We were back in the Blackstairs once more last weekend and again Sue was my guide because, as she did last year, she had been on another organised walk in recent weeks. So she introduced me to a new part of the range: this time to the actual Blackstairs mountain.

Blackstairs Mountain behind Cahir Roe's Den

Our walk started at the farm of a very elderly farmer, in his eighties we understand, who runs cattle on the mountain - in itself unusual - which he still herds on horseback!

His horse, with sheep coming in off the mountain

The cattle on the mountain

While we talked to him, the old man let his sheep into their houses - and each sheep knew which house it was supposed to enter.

After leaving the farm we walked a 'landlord's road' that links Carlow with Wexford (which he tolled) and once again, but from a slightly different angle, we looked back on on our own territory.

From the left: Brandon Hill and Coppenagh with Saddle Hill in between, which we look out on from their other sides.

The remains of the Toll Booth on the Carlow - Wexford road.

It was perfect walking weather, dry, clear and with a slight breeze. I prefer such a day to the heat and glare that accompanies blazing sunshine.

And so back to the old man's farm with its original gates which, like most vernacular artefacts, are becoming a rarer and rarer sight.

We always considered the Comeraghs to be our 'local' mountains and it was to them that we most frequently went hill walking. But they are the better part of an hours' drive away and it took us more than thirty years to realise that the Blackstairs are barely twenty minutes from our door!