Never ones to curb their lust for life, my cousin Vicky Clancy and her Irish husband, Dermot, left me in no doubt about the charms of the Glens of Aherlow Walking Festival. “You’ve got to come,” Vicky declared, unequivocally. “You’re going to absolutely and totally love it!’

The festival, held yearly over the May-June Bank Holiday weekend, is a great occasion. Thousands turn up for three days of walking, from half-day saunterers to hard mountain hurdlers. They go out with gusto into the Galtee Mountains, a magnificent but pocket-sized hill range that straddles the Limerick-Tipperary border a few miles northeast of Cork city.

They walk all day, talking even harder than they walk, spouting verse and worse, making the hidden hollows ring with shouting and laughter. And that’s all just a preparation for the evening’s craic in Moroney’s of Lisvernane or the bar of Aherlow House Hotel.

Assembling with Vicky, Dermot, his irrepressible cousin, Ferghal, and their many friends under a peerless blue sky in the lane below the splendid peaks of Galtybeg and Slievecushnabinnia, I found I’d somehow joined myself to the “A” group, heroes of the hill, who meant to storm the heights of the Galtees and look down in turn on the Five Lakes.

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We set off, 50 strong, at a clinking pace, and were scrambling up the steep rock slide above Lough Curra before my breathing had caught up with the rest of me. On the roof of Galtymore, lord of the Galtees at 3,015ft, I leant my sweaty back against the big iron summit cross and stared out over many green and lumpy miles of Ireland.

“Did you know,” Jimmy Barry, the walk leader, said to no one in particular, “that copper wire was invented in Caragh by two men fighting over a penny.” That was the start of a shaggy dog story that carried us on above the loughs of Diheen and Borheen, breathless with laughter.

We teetered along the tight path around Greenane, and came down by the pond-like Lough Farbreaga and the beautiful harp-shaped Lough Muskry, with Dermot and Ferghal bounding ahead neck and neck like a couple of Fionn Mac Cumhaill’s merry men.

Spattered with turf splodges and bog water, we stayed a moment to contemplate the still, steely lakes in their bowl of hills. Then it was on along a moorland path, heading for the waiting buses that would waft us down to the sign-off in Lisvernane. And then? A pint of Guinness in Moroney’s with newfound friends, a plate of hot potatoes and a bloody good sing.

Start & finish Near Clydagh Bridge, Lisvernane (OSI ref R 873280).

Getting there From Moroney’s pub, Lisvernane: Bus — festival minibus.

Road R663 towards Tipperary; first right to T-junction; left for half a mile.

Walk (about 10 miles/16 km; about 3,500ft/1,000m of climb; hard grade; OSI Discovery 74): From road (873280), steeply uphill to right (west) shore of Lough Curra (866242); climb very steeply to saddle of Slievecushnabinnia (864239); east along ridge for 3½ miles via summits of Galtymore (3,015ft/919m; OSI ref 879238) and Galtybeg (2,621ft/799m; 890241), along north face of range above Loughs Diheen and Borheen, descending to west shore of Lough Muskry (915245) and track towards Rossadrehid.

For online map and more walks go to www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch Take a picnic.

Accommodation Aherlow House Hotel, Glens of Aherlow, Co Tipperary (00 353 6256153; www.aherlowhouse.ie); four-star lodge (stylish, comfortable, superb mountain views; sleeps six) over the festival weekend, about £550 for four nights.

More information www.discoverireland.com ; Glens of Aherlow Festival (May 29-June 1, 2009; www.aherlow.com).