The Royal Canal Way: Walking Dublin to Longford Along the Water
Stand on Broom Bridge in the north Dublin suburbs on a weekday morning and the Royal Canal does not look like the start of anything. Commuter trains rattle past on one side, the water sits brown and still, and a plaque on the parapet records that a mathematician once scratched an equation into the stone here. Walk west for six days, though, and that same water will carry you out of the city, over two rivers on stone aqueducts, across the flat green middle of Ireland and down, at last, to the Shannon. It is the quietest way there is to cross the country, and since 2021 most of it has a firm path underfoot.
The Royal Canal Way follows the towpath of the Royal Canal for 146 km from Dublin to Cloondara in County Longford. It is the northern twin of the Grand Canal Way, which we walked last week, and in most of the ways that matter to a walker it is the better of the two: better surfaced, better served by trains, and better at ending. This guide covers what the route is, how it breaks into days, where the rough bits are, and how it connects to the trails we know rather better.
What the Royal Canal Way actually is
The Royal Canal Way is a 146 km linear National Waymarked Way from the First Lock near Dublin's docklands to Richmond Harbour at Cloondara, where the canal meets the River Camlin and, a little further on, the Shannon. Sport Ireland grades it Easy, suggests six days, and puts just 9 km of the route, about 12%, on local roads. It is managed by Waterways Ireland, waymarked with the usual yellow arrow on a black background, and dogs are welcome on a lead.
Two names, one towpath. The Royal Canal Greenway is the 130 km surfaced section of the same path from Maynooth to Cloondara, plus a branch into Longford town, which opened in March 2021 as the longest greenway in Ireland. If you search for the trail you will find far more about the greenway than about the Way; they are the same walk from Maynooth westwards. The Way simply adds the 26 km or so from the city out to Maynooth at the start.
One warning about the numbers. Sport Ireland's headline figures say 146 km and Cloondara, but the description on the same page still talks about a 105 km route from Ashtown to Abbeyshrule, which is how far the waymarked trail went before the western end was finished. Trust the headline, the fifteen section maps and the greenway signage; the paragraph is out of date.
Twenty-seven years, one bankruptcy and a duke
The canal was begun in May 1790 by a disgruntled former director of the Grand Canal Company, which tells you most of what you need to know about its early years. The company was bankrupt by 1794. The Duke of Leinster, who sat on the board, insisted the canal call at his own town of Maynooth, and the detour that satisfied him forced the engineers to blast a cutting through rock between Castleknock and Clonsilla — the Deep Sinking — and to carry the water high over the River Rye at Leixlip on an aqueduct that took six years to build. The canal reached Kilcock in 1796, Mullingar in 1806 and the Shannon in 1817, twenty-seven years after the first sod. The railway company bought it in 1845, considered draining it and laying track along the bed, and settled instead for building the line alongside, which is why a train will keep you company for the first half of the walk.
The canal has darker history too. In 1847, 1,490 starving tenants evicted from the Strokestown estate in Roscommon walked its towpaths to Dublin to board ships for Canada; the National Famine Way follows their route today and shares the towpath with the greenway for most of its length. Commercial traffic ended in 1951, the navigation closed in 1961, and it was volunteers of the Royal Canal Amenity Group who began digging it out again in 1974. The whole canal reopened to boats in 2010, the greenway followed in 2021, and in 2023 it took first place at the European Greenways Awards. Not bad for a waterway that was nearly a railway line.
The route, west from Dublin
Six days is the standard suggestion. Below is the split we would choose, with distances that are approximate; the trail is measured differently by almost every source, so plan from the section maps.
Spencer Dock to Maynooth, about 26 km
The Way officially begins at the First Lock, but if you want to say you walked from the sea to the Shannon, start at Spencer Dock where the canal meets the Liffey. The first hour is city: the sea lock, Croke Park looming over the water, and Broom Bridge, where Sir William Rowan Hamilton, out walking with his wife in October 1843, hit on the formula for quaternions and carved it into the stone. Mathematicians still walk here every year to mark it. Beyond Ashtown the suburbs thin, and then comes the Deep Sinking: a narrow, high, rocky towpath through the cutting between Castleknock and Clonsilla, with a long drop to the water on one side. It is the one genuinely rough stretch on the whole trail, it is slow after rain, and it is where the passenger boat Longford capsized in 1845 with the loss of fifteen lives. Take your time. Then the Ryewater Aqueduct at Leixlip, the haunted 13th Lock at Deey Bridge, which the old boatmen refused to moor beside overnight, and the odd triangular harbour at Maynooth, where the greenway proper begins and the surface turns firm.
