The Complete Kerry Way — 12 Days (Full Circuit with Skellig Rest Day)

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. You will be back here in eleven days, on foot.

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, your home for the next two nights. The town has genuine character — Daniel O'Connell's birthplace, good restaurants and a lively main street — and tomorrow, for once, there is no alarm clock.

A day off the trail, placed deliberately before the Kerry Way's toughest stage. Three good ways to spend it.

Skellig Michael (optional extra). Fifteen minutes down the road at Portmagee, the boats leave each morning for the Skelligs. Land on Skellig Michael, climb the 600 stone steps and stand among the beehive huts of a 6th-century monastery, with Little Skellig and its 70,000 gannets across the water. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most extraordinary places in Europe. Landings run from mid-May to the end of September, are limited to 180 visitors a day and depend entirely on the sea, so they must be booked well ahead — we can arrange the boat and your return transfer from Cahersiveen as an extra when you book. If the landing is cancelled by weather, an eco-cruise around the islands usually still sails.

The Laharn Bog Loop. If you would rather keep the legs moving, a gentle 14.6km waymarked loop leaves straight from the town: bog, boreen and open hillside around the lower slopes of Beentee, with views over the Valentia River. It is in your app.

Or nothing at all. Valentia Island is a short drive away, the Old Barracks tells the story of Daniel O'Connell, and the cafés on Main Street are very good at long lunches.

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. If you stood on that rock yesterday, this is the view that makes sense of it.

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 mountains.

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 the kind of evening atmosphere that makes it easy to linger. After 20.5km and 437m of climbing, you have permission.

The Kerry Way closes as it opened — in Killarney National Park, in the oak woods, among the lakes. From Kenmare the route heads north through the ancient Derrycunnihy oakwood, one of the finest sessile oak forests left in Ireland, then crests the pass and drops towards the Upper Lake with the Reeks reflected in the water.

Torc Waterfall appears suddenly — a wