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Ireland Hiking

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After completing our hike in the Pyrenees, we return to the south-west of Ireland where we originally bicycle toured in 2019. We plan to link the following walking trails to make a long-distance hike (August/ September 2026): The Kerry Way, The Beara Way, The Sheep's Head Way, and the Trawlebane Walk. The total distance is expected to be about 450 km with the route walked shown on the map below. Places we stay/camp will be indicated by a marker (dot).

A great resource for these hikes is Ellie and Carl's website, where they have recorded their walks along every (42) Irish National Waymarked Trail, a distance of approximately 4,000 km: Tough Soles.




It is quite a change being in Ireland. It's cool and cloudy and we have Barry's tea, which is Mike's favourite. We watched the final stage of Le Tour in our hotel when we arrived. The commentary was in Gaelic, which was a fun aspect! Interestingly, as we waited on the runway for our flight from Barcelona to Cork to take off, we saw a plain bedecked in Tour de France livery which was going to take off after us. We caught the 09:00 train from Cork to Killarney, which is the start of the Kerry Way. There was something of an historic result in the Irish/Gaelic football grand final yesterday, in that Country Mayo, in beating County Kerry won the title for the first time in 54 years. Rumour had it that a priest placed a curse on the Mayo team in 1971. The final member of that team passed away 3 years ago. It seems the curse has been lifted. The train was packed with people who had gone to Dublin to watch the final. As the start of the Kerry Way road tour route, Killarney is a tourist trap but a typically pretty Irish town. We wanted to pick up some breakfast and the local Centra supermarket met that need perfectly with freshly cooked bacon, sausage, fried eggs, black pudding and potato wedges. We sat and ate at a bench outside the shop. In the street in front of us was a wall of empty beer kegs for collection, must have been a busy night with football final! Delicious!

It was easy walking along a footpath to Killarney National Park. There are many horse drawn jaunts which people take from the town and train station to the park and they also use the wide shared path for cyclists and walkers. The National Park was busy with walkers and cyclists. We had a long snooze on the lawn in front of Muckcross House. The walking just continued through forest and glade, mostly on a wide path. As we cleared the park we came across a path to a large swimming hole at the base of a waterfall. The boardwalk along the path had very recently been replaced so the area was pristine, flat grass and a lovely campspot. Gentle rain showers had been coming through all day and we decided to camp at this perfect spot! We met a couple today from Quebec, also walking the Kerry Way, Nicholas and Annie. Other people in the trail are so friendly and smiling.


The weather was better than yesterday, there were sunny spells and the constant light wind shunted the clouds across the sky overhead. We had a bit of a climb through an oak forest and met a family; Mum, Dad and two kids who were having breakfast by the trail, their tent still up from the night before. We reached the turn off to Kenmare and were back in the forest until Black Valley and the Baron's Cottage where we had something to eat. You can catch a boat here from Muckcross House and judging by the number of tables and a sign saying, "Queue Here", many people do just that!

After this there was some road walking near farmland. We saw a few other hikers. Right near the end of our day we rested for a couple of hours at a river with a good swimming hole. Two other hikers chatted to us, they had sat next to us on the train to Killarney. They were walking for three days and were going to climb Carrauntoohil, at 1038 m it is the highest mountain in Ireland which overlooked us. We picked up extra water to carry up our trail a little further and camped on top of the hill. The ticks are out in force but it is a beautiful spot to camp, with lovely views of the surrounding hills. There are many sheep ambling about.


It started raining lightly overnight and we were up in the clouds when we woke up. We decided to wait out the rain and slept in an extra hour. We had breakfast in the tent and it was clear when we got up to leave. We had a long descent into the next valley and then a climb out which was quite steep but the track was good. At the top there was a path to our right which those two blokes we met yesterday would have taken to climb to the top of the mountain. We hoped they had got up it yesterday, although it seemed unlikely, as today it was in the clouds.