Maynooth to Enfield, about 20 km
A short, easy day, and a good one for legs still finding their rhythm. Kilcock has a pretty harbour and a railway station, and then the canal slips into County Meath through some of the quietest farmland on the route. Enfield, An Bóthar Buí, the yellow road, named for the hay left behind by its cattle fairs, has beds, food and trains. If you would rather one long day, Maynooth to Mullingar is roughly 60 km and some cyclists do it before lunch; walkers should not.
Enfield to Mullingar, about 40 km
The longest day, and the emptiest. West of Enfield the canal crosses the River Boyne at Longwood on a three-arched aqueduct finished in 1804, passes the Hill of Down and enters Westmeath near D'Arcy's Bridge. Around Thomastown the canal reaches its summit level, the long lock-free stretch that runs through Mullingar and is fed by water from Lough Owel; from here the going is level in every sense. There is no railway station between Enfield and Mullingar, so if 40 km is more than you want, plan a night in the Killucan area and book it ahead. Mullingar, at the halfway point, is the biggest town on the route, with a harbour, a railway station, plenty of beds and, at the Old Rail Trail junction, the option of a surfaced path all the way to Athlone.
Mullingar to Abbeyshrule, about 25 km
West of Mullingar the canal turns properly rural. Coolnahay Harbour, with its lock-keeper's cottage and the first lock for many kilometres, is where the descent to the Shannon begins. Ballynacarrigy has a harbour and, usually, somewhere for coffee, and then, just before Abbeyshrule, the canal is carried over the River Inny on the Whitworth Aqueduct, built between 1814 and 1817 by John Killaly, the engineer of this whole western section. Abbeyshrule itself is a village of a few streets with the ruins of a twelfth-century Cistercian abbey beside the water. Reviewers on the Sport Ireland trail page say this stretch is where the crowds vanish and the herons take over. We agree.
Abbeyshrule to Keenagh, about 20 km
Into County Longford. The canal runs west to Ballymahon, Oliver Goldsmith's country, then swings sharply north and heads for the Shannon across bog and pasture. Just off the towpath at Keenagh is the Corlea Trackway, an Iron Age oak road laid across the bog in 148 BC and the largest of its kind found in Europe; an 18 m section is preserved in the visitor centre. Give it an hour. It is the oldest thing you will walk beside on any Irish trail.
Keenagh to Cloondara, about 16 km
The last day is short, and the finish is one of the best in the country. Past Killashee, at Cloonsheerin Bridge, the 8 km Longford branch peels off to the right; it leads to Longford town and its railway station, and it is how most walkers get home. The main line carries on to Richmond Harbour at Cloondara, a Georgian canal harbour with the 46th and final lock, where the River Camlin slides past on its way to the Shannon at Termonbarry. Stand on the harbour wall and you have walked across Ireland on flat ground. There are worse ways to spend six days.
Greenway or towpath? An honest condition report
This is where the Royal Canal Way and the Grand Canal Way part company. On the Grand, most of the towpath in Kildare is still grass. On the Royal, everything from Maynooth to Cloondara, and the branch to Longford, has been surfaced with tarmac or fine gravel since 2021. Ninety bridges, thirty-three locks, seventeen harbours, four aqueducts, and nowhere to get your feet wet unless you choose to. The 9 km of road walking is on quiet lanes, mostly at bridges where the path changes banks.
That last point catches people out. The path switches from one side of the canal to the other at many bridges, and walkers on the Sport Ireland page say the switch is not always signposted clearly. If the surface under your feet suddenly turns to grass, look back at the last bridge.
The other cost of a good surface is company. The greenway is shared with cyclists, and on a fine weekend near Maynooth or Mullingar there will be a lot of them. West of Ballynacarrigy it goes very quiet again. The one section we would call rough is east of Maynooth: the Deep Sinking and the stretch from Confey to Clonsilla are narrow, uneven and muddy, and some walkers skip them by starting at Leixlip or Maynooth. There is no shame in that; the greenway's own official start is Maynooth.
