Good evening. My wife and I are going to Ireland and we plan on doing some hiking. We will arrive in Dublin on May 31 and leave out June 8 from Dublin. We are not advanced hikers. We enjoy more of a long day walk 4-6 hours at most. Nothing too risky/strenuous.
We plan on renting a car and driving around to various spots.
We have previously been to the Cliffs of Moher, The Dingle Loop area, Galloway, as well as Cashel.
Some hikes we were looking at are: The Spinic (White Loop) in Glendalough, Great Sugar Loaf in Wicklow, Scilly Walk in Kinsale, Old Head of Kinsale Loop, Ballycotton Cliff Walk, Torc Mountain, Gap of Dunloe, Croagh Patrick, Diamond Hill in Connemara, Westport Quay, and Great Western Greenway.
Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
8747 posts
Irelands such a beautiful (and not very flat) place that any hiking will be rewarding. We’ve done lots of hiking over multiple trips, but none of the hikes you mention. There’s so much available, and I know that we’ve just barely scratched the surface.
Three years ago, we visited Kinsale as a daytrip from Macroom, west of Cork. We enjoyed the town walking tour recommended by Rick Steves https://www.historicstrollkinsale.com/ , and if we didn’t already have lodging booked everywhere rlse, Kinsake would’ve been nice, and presumably a good base for some of the hikes you mention.
Closer to Macroom, we discovered the Gougane Barra after spotting a sign along the road. It’s a very special place, with hikes ranging from an easy stroll to serious mountaineering. Having a car will help you getting there. There’s even a lodge at the beginning, but as we were staying in Macroom, we didn’t investigate that lodging.
A lot of what you mention looks to be in the south. If you were to venture north of Galway for the last four on your list, consider going a bit farther northwest, to Achill Island. It’s connected to the mainland by a bridge, and we found lots of good, moderate hiking opportunities. If you go, you’ll practically have the place to yourselves, as it seems to be really off the beaten tourist path.
Posted by
Northern Minnesota
997 posts
We did a tour in 2019 that featured a couple hikes a day. This was a good hike with a lot of stairs, but plenty of places to stop and take a little break.
Our group stopped at Croagh Patrick for less than a hour. We hiked up a short distance, but there was a lot of loose rock. The climb to the top looked intimidating to me.
One of my favorite hikes of our trip was the Cliff Walk in Howth (not scary and quite easy). It's overlooks the Irish Sea.