Our path now went down into the next valley. The valleys and hillsides are all green and fertile. It's amazing how much there is for the sheep to eat. There is no shortage of water for us and we easily filter from available streams. We hit a wider track and ended up in a ruined village. There we met a man who lives in Killarney but had spent his younger years here. He was with a younger couple. He was hilarious and just had that Irish charm It turned out he had always wanted to visit Australia and in his 20's he could have done so for 10 pounds but he had a trade and was working in Ireland. So, when he retired he used a chunk of his pension to buy an air ticket to Australia where he travelled for 5 weeks and had the best time. "No regrets!" he said. Shortly after this we met another man walking his dog who wanted to know all about Australia and the price of things there. We couldn't really remember. He was a farmer so sheep and cattle farming in Australia really interested him. Not our strong suit but we could chat about it. He was just amazed by the size of the farming properties. He had a particularly strong accent and was difficult to understand. It is very calming, being here. It feels remote even though we are pretty close to towns

We came across a pine forest as the rain started again. We walked along the fence a bit to pick up water from the stream and then came back to the forest. There was easy camping on the pine needle floor. It was nice having a short day as it was pretty slow going in parts. Tomorrow we will need to put foot as we have to get to Glenbeigh, our next resupply point.


We were happy with our decision to camp in the pine forest as it was a very peaceful night's sleep and it rained quite a bit. The forest kept the tent dry and we woke to a perfect day! It was a lovely walk down to Glencar, 4 km away. We had actually been there when travelling here by bike in 2019. Glencar is only a pub, post office and hostel, all under the same roof. We had arrived there freezing after a speedy descent 7 years ago and had eaten toasted cheese sandwiches. We were looking forward to something similar, but it looked pretty closed up this time. It was only 08:30, but the hostel was open and we actually saw the family with two kids that we had passed on day 2 camping in the area behind the hostel. I poked my head into the dining area and asked the manager if there was any chance of something to eat as we were passing. He did not look overly pleased to see me but offered continental breakfast for 20 EU each (compare this price to the regular all you can full breakfast at Premier Inn for 15 EU). Bit steep! I said no thanks and we carried on. We crossed the river and came apon a bench so we stopped and had a second helping of oats for breakfast. The day passed quickly and we made good time. A lot of the walking was on roads or wide tracks. We climbed up through Windy Gap and dropped down into Glenbeigh and our first views of the sea. The skies were clear and there was a breeze, it seemed like the type of summer's day that people remember in Ireland.

In Glenbeigh we bought hot lunch and then a HUGE and delicious soft serve. We resupplied for the 3 days to Waterville. The supermarket is small but very good and had everything we needed. We followed the brand new Greenway Cycle Route out of town. It was only opened 3 weeks ago! Very popular. It was a great way to walk out of town on a road surface and have views to admire. The range of hills we had walked through from Killarney were all clear to see. We left the Greenway for a hill climb and were out of water. Mike had 2 streams in mind for water and when we got to the first one, there was a bench in the shade, but the stream was dry. We were faced with the situation of having to keep walking uphill, where you would expect there to be less water. Mike went to have a look down a nearby path towards some trees and found a good stream so we could easily camp near the bench in open land and have access to the water. The best thing about today was the weather, the maximum temperature was only 17 degrees and the skies were clear. We have great sea views from our tent


It was a spectacular walk around Drunghill from our campspot, the trail wound up and around the hill and we had views of the coast with such clear water that you could see the rocks beneath. The trail was high above the Ring of Kerry Road. We entered a pine forest plantation and stopped to rest. The views from that point were of a different stretch of coast and again we were high up. We had crossed a couple of streams and it was such a beautiful area that we took a walk up a gravel forestry road and decided to camp as it was a dead end. We had walked less than 4 km, but we are not under much time pressure and want the campsites to drive the walk so we spent the day there and had a very quiet night.