Practicalities
Maps are OSI Discovery sheets 40, 41, 48, 49 and 50, or the Waterways Ireland guide to the Royal Canal. Sport Ireland's fifteen downloadable section maps cover the route from the Liffey to Cloondara and are free.
Trains are the Royal Canal Way's great advantage. The Dublin to Sligo railway runs beside the canal for the whole first half, with stations at Maynooth, Kilcock, Enfield and Mullingar, and it is there again at Longford at the end. You can walk the trail in weekend pieces from Dublin without ever needing a car, and if the weather turns, a station is rarely more than a day away. The one gap is between Enfield and Mullingar. Buses serve Ballymahon and Longford at the far end, and Cloondara is a few minutes by taxi from Longford.
Food follows the same pattern as the Grand Canal: fine in the towns, thin in between. Reviewers keep saying the same thing, that there are not many places to stop on the main line west of Mullingar. Carry lunch and fill your bottles at every harbour.
Best time is April to October. The surfaced path means the Royal is a genuine option in a wet spring, when the grassy Grand Canal towpath is not, and the bog sections in Longford are beautiful in autumn light. There is little shade anywhere. Dogs are welcome on a lead.
Where the Royal Canal Way fits
If you have read our guide to the Grand Canal Way, you will have noticed that the two canals never run more than 30 km apart and both Ways end on the Shannon within an hour of each other. Walked one after the other they make a strange, flat, meditative loop across the country, and a few people do exactly that. If you are choosing one, the Royal has the surface, the trains and the better finish; the Grand has the bog, the wilder towpath and the Barrow Line.
That last one matters, because the Barrow Line is the beginning of the Barrow Way, and the Barrow Way is the trail we would send you to if what you love about canal walking is the water, the locks and the flatness, but you would like a river, some woods and someone to move your bags. Our self-guided Barrow Way walking holiday follows the canal from Athy to the River Barrow and down through Carlow and Graiguenamanagh to the tide at St Mullins, with handpicked B&Bs and luggage transfers each day. Or simply ask us which of the three would suit you. We are happy to talk about trails we do not sell.
Starting from Dublin and would rather have hills? The Wicklow Way leaves the south of the city while the Royal Canal leaves the north. And for the whole picture, our guide to Ireland's National Waymarked Ways covers all of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the Royal Canal Way?
The Royal Canal Way is 146 km, from the First Lock in Dublin to Cloondara in County Longford. The surfaced Royal Canal Greenway covers 130 km of it, from Maynooth to Cloondara including the 8 km branch to Longford town. Sport Ireland's description text still quotes an older 105 km figure to Abbeyshrule; the headline distance is the current one.
How many days does the Royal Canal Way take?
Six days is the standard figure, at 20 to 26 km a day, with Mullingar roughly at the halfway point. Because the railway runs beside the canal, many people walk it as a series of day or weekend sections from Dublin instead.
Is the Royal Canal Way difficult?
No. It is graded Easy and is essentially flat from end to end. The challenges are distance, the rough and narrow towpath through the Deep Sinking east of Maynooth, wind on the open stretches, and a shortage of places to buy food west of Mullingar.
Where does the Royal Canal Way start and finish?
It starts at the First Lock near Dublin's docklands, a short walk from Spencer Dock on the Liffey, and finishes at Richmond Harbour in Cloondara, County Longford, where the canal meets the River Camlin on its way to the Shannon. Most people walk it east to west.
Is the Royal Canal Way the same as the Royal Canal Greenway?
From Maynooth westwards, yes: the greenway is the surfaced towpath the Way follows. The Royal Canal Way also includes the roughly 26 km from Dublin city to Maynooth, which is not part of the greenway and is rougher underfoot in places.
Can you reach the Royal Canal Way by train?
Yes, better than any other long-distance trail in Ireland. The Dublin to Sligo line has stations beside the canal at Maynooth, Kilcock, Enfield and Mullingar, and at Longford near the finish. There is no station between Enfield and Mullingar.
Can you bring a dog on the Royal Canal Way?
Yes. Dogs are allowed on the Royal Canal Way and the Royal Canal Greenway on a lead.
Does Walking Holiday Ireland offer the Royal Canal Way?
We do not. For the same flat, water-side walking with handpicked B&Bs and luggage transfers, we offer the Barrow Way, which follows the Grand Canal's Barrow Line from Athy and then the River Barrow south to St Mullins.
