possible down a gully to the right, I decided discretion was the better part of valour on this occasion, blaming the wet rock and my heavy rucksack.