Portanob Loop

Portanob is a backroad townland outside Kildalkey that translates as the Fort of Abe. I can find no record of who Abe was. We are currently watching the Marvellous Mrs Maisel and Abe is one of the main characters so this will do. We previously explored Portanob in the last lockdown. I missed a left turn back then and the 5km turned into 11km. This was manageable until it started to rain when we were about 8km into it. I had to trudge through dark clouds of Gallic storm back to the car. I convince Delphine to return with the promise that I will not make the same mistake.

portanob

The sky is light grey. I look for some sort of clouds just to have something to break up the endless fuzzy not-quite-whiteness above the landscape. There is nothing, just rolling grey overexposed skies. This is not the Autumn of the romantic poets. Those lads get up early to catch the early morning mists making magic with the scenery. They trot through twilights to watch the landscape move in and out of shadowy weather. We have to be back to get the lunch ready before Daughter finishes her Irish dancing zoom class so we are stuck with the static skies. Blue skies are forecast for the next day but today we need to oil our machines after a week glued to screens.

Pixel is already too excited to be on the road. This necessitates lots of serious conversations with him. He sits looking at the ground in shame until Delphine stops so he can run off again. We meet a farmer moving a herd of sheep from one side of the road to the other.

There are mushrooms along the road. They have been out for a few days. They are sodden, brown and damp. Some are half-eaten. They look like they are dissolving back into the ground.

mushrooms

A lot of the fields have had their harvest haircuts, leaving them covered in a yellow stubble. We have been avoiding the back roads lately as tractors have been tearing up and down lanes, spreading slurry and carrying trailers full of crops to larger trucks. Our waving fields of cereals are gone for now.

The grass on the sides of the roads has lost its juiciness. It looks tired like Summer has raced through stalks with high octane drugs and now they are coming down. The hedgerows don’t want to be on Instagram anymore. They want to sink back into the earth and read last years papers. Whole banks of ferns are blazing along the roadsides like flaming sprays of orange. None of this gradual change for them.

Ferns along roadside

Cows are sitting by the edge of the fields. None of them are even eating. They just sit down and wait for someone to come and feed them.

Red and golden leaves dot the green verges and we walk across them, our waterproof runners crunching them into the ground. Pixel, who has a nose for anything rotten sniffs around in all the glorious decomposing stuff. He gets something stuck in his nose and has a few head-shaking sneezes that start at his ears and end at his tail.

portanab roadside

Walking through the townland of Corballis, we pass a car in a field. Corballis means odd townland. It reminds me of the time we learned to drive with an old banger on our farm.

corballis car

We turn left. This is the infamous left that I neglected to take the last time we came this way. We pass a big house with a demented looking husky and a floppy eared alsatian. This is dog alley along here. It is like the Twilight Bark. One dog takes up where another left off. Jack Russels scatter across lawns. Sleeping labradors wake up and look out their gates while Pixel struts along.

A bird of prey drops from a tree in front of us and makes a dash for a nearby clump of woodland. It flies low and straight across the road, chest and beak up, and is gone before we can see where it lands. Not being bird people we are not sure what type of bird it was. It wasn’t a buzzard for sure as we know their markings.

shanco roadside

This is a much quieter road. We pass an old cob farmhouse. It has a tin roof. I always loved the idea of a tin roof in the rain but Delphine reckons it would be annoying.

shanco roadside

We come to a fork in the road and argue about which way to go. I win and it turns out to be the right road. This area is called Shanco which reminds me of Kavanagh’s poem.

“The sleety winds fondle the rushy beards of Shancoduff
While the cattle-drovers sheltering in the Featherna Bush
Look up and say: “Who owns them hungry hills
That the water-hen and snipe must have forsaken? “

We pass another old farmhouse that seems to be derelict. A more modern house is built behind it.

deserted house shanco

As we turn a bend I realise that we have walked this road before when we took the long route. Delphine cannot get her head around the fact that we are on the long route again. I try to explain this but forget that we have different mental pictures for navigation. What I mean by a left turn is a new road that branches off a road. What Delphine means by a left turn is turning her steering wheel to go round a bend on a straight road. So we both end up going around in circles. A boy racer comes tearing around the bend at a million miles an hour and we give up the discussion and concentrate on the road ahead.

We pass a roadside farm which has some nice flowers outside its entrance.

flowers along roadside

Our walk takes us from the Shanco to Cloncarneel. This translates as the Meadow of the Limestone Rocks. In these parts that narrows it down not a lot. Two collies tear strips off each other at the next house. When they see Pixel, both of them come flying towards the fence in unity against a common enemy. Luckily they are well kept in with plenty of chicken wire so they are all bark. Next door is an old grey coloured labrador who sits on his haunches looking at us as we pass. His chest is scraggly and mottled. He considers barking and gives a gruff ruff as if to say I’ve done me bit carry on.

To our right are fields that have sprouts appearing. These are probably winter crops which will be used either for animal feed or porridge.

winter crops

We meet our first hill of the route and crest it like the 5km athletes we are, swearing to cut back on the chocolate and desserts. We pass the fields where we spent time taking photos of poppies in the last lockdown. Horses graze to our left. We come to our final junction. Here we can see the rivalry between the neighbouring towns of Ballivor and Kildalkey and turn left towards the car.

roadsign with bulletholes

To our right is a field of sheep that once again think we are on their way to feed them. In the distance towards Trim, we can see the refrigerated units of CRS stacked up like lego boxes above the greenery. Then we make it back to the car.

Google Maps: 53.545836, – 6.901015

Distance: 5.2 km

Time: 12.00 – 2.00pm

Type of walk: Back country roads

Views: farmland.

Animals: Cows, sheep, horses, dogs, one bird of prey.

Humans: Farmers moving sheep

Traffic: About ten cars

Plant of the day: Stinky Bob, a geranium which is found all along the hedgerow which has a pungent smell. Also called Herb Robert and it was supposedly used to help with diarrhoea.

Negative: The relentless dullness of the skies

Memorable: A family are out decorating their house for Halloween. It looks like there are going to be lots of witches and a full-scale graveyard.

Score: 6/10

This was a quick and easy route through that was a good walk so let me know if I missed anything or if you can add anything more about this place.

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