First day of August we had a quick 9 km walk to Finemore through very nice landscape on wide tracks. We made our way to the community centre and Gaelic football pitch as we want to charge our batteries when we can. It is sometimes easier to do this outside towns. There was no one there except for a woman running drills on the field and practicing goal kicking. We sat in the spectator stand and ate, wondering if there would be a plug anywhere. Mike had a look around and next to the changeroom was a half built room with a working socket! So we spent a couple of hours relaxing while the batteries charged! Then we charged our phones too. So we should be good for power for over a week. We set off at 13:30 to climb the ridgeline of hills until we dropped down into the valley in which Waterville lay. The views from the ridge were beautiful and in all directions but the walking was tough with very steep climbs. Stiles were over represented too, often you would need to climb three stiles in quick succession. Luckily it was still a good weather day with no rain. The going down went much quicker and we were soon down on the road to Waterville, the same road we had cycled in 2019 but of course didn't remember it! We now had two priorities; finding water and a campsite. We were going to aim for a pine forest to camp and crossed a river on the way. The river was lovely but difficult to get to. Mike managed to get down to a small stream and filter water and then we walked up into a pine forest where we found another dead end gravel track which was a perfect spot to camp. The best thing about these gravelly campspots in pine forest is that there are no ticks as no animals go in there. Mike has been spraying his legs with DEET and hasn't had ticks in two days which is a win. It was a late finish today at 19:30.



It rained all night and we woke with our alarms at 06:30 to rain. We just turned over and went back to sleep with vague ideas about getting on the trail later in the day when the rain was due to stop. We slept soundly until 08:30, yesterday had clearly taken it's toll with the range walking ups and downs and all those stiles! By lunchtime it was clear we weren't going anywhere as the weather was pretty bad and it seemed a waste just to rush the day's walk in bad weather. We had such a perfect campspot in the forest so we took a rest day.

The decision paid dividends in that we woke to nice, just overcast weather and had a dry walk along the ridge and down to Waterville, getting there around 11:00. We walked through a few cow pastures on the way but they were friendly. We chatted to a sheep farmer and, presumably, his wife later on. Into Waterville we headed to Fogarty's Centra, where we got Irish breakfast buns with egg, sausages, bacon and black pudding and sat in the indoor seating, complete with wall sockets so we could easily charge our battery and phones again. It was a busy store and we stocked up with a few things for the next couple of days. I had another delicious soft serve! We left after 2 and a half hours and walked along the waterfront, remembering it a little from cycling through it in our last trip. Charlie Chaplin was the thing we remembered the most as there is a statue of him on the promenade. Apparently he was a regular visitor, long ago. There is a beautiful sculpture which resembles a huge sundial and also the prow of a ship or beak of a bird and it symbolises the legend which has it that the Milesians set out from Galicia in Northern Spain with 30 boats after Ith spotted Ireland in the horizon from a tower. This was supposed to have occurred during the Bronze Age and the boats are said to have landed in Ballinskellig Bay, bringing the Gaelic language to Ireland. The views along the coastline were beautiful here. The air is very clear.

We headed off uphill, passing Hogs Head Golf Club which looks pretty fancy. Lots of USA flags about. The rain began and pretty soon we were putting on rain gear as it grew heavy. The trail passes near to the Loher Stone Fort which was 400 m away through very overgrown vegetation which was a pity as it seems an interesting spot. It's best accessed from the small road on the other side of the fort. At that point right on the trail is an unconsecrated burial ground for unfortunate babies who died before they could be baptised. This was used a few hundred years ago I think. It was marked by a cross but was a sad place. Poor babies, how could anyone think heaven was not available to them?

We ambled along in the heavy rain and filtered water at a stream. We walked up to the Ring of Kerry Road and crossed over back into grassland where we had camped before on bicycles. It has been a fun experience, seeing the places we had been before when we had no inkling we would be hiking here one day. We hiked up to the top of the hill, hoping for a place to camp on the other side of the stile with views of small islands off the coast. The weather was fairly atrocious actually, very heavy rain which eventually stopped only to turn into cloud. The whole area is natural grass, heather and small gorse bushes low to the ground which are very spiky so we have put everything we have under our mattresses and hope for the best. Everything we have equals our rain gear, walking clothes (can't wait to put those on tomorrow!) and wet pack covers. It is raining hard.


