Laois: Treading through a tapestry of colour

GLENBARROW LOOP ON THE SLIEVE BLOOM WAY, CO LAOIS

WHAT for me was most striking of all on this walk — even more striking than the 360 degree views from the ridge — was the extraordinary tapestry of lichens, mosses, heathers, rushes and bog-plants of every shape and vivid colour laid out on the mountain alongside the boardwalks from the moment we set out at the car park, and all the way up the ridge until we enter the plantations.

To compare the hillside with a thousand-acre Turkish carpet would be clichéd, but such an analogy is unavoidable; it has all the richness of texture and colour of a magnificent oriental rug. The colours leap out, even in winter, the reds, deep reds, purples, brown, greens, bottle greens and pastel greens, lemon yellows and pastel yellows, oranges and deep oranges and blues. The brilliant colours of a million exotic butterfly wings?