Putting mountain and map reading skills to the test in the Burren 

Manchán Magan signed up for a mountain skills course and explored the Burren with his new appreciation of map reading.

I COULD never fully grasp the Burren — driving through it didn’t provide a proper sense of it, but I felt uneasy about straying too far from the way-marked trails to explore its remoter regions.

People like me are prisoners of the wooden-posted tracks and the irritating yellow walking figure carved into each post. Yet, the alternative, of having to sit through classes to study orientation, compass-bearing and map skills always seemed too humiliating to contemplate.