We were relieved to wake up this morning to find our mattresses still full of air, so no punctures during the night! As we walked down to cross the Ring of Kerry Road to Caherdaniel, the scenery below of islands in a smooth grey ocean revealed itself, then became obscured by cloud and mist, then revealed itself again. It was beautiful. We walked above the harbour at Caherdaniel, then though the Derrynane National Historic Park with it's green woodlands. Leaving the park we were back in farmland. The rain came and went and so did the sheep, cows and a large, lone bull up on a ridge which there was a warning sign about. We crossed many stiles. We had a lovely river swim between rain showers and there was a bench at the river to sit at. Other than this we only passed two other benches all day, which is far fewer than usual on the Kerry Way. We should say that the benches and most of the stiles are made out of moulded recycled plastic and are very good quality. The walking was lovely, mainly on an old path called the Butter Road which was the way butter was transported to the Cork Butter Market in days of old. We found a place to camp on top of a climb in a pine forest, it's a great campspot out in the open on gravel by a bend in the road. We will have a better sleep tonight than last night! We will reach the village of Sneem tomorrow.


It was easy walking all day, into and out of Sneem. We sat at the park in the village and had beef pie and egg and sausage bun for brunch from the bakery. Sneem is a very pretty village with a river running through it and the first stop when driving or riding the Ring of Kerry from Kenmare west. This makes it very popular with tourists. We stopped here on our bikes in 2019 and I remember it being very busy. It has a few souvenir type shops and an amazing shop of Irish music, all on CD. I haven't seen so many CD's in a shop in decades. If Irish music is your thing, then this place would be your temple. The local supermarket met our resupply needs and the pharmacy was on the way out of town on our route which was convenient. The pharmacist turned the mundane task of purchasing anti-histamine into a comedy sketch, from asking, "How many will ye be needing? A pack of 10 or a pack of 30?" to saying, "Be sure to take with a glass of water, I am sure you are well set up for that! Will ye be needing to taken one now?" Then telling me he had a good joke about which was the best direction to walk from Sneem, but it isn't for everyone's ears. I laughed at that and then he couldn't help himself but followed me out the shop to tell us this joke. It was something like " go east for a....not quite sure the word he used but it wasn't polite....or west for a wife". So it seems Sneem people don't think much of those from Kenmare! The Irish, it is too much fun in their company.

We saw a few hikers set off from Sneem, three were ahead of us on the trail and they were from China. One of the group works for Fjallraven in China so was happy to see our gear, of which a lot is Fjallraven. He was pretty kitted out in Fjallraven, including backpack and waist belt. After Sneem there wasn't much water about but there was a stream at the forest we had decided to camp in. It is a woodland forest, probably native woodland and very peaceful. There was no rain today which was almost a first! We only have two more days on the Kerry Way before we reach Kenmare and start the Beara Way. We have really enjoyed this trail so far and have found Ireland to be quite diverse over a short distance. There has been farmland, forest, high mountains and the sea. It is very beautiful and relaxing and wild camping had been far easier than we expected.


Another cruisey day with mostly good weather and a lovely walk through a coastal pine forest. There was a fair amount of road walking today. We camped 6 km short of Kenmare in a forestry area, by a fenced mobile phone tower. Reminded us of the towers we camped at in Botswana, although here we are on the outside! It's a good gravel area which is our preference. The evening turned very sunny. We will reach Kenmare tomorrow morning and try to do laundry and charge batteries before resupply and starting the Beara Way. We have had some technical issues, no surprise into month 5 of the trip. Mike has noticed that our MSR Guardian water filter has become a bit tight when pumping. We sent it in for a full service and filter replacement before leaving, so hope it's nothing major as we can't do without it but also don't want to pay the replacement cost so close to the end of the trip. Also, the sole of one of Mike's hiking boots, which have done only 900 km (they were new at the start of the hike in Spain) has started to unglue from the boot. This happened in France and he bought shoe glue to reattach it, but has had to do this three times as it keeps failing. He has now lodged a warranty claim with the seller so we will wait and see. Otherwise our packs (Lundhags), tent (Hilleberg) and mattresses (Sea to Summit) are all going well.


