An engaging treasure hunt in Killarney!
AS far as proposals go, Colm Gallagher may have just raised the bar for men all around the country after he used an elaborate treasure hunt on Cardiac Hill to propose to his now fiancée, Mary Mullins.
On Friday, March 8, which unbeknownst to Colm happened to be International Women’s Day, he asked girlfriend Mary to hike with him up Cardiac Hill under the guise of helping him film a college project.
The entire proposal is captured on a video filmed by Colm and Mary’s GoPro camera. Their journey up the hill started with the couple finding a note telling them that they are about to start a treasure hunt.
As they climb the steps, the pair found yellow letters that were placed on wooden poles along the route, which they collected.
Up and up they went, finding more and more seemingly random letters and clues to help them with their hunt.
When they reached the top of the hill, they were told that they must use the letters they have collected to ‘ Crack The Code’, with clues such as X = Y and N = M and so on.
Laying all the letters on the ground, Mary quickly set about figuring out the puzzle and quickly worked out what the code was.
“Will You Marry Me?” she laughed as cracked the last code, before she then turned to look at Colm, who had taken to one knee. He dropped his bemused act and popped the big question – with Mary, thankfully, saying ‘yes’.
“I was kind of thinking that she would suspect something, but I think, because I had filmed her for a different project a few weeks before that, she thought this was normal and ‘oh he’s just doing another project,” Colm joked, speaking to
on Tuesday.
As to how he got the letters placed on the trail up, well, he did it all that day!
“I just kept going up ahead of her, placing the letters, and she would find them when she caught up to me. She just thought that I was going ahead to film things.
“I hadn’t been up Cardiac Hill for about a year and a half, so I went up with a buddy a few weeks beforehand to make sure I was ready for it,” he joked.
Speaking about the moment that she made the big discovery and cracked the code, Colm laughed as he said that she figured it out a lot quicker than he thought she would.
It was only hours later that the reality of the proposal hit home for Mary, Colm said.
“She had a couple of missed calls from friends, and she was still telling people that we were filming a treasure hunt college project video. I eventually had to tell her that the proposal wasn’t just a part of the project, and that’s when it all hit home for her,” he said.
“We all need a bit more happiness in the world,” he added.
The video, which is about 13 minutes in length, is now available to watch over on ‘ The Kerryman’ Facebook page.
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