Writing in ‘The Kist’ in 1994, the historian Lady McGrigor said:

“The old church of Kilneuair (Cill an Iubhair, Chapel of the Yews), once important in the district as the parish church of Glassary, is now quite difficult to find.”

She wasn’t kidding. Twenty-six years later, with forest plantations growing up all around it, it’s even harder to find, and the task isn’t made any easier if you start off on the wrong track and end up following deer paths (that’s what I was assured they were) through stands of conifers so densely planted that you have to push through them backwards in order to protect your eyes.

Added to which, I’d chosen to wear wellies but the thick frost proved extremely slippery on near-vertical slopes. A lot of clambering took place, and some mildly colourful expressions of surprise at the gradient.