After a successful running of the Denis Rankin Round as a relay race in 2024 to mark the 10th anniversary of the inception of the Denis Rankin Round (and also to raise money for Mourne Mountain Rescue), we had such good feedback, that BARF decided to try to organise the event on an annual or biennial basis. So this 2026 edition was the first “official” running of the event with actual permits and insurance ‘n’ stuff.
As in 2024, teams of 5 runners navigated the 5 legs of the DRR route, passing a “baton”, in the form of a GPS tracker, to the next runner. Rather than a traditional mass start, the teams chose their own start time, based on a target finish time of approximately 7pm on Saturday evening, with the idea being that all teams would converge on the finish line at around the same time. 15 teams took to the start line. Team list can be found at the bottom of the report here
All week, the forecast had been predicting a wet night on Friday, but in the end, the rain held off, for a while, but the wind did not. As we counted down to the first starters, it was feeling pretty wild down in Donard Park, never mind up on top. It was going to be a rough night.
The one and only David Smyth (Nifty Navigators) was the first to head off on leg 1 at 9pm. He was itching to get away so he could get back to his bed before he was due to run the Causeway Coast Half marathon later on Saturday morning.
Over the next several hours, a steady stream of leg 1 runners headed off into the darkness in gradually deteriorating conditions. The Mourne Runners trio heading off at 2am got a “careful now” warning from a PSNI officer who was so concerned for their safety that he almost got out of his car. The rain finally arrived in Donard Park about 3.30am to supplement the gusting wind. Clive Bailey was the only starter who expressed any scepticism regarding the wisdom of heading up into the hills in the middle of a storm… I’ll leave it to the reader to decide what that says about Clive, or about the rest of us.
With a 2 hour window between departures, I got some kip, before fast men Tom Crudgington (Newcastle AC Not So Slow) and Niall McCartan (BARF Poultice Posse) headed off at 6am with the first hints of brightness starting to appear. Tom, fresh from Ben Nevis heroics, was the only man to tackle Donard by the Black Stairs, a bold(?) move given the atrocious conditions.
By the time the Mourne D Team’s Adam Cunningham was spotted doing his warm up(?!) ahead of a leisurely 8am start time, conditions had improved greatly, and some of the leg 1 runners were starting to appear back in Donard Park. Sporting thousand yard stares and telling tales of absolutely brutal conditions, it was most definitely a night of type 2 fun for the leg 1 runners. All except East Down’s James Cuffey, who seemed to have had a grand old time altogether… clearly a proper hardy mountain runner, or a psychopath.
During the night, Ciaran McAleenan had unfortunately been forced to withdraw during leg 1 with illness, but the Mourne Stile Gurus, despite not being able to complete the full round, decided to carry on with subsequent legs, collecting their tracker again at Deers Meadow.
It was a grand day by the time most teams were passing through Deer’s Meadow onto leg 3, though early starters Monday Run Club were far ahead, starting leg 5 about the same time that Mourne D Team were starting leg 3. Apart from a couple of outliers, the pack started to bunch on leg 3 and runners were busy chasing and/or being chased out to Slievemartin and across the Yellow Water. Possibly in an effort to shake off any such pursuers, 5 Go on an Adventure’s leg 4 runner (who had kindly stepped in at the last minute) performed a crafty double-back after Crenville, did an extra couple of zigzags through the forest and approached Slievemeel across possibly the worst bit of ground in the Mournes. A couple of hours worth of type 3 fun was had, I suspect.
By this time a crowd had gathered at Spelga Dam, some in anticipation of seeing the leg 4 runners haring down the side of Slievenamiskan, and some in anticipation of seeing some vintage rally cars snorting their way up the hill past the dam. The vintage car weirdos and the mountain running weirdos eyed each other suspiciously. With very little phone signal to be had, binoculars were deployed to spot the incoming runners. After taking possession of their tracker, the final leg runners crossed the road and took various lines up onto Spaltha, first taking care not to be mown down by any old bald men in old noisy cars.
Aside from Monday Run Club, who were half way home to Carrickfergus at this point, four Mourne Runners teams were first through Spelga Dam, followed by the two Newcastle teams. The Not So Slow Newcastle team had made their way steadily through the pack and were looking like they’d comfortably break the existing 13hr BARF record, as long as Ashley Crutchley could find his way between Spaltha, Slievenamuck and Ott summits and make it to the Mourne wall… Nothing was guaranteed.
Meanwhile the Mourne D Team’s daylight start was looking like a tactical masterstroke. Adam had covered leg 1 in a ridiculous time of 3 hours, then Joshua McAtee, James Millar and Mark Stephens followed suit with strong runs through legs 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Whatever record the Newcastle fast men would set, looked likely to be surpassed by the Mourne men, it was now down to the ever reliable Jonny Scott to bring it home.
