The Kerry Way Hiking Tour — 10 Days (Killarney to Kenmare)

Settle in. The Kerry Way begins tomorrow.

Arrive in Killarney, Kerry's walking capital — trains from Dublin, buses from Cork and Shannon, Kerry Airport twenty minutes away. Collect your route notes, waterproof maps and pre-departure pack from your B&B host, and get your bearings.

If you arrive early, the National Park starts at the edge of town: Ross Castle and the lake shore are an easy stroll from your door. Dinner in town, an early night, and a quiet moment with the map of tomorrow's route through the National Park.

The Kerry Way opens with one of its finest days. A short taxi brings you from your B&B to Muckross House, the great Victorian mansion on the shore of Muckross Lake, and from there the trail draws you south through the heart of Killarney National Park along the old carriageway — the lakeshore path beneath ancient oak woods, the Reeks across the water, and Torc Waterfall dropping through the moss just off the path.

The trail climbs through Esknamucky Glen, rounds the Upper Lake and joins the old Kenmare Road — a pre-Famine track reclaimed by heather and bog — before the final descent into the Black Valley, one of the last inhabited valleys in Ireland to get electricity. No shops, no pub, Kerry Bog ponies in the fields and the silence of the hills. Your farmhouse B&B is expecting you, and dinner is on the table.

Prefer the drama of the Gap of Dunloe? Tell us and we'll route you that way instead — 19.6km through Ireland's great glacial pass.

The wildest day on the Kerry Way. From the head of the Black Valley the trail climbs steeply to the Lack Road — at 383 metres one of the high points of the route, an old drovers' path with views north into the Reeks and south across the whole Iveragh Peninsula. Take your time at the top. Nobody ever regrets it.

The long descent into Glencar passes Lough Acoose and old farmland before the Climbers Inn appears — a mountain inn that has been feeding walkers for over a century, and knows exactly what you need.

After two days in the mountains, the Kerry Way opens up. You climb out of Glencar onto the Beann ridge with sweeping views back to the Reeks, then traverse long moorland slopes before the ground begins to fall towards the coast. Then the reveal: Dingle Bay, the full width of it, the Dingle Peninsula's mountains across the water and Rossbeigh Strand curling into the sea below you.

Glenbeigh is a small village at the head of the strand — a good pub, a beach within walking distance, and your first evening by the Atlantic.

The Kerry Way turns its back on the coast and heads into the quiet interior of the peninsula along the old stagecoach road that connected these villages before the coast road existed. The trail rises steadily through open bogland — heather, the occasional startled grouse, the sky widening with every metre — with Dingle Bay filling the view to the north.

The stage ends at Foilduff, where a short transfer brings you into Cahersiveen for the night. The town has genuine character — Daniel O'Connell's birthplace, good restaurants and a lively main street. Rest well: tomorrow is the Kerry Way's most memorable day.

This is the day. A morning transfer returns you to Foilduff to pick up exactly where you left off, and the trail climbs immediately into the mountains above Bolus Head, the Atlantic coastline falling away below you.

At around 400 metres the Skellig Islands appear on the western horizon: Skellig Michael and Little Skellig, dark silhouettes twelve kilometres out to sea. Monks built a monastery out there in the 6th century and stayed for six hundred years. From up here, with the whole peninsula spread beneath you, you can see why.

The descent into Waterville is long, gradual and beautiful. Charlie Chaplin brought his family here every summer for decades; his bronze statue on the seafront captures the place perfectly. After 23.5km and 759m of climbing, you'll be more than ready to join him.

A shorter day — deliberately so. From Waterville the route climbs onto the ridge above Lough Currane with the Skelligs at your back, then traverses a long high-level path over the Coomakista pass with the Atlantic close and constant. Many walkers name this the finest stretch on the entire Kerry Way.

Below you is Derrynane Bay — one of the loveliest beaches in Kerry, sheltered by dunes, the water a clear Atlantic green — and Derrynane House, the ancestral home of Daniel O'Connell. Caherdaniel itself is tiny: a handful of houses, a pub, a few guesthouses. You'll eat seafood that arrived this morning and sleep in a quiet the bigger towns can't offer.

The Kerry Way climbs out of Caherdaniel over Eagle Hill and into a landscape of bog and rocky moorland — the high ground between two great bodies of water, the Atlantic behind you and the Kenmare River widening ahead, with the Beara Peninsula emerging across it on a clear day.

The descent to Sneem is through farmland and quiet lanes, the pace gentling as the mountain drops away. Sneem is one of Kerry's most photogenic villages: brightly painted houses on either side of a river, gathered around two village greens. Its Irish name, Snaidhm, means knot — a good place for the trail to gather itself before the last big day.

Your final walking day, and one of the best. A short morning transfer brings you from Sneem to Blackwater Bridge, from where the trail climbs steadily onto open mountain above the south shore of Kenmare Bay — broad moorland ridges with views that widen as you gain height: the estuary below, the Beara Peninsula across the water, the Iveragh mountains you crossed a week ago rolling back to the west.

The descent into Kenmare is long and satisfying, the town's colourful main street appearing gradually beneath you. Kenmare is one of Kerry's finest towns — excellent restaurants, a famous farmers' market, and exactly the right atmosphere for a last night on the trail. You have walked 150km from Killarney. You have permission.

A last Irish breakfast in Kenmare, then your included transfer back to Killarney — about forty minutes over Moll's Gap, past Ladies View, with the lakes of Killarney laid out below you one more time. Onward travel is easy: trains to Dublin, buses to Cork and Shannon, Kerry Airport twenty minutes away.

If you can't quite let the trail go, ask us about the 12-day version — it adds a rest day on the Skellig coast and walks the final stage from Kenmare back into Killarney through the oak woods and past Torc Waterfall, closing the circle on foot.