We had a quick 6 km walk into Kenmare. Well, actually the last bit was pretty overgrown with gorse bushes so took a bit longer than usual. We cycled through Kenmare on the last trip to Ireland and remember it feeling like a place full of its own importance. It has a stone circle that you have to pay to see. We were quite shocked by that as Scotland has many, many such archeological treasures which you are free to visit at no charge. You have to wonder how much upkeep a stone circle requires, other than a few sheep to keep the grass short. Probably the issue is more that the town has become a victim of its own success, situated at the start or end of the Ring of Kerry so the tourists are just drawn to it automatically. It's a pretty Irish town and has shops selling knitwear and tweed etc. We had planned our assault on the town carefully. As it is busy, has three major supermarkets and we had a list of things to do, we chose the simplest option. We went to the Centra store which had: hot breakfast foods, hot shower for 2 EU for 2 min, laundry outside, indoor seating and plugs. We got there at 09:00, bought coffees, sat down, plugged things in to charge, Mike showered then I showered. We bought hot breakfast. Then we got the washing into the machine, ate and drank some more and put our stuff in the drier. Then we stocked up for a couple of days and then schlepped everything to the outdoor tables, packed up, got changed and were on our way by 12:00. It was so convenient being able to do all those things in one place! If we had had a dog, we could have put it in the dog washing machine next to the laundry.

We stopped off to buy another camping gas canister on the way out and popped into Weavers of Ireland but I wasn't really sure I wanted to buy anything, so Mike was happy with that and we left! The place was packed with tourists. Walking out of the town we sat a while at the beach with a beautiful view of the harbour. It was a perfect summers day! The Beara Way took us through pretty coastal woodland before we had a few kilometres of road walking. Irish roadsides seem full of blackberry brambles and they have mostly ripened so you can walk along and eat ripe blackberries as you do! We then turned off into farmland with a rough trail and very high grass which was a bit of a chore to hike uphill through. Water was pretty scarce and we wanted to camp before the trail went over the top of a range of hills. Luckily we came across two streams and were able to pick up water for the night. We ended up camping quite close to the second stream, where the path suddenly hit a flatter area with shorter grass which we could pitch the tent on. We have beautiful valley views. Good news on the equipment front is that Mike is getting refunded for his boots and the glue is holding!


Perfect summers day in Ireland! We climbed a few hills and saw many sheep. We had beautiful views of the coastline of Beara and Kerry. It is really good walking here as the uphills are never too high and there are many rewards. We had an early swim in Lough Inchiquin, there was a boatshed and easy access to the water on the concrete ramp. It was a lovely swim, followed by coffee and biscuits. We noted that fishing was only allowed by members of the Kenmare Angling Club. These things just seem so silly. Anyway, catch and release only for the trout. We did not catch any! The valley the Lough is in has a string of small lakes, fed by the highest waterfall in Ireland at it's head. Shortly after the lough was Uragh Stone Circle which had quite a few visitors so must draw the tourists. We went to have a look and it was very small but it's position seemed important.

Resting halfway up the next steep climb, a large group of day hikers were coming down, led by a guide explaining things about the area. Our walk today was diverse, some wild moorland, some road walking, some forest, some farmland. We enjoyed it. We decided to camp in a pine forest at Cashelkeelty Stone Circle. Mike filtered water at the river and went to have a look at the forest the river flowed through. He thought it looked alright and so we made our way down there and found a perfect spot for the tent amongst the pine trees. A path runs through the forest from a carpark and people walk that way to Cashelkeelty, but it is very quiet here. We think we will take a rest day here tomorrow. We had another great dip in a deep swimming hole in the river.