The crowd had relocated from Spelga to the arch in Donard Park to welcome the runners back and there was a great buzz around as the finishers came down in a steady trickle. Ashley had navigated his leg well (apart from a minor detour through Donard Forest) and sprinted through the carpark to set a new DRR Relay record of 11hrs 29mins. It wasn’t to last long though, as Jonny Scott arrived at the arch 2hr 12mins after leaving Spelga, giving the Mourne D Team a total time of 10hrs 23mins and setting a record that will be tough to beat!
Jonny was followed closely by several teams. Newcastle Not So Fast, BARF 23:59, Questionable Life Choices, Mourne Stile Gurus, East Down and Physio & Co were all applauded and cheered into the finish. This was surely a rare foray into type 1 fun for mountain runners! A special mention goes to East Down team Niall and the 4 Hostages for Most Accurate Estimation, arriving just 8mins before the target finish time of 7pm, the closest of any team.
As darkness fell and people drifted off home or into O’Hares, the Nifty Navigators and 5 Go On An Adventure made their way steadily across the Commedagh ridge and down into Donard Park. David Smyth had reappeared from the north coast and the Nifty Navigators toasted their finish with alcohol free bubbly under the arch.
Last man home was the irrepressible Steven Morgan for 5 Go On An Adventure. Like a kid before Christmas, I don’t think Steven had even slept on Friday night, so fair play Steven for getting it done!
Congratulations to all the teams! Many thanks to all that got involved and made it such a great day out! I know a lot of work goes into organising teams, logistics and doing recces etc, so the support for the event is much appreciated!
Results and GPS tracks can be found here
| Team Name | Start Time | Cat | Club | Leg 1 | Leg 2 | Leg 3 | Leg 4 | Leg 5 |
| The Nifty Navigators | 21:00 | Mix | – | David Smyth | Joanne McCandless | Irene Lawless | Patricia Hughes | Karol Caulfield |
| Monday Run Club | 23:00 | M | Seapark AC | David Gamble | Richard Hetherington | Paul Daniels | Jonathan Beattie | Chris Brown |
| 5 go out on an adventure | 23:00 | Mix | – | Stephen Bickerstaff | Stephen Bickerstaff | Hazel McLaughlin | Joanne McCauley | Steven Morgan |
| Physio&Co | 01:00 | Mix | Physio&Co | Jonny Hobson | Steven Cassidy | Clive Coffey | Ian Stringer | Sinead-Marie Mcallister |
| BARF Team 23:59 | 01:00 | M | BARF | Aaron Gracey | Paul Nixon | Trevor Wilson | Aaron Gracey | Chris Law |
| Chaffin the dream | 02:00 | M | Mourne Runners | Craig McCauley | Daniel Ogle | Jonathan Irvine | Darren Hanna | William Shields |
| Mourne Stile Gurus | 02:00 | Mix | Mourne Runners | Ciarán McAleenan | Denise Mathers | Ivan Millar | David Bell | Marc Campbell |
| Questionable life choices | 02:00 | F | Mourne Runners | Sarah Hanna | Jenna Stevenson | Caroline Donaldson | Beverley Herron | Samantha Edgar |
| Newcastle AC (Not So Fast) | 03:00 | M | Newcastle AC | Ryan McDonald | Michael Flynn | Martin McMullan | Pearse Brogan | Roger Morgan |
| BARF Relay-tively Fit | 03:00 | Mix | BARF | Tim Wilson | Jamie Watson | Kerry Aston | Glynn Johnston | Declan McGrellis |
| Niall and The 4 Hostages | 03:30 | M | East Down AC | James Cuffey | Dermot Cahill | Gavin Hynds | Stephen Heasley | Niall Gibney |
| Mourne to be Wild | 04:00 | Mix | Mourne Runners | Clive Bailey | Owen Boden | Samantha Bell | Edward Murphy | Dale Mathers |
| Team Rudy | 04:00 | Mix | – | Patrick McDaid | Sinead Farrell | Joshua Muckian | Euan McIntosh | Rebecca Magee |
| Newcastle AC (Not So Slow) | 06:00 | M | Newcastle AC | Tom Crudgington | Ian Stevenson | David Hicks | Gary McEvoy | Ashley Crutchley |
| BARF Paddy’s Poultice Posse | 06:00 | M | BARF | Niall McCartan | Zachary Askham | Jack Proctor | Ronan Davison-Kernan | Cameron Brush |
| Mourne D Team | 08:00 | M | Mourne Runners | Adam Cunningham | Joshua Mcatee | James Millar | Mark Stephens | Jonathan Scott |