Beautiful natural sculptures by the running and sometimes raging waters, that filter down from the mighty Black Cuillian mountains into the Lough. The Allt Coir a’ Mhadaidh river flows down from the hills into Glen Brittle. The waters are deep and clear and breathtakingly cold, like a dip in the river Jordan, as the Christian faces the final obstacle to the heavenly home.

To dip the foot into the first pool is painful and yet pulls the body in the Pan-like mystery of the sacred fountain, to cross the river and gain the prize.

We struggle to summon up the courage to engage with the dream before us, a dream we have followed of many hundreds of miles, and for many days. This is what we came for and what has bound us together, Mother and daughter, in our planning and progress.

We submitted to the water, but the shock was too great to linger.

We could not quite bear the icy fingers that grabbed and scrapped at our feet and legs. We will return, and use our wetsuits to help us cope with the chill and stay in the water longer…