ModerateLakes · Dingle · recorded

Com an Áir
Lakes.

A recorded journey into the deep corrie and remote lakes east of Mount Brandon, surrounded by steep mountain ground in the heart of Corca Dhuibhne.

Also known as Coumanare.

DISTANCE

10.32km

ASCENT

481m

HIGH POINT

459m

Rob’s recorded time 4 hr 30 · rough mountain ground · 666 recorded track points · separate recorded start and finish GRADE GUIDE ↗

Reading the map…

INTERACTIVE TERRAIN · ACTUAL GPX TRACKACTUAL GPX TRACK

A recorded time is not a planning estimate. Build your own from pace, ascent, ground, weather and daylight.

DECIDE HAZARDS GO

GPX EMERGENCY

ONE · BEFORE YOU COMMIT

Is this your day?

The grade, the hazards, the forecast and the ground the route actually crosses. Everything you need to decide whether to go at all.

WEATHER AT A GLANCE

Forecast for around 450 m

Approx. 450 m

NOWReading the forecast

WINDReading the forecast

TODAY’S PEAK RAIN CHANCEReading the forecast

Forecast. This is a modelled estimate for this route’s high ground; conditions can differ sharply across the mountain. Detailed planning guidance follows. Derived from Open-Meteo forecast data ↗.

RECORDED ELEVATION

Into the corrie at 459 m.

The recording climbs into Com an Áir before descending to a different finish. Its accumulated ascent is 481 metres.

459 m74 m

Reading the forecast

0 km481 m ascent · 565 m descent10.32 km

THE LINE

The hollow of the slaughter.

The recording reaches deep into the glacial landscape around the lakes before finishing farther west.

Com an Áir

The official Irish name recorded by the Placenames Database of Ireland is Locha Chom an Áir for the lakes and Com an Áir for the surrounding townland. The lakes are the Coumanare lakes in English, and the name is commonly rendered as “the hollow of the slaughter”.

Sixteen carved panels

The arrows are not the oldest thing on this walk, and they are not the most numerous. Sixteen panels of rock art are recorded within a hundred and fifty metres of the recorded line, the nearest five metres off it, along with clearance cairns, hut sites and enclosures. The lakes sit inside a worked prehistoric landscape, and the recording crosses the middle of it.

The Coumanare arrows

For generations that was explained by a battle between the champions of Ulster and Munster, and what kept coming out of the ground seemed to bear it out. On the saddle between Slievanea and Croaghskearda, where the peat is eroding back to bare stone, people have been finding short worked sticks: 150 to 170 mm long, up to 20 mm thick, sharpened at one end or at both. They have a name of their own, the Coumanare arrows. Several hundred were carried off and written up by Hitchcock in 1850 and Tempest in 1938, and many more went without record.

A UCC survey in 1970 found them still sitting in the peat faces, mostly in groups, some upright, some canted over, some lying flat, with slivers of wood beside them from the sharpening. The site runs to several acres and the peat is up to two metres deep: one arrow was recorded 0.61 m from the base of a face a metre deep, so the ground still holds most of them.

Two other things have come out of it. A flint flake, found loose on a peat bank during the Survey's own visit. And a large oak peg, 0.38 m long and 25 mm thick, pointed at one end and pierced by a hole at the other, which Tempest recorded and nobody has explained either.

A trap for deer, not a battle

The Archaeological Survey calls their purpose a mystery and the battle an unlikely explanation of it. The likelier reading is that they were set in the ground as a trap for deer. Pollen from the peat around one of them puts it near the point where the Middle Bronze Age was giving way to the Late. So there may well have been a slaughter here to give the hollow its name, about three thousand years ago, and it may have been of deer.

01Northern approachThe recording begins above the northern side of the peninsula.
02Corrie groundRougher terrain leads towards the lakes beneath steep slopes.
03Recorded high pointThe line reaches 459 m above the corrie.
04Separate finishThe route descends south-west rather than returning to its start.

The lakes hold their own names: Loch Iarthair, the west lake, Loch Meáin, the middle lake, and An Loch Dubh, the black lake. The arrows are Archaeological Survey site KE044-128, described from J. Cuppage, Corca Dhuibhne: Dingle Peninsula Archaeological Survey (Ballyferriter, 1986), no. 1560, with the dating from Mitchell 1951; the deer trap is the Survey’s own likelier reading rather than a closed question, and the battle is still the version you will hear told locally. The Archaeological Survey plots the record as a single point and gives no boundary for it, so its several acres are described rather than mapped. The sixteen rock-art panels and the surrounding cairns, huts and enclosures are Archaeological Survey records, counted within 150 m of the recorded GPX; the site conditions are not described here because the records do not describe them. The find site is on the saddle above, not down among the lakes: this recording passes no closer than 1.6 km, while the line on the Cruach Scéirde route runs over it, closing to about fifty metres of the published coordinate. Examples of the objects appear in the West Kerry Museum catalogue ↗. Placename spelling verified against the Placenames Database of Ireland ↗

PLANNING FORECAST · AROUND 450 M

Reading the forecast

WIND NOWReading the forecast

—cloud

—humidity

—km/h peak gust

Strongest wind today—

Peak gust—

RECENT RAINFALL · LIKELY GROUND

Reading the forecast

RAIN, GUST & VISIBILITY WINDOW

Reading the forecast

BEST HIKING WINDOW

Reading the forecast

DAYLIGHT PLAN

Reading the forecast

MET ÉIREANN · KERRY

Reading the forecast

NEXT SIX HOURS · swipe

Reading the forecast

HAZARDS & OPTIONSKnow the commitment.

Remote mountain ground with limited easy escape options.

Steep corrie slopes and wet ground around the lakes.

Cloud can remove visual reference points quickly.

The recorded line has different start and finish points.

This is not a closed loop. Know where the recorded finish lies and arrange transport in advance. If visibility or ground conditions deteriorate early, retreat along the known outward line rather than improvising across steep corrie ground.

INSIDE THE CORRIE

Rob’s photographs.

8 photographsSwipe and tap to enlarge from the recorded day · select to enlarge

A bright summer view across the Com an Áir corrie, lakes and surrounding mountains — 01Summer over the corrie

The long dark corrie lake stretching beneath cloud-covered mountain slopes — 02Loch a’ Dúin (The Lake of the Fort)

A mountain lake and rocky islands beneath a dark incoming sky — 03Weather gathering

Walkers crossing rough ground beside a mountain lake in the Com an Áir corrie — 04Walking into the hollow

Sunlight picking out the steep cliffs and dark lakes of Com an Áir — 05Light across the cliffs

A dark mountain lake enclosed by steep green slopes and low cloud — 06At the water’s edge

Weathered bone among wildflowers with the mountain landscape beyond — 07Detail on the moor

Com an Áir lake seen from high ground with the Brandon mountains beneath dramatic cloud — 08The hollow from above

TWO · YOU’VE DECIDED

Getting there.

Where it starts, the recorded file, and the checks worth making before you leave the house.

PLAN THE GROUND

Start well.

RECORDED STARTCom an Áir approach

Select coordinates to copy

The supplied activity does not finish where it starts. Arrange transport or confirm a safe return plan before setting out. The coordinate marks the recording, not guaranteed formal parking.

ROUTE FILE

Take the recorded route with you.

666 recorded track points, exactly as walked. Load it into your watch, phone or offline mapping before you leave signal.

Track geometry and activity time come from the GPX. Elevation, cumulative distance, ascent and descent come from the matching GeoJSON supplied by @kerrymountains.rob.

Download original GPXcom-an-air-lakes.gpx · as recorded GeoJSON KML

Onto a watch: import the GPX into Garmin Connect, Komoot or Strava and send it to the device from there. On a phone, the Garmin Explore and OS Maps apps take the file straight from the share sheet.

BEFORE YOU GO

Remote ground and two trailheads.

Plan the finish before you leave the start.

Com an Áir is a remote corrie route rather than a closed loop. Transport, navigation and deteriorating weather all need to be considered before setting out.

Your quick checksOptional and saved only in this browser.

0/5 checked

These checks support your planning; they do not confirm that the route is safe.

01Arrange the finishThe GPX ends away from its start, so organise transport in advance.
02Navigate independentlyCarry a paper map and compass and know how to use them.
03Protect your marginTurn back early if cloud, wind or wet ground exceeds your experience.
04Share your planLeave both trailheads and your expected return time with someone.