Welcome back to another edition of Tough Soles Fieldnotes, where I share some of the Behind The Scenes moments from the past few months - this time covering July, August and September 2025. And I think the part I am most excited to start with, is the photo above.

The 53rd Irish Hot Air Ballooning Championships

I am somewhat in awe of hot air balloons, and have spent my life in love with their grace and etherial mystique. Earlier in the summer, a friend messaged me to ask if I knew that the Irish Hot Air Ballooning Championships were going to be in Lough Key Forest Park this September. I almost jumped out of my skin - there’s a hot air ballooning championships, in Ireland? And it was coming to my back garden?

Fast forward to late September, and every morning at 6:30am I’d groggily sit up in bed, waiting for the “Fly / No Fly” announcement for that mornings potential ballooning session. As the official facebook post would go live, I’d bundle myself into the car, steaming coffee in hand, and drive over to the forest to watch the magic happen.

During this week of early mornings and incredible spectacles, I also happened to be in the depths of the worst flu I’d had in years. It had been a steady decline all September, and by the time this week came round, all I was really fit for that week was sitting in my car watching balloons drift across the sky. So while I wasn’t delighted to be skulling Lemsips and sleeping 14hrs a day, somewhat fitted the slower pace and quietness of the week.

But lets jump back to the start of this chunk of time. My birthday is the beginning of July, and Carl and I went and explored Sliabh Liag (or Slieve League) in Donegal. These are some of the tallest sea cliffs in Ireland, and I’d long wanted to visit. Conveniently enough, the main summit of the cliffs was also an Arderin, and was one of three small peaks I got to tick off that day.

I then went galavanting over to the borderlands of Scotland and England to visit some family (that’s where my write up of the Grey Mare’s Tail Trail came from). One of my big takeaways from the trip was just how easy the ferry from Belfast to Scotland is, something I want to take advantage of again in the future.

By the end of July I’d finally managed to finish editing together my video of the Camino Frances, and in early August it went live. Through July - September, I published six videos on YouTube.

Tough Soles YouTube

Some of these have already made it onto the website (such as the Avonmore Way), and some I’ll be expanding on below. Such as —

Lists & Resets

Lists are something that either help or hinder you. And in case this website hasn’t already made it clear, I find lists incredibly useful. Back at the start of the year, I made a list of trails I wanted to walk in 2025. This list featured a couple of trails that have been on my to do list for so long - like the Avonmore Way, the Bangor Trail and the Miners Way in Wicklow (more on this soon).

As autumn begins to take a hold of the world around me, I always like to reflect on the year so far. I don’t know if it’s my brain being hardwired after 19 years of education, or if it’s the adult-me reacting to the change of seasons, but I find it useful to take this time and try and decide what’s important for me to finish.

Looking at what was on my list to finish for the year, I knew that the more multi-day trails were going to be too much of a stretch for the winter months and other outdoor training I had upcoming, so I made a revised list of goals.

Some of my goals that I lay out in the Autumn Reset video include:

Trails:
- Nephin Wilderness Loops
- Miners Way in Wicklow
- Bray Coastal Camino
County High Points:
- Slieve Foye, Co. Louth
- Errigal, Co. Donegal
- Slieve Donard, Co. Down

I realised that while I’ve climbed nearly every county high point on the island of Ireland at this point - I’ve only documented about half. So I’d like to put some renewed energy on finishing documenting those in the next 12 months.

Boyne Valley Trails Festival

I walked the Boyne Valley Camino in 2024 - and not only did I enjoy the trail, but I had a wonderful time talking to the committee who were behind its development and continued promotion. Earlier this year, when they asked if I would be part of their Trail Festival, I was only more than delighted.

Ahead of the festival, I got to talk to Dermot Whelan on RTE Radio 1 about walking and the positive impact I believe it has on us all (a small sample of which is on our Instagram).

I really enjoyed my two days down in Drogheda and its surrounds. On the first evening, I gave a talk on my adventures to date, and then the following day I walked with a group on a route known as the “Gap of the North” with a group of lovely people.

Community has become such a big part of Irish outdoors - and two event’s that I’d like to quickly mention and thank are;

Trail Criú hosted their first trail running festival

and I got to attend as a Trails & Roots ambassador, which was incredibly fun - despite me mixing up the times and arriving to the registration desk three minutes before my wave started; and

Mel (founder of Galz Gone Wild) and I gave a talk in Great Outdoors

as part of the Love This Place campaign, focusing on how to plan for multi-day adventures. It was really fun to look at how far we’ve both come since 2017, and get to share ideas with so many passionate, outdoorsy women.

Images from the Trail Criú and Galz Gone Wild instagram

And finally -

I climbed Carrauntoohil with my childhood best friend.

When Edel told me that she had booked in with a guide to climb Ireland’s highest peak, and asked if I wanted to join, I was excited to get to share the place that brings me so much joy, with someone who knew me before the mountains were my home. I booked onto the same group as her, and we enjoyed a perfect day slowly ascending via the Devil’s Ladder, and then back down by the zigzags.

I think this is a good place to rein in the ramblings - on the sunny slopes of the Reeks, sour strawberry jellies in hand, and life as simple as finding a comfortable rock to sit on. Talk to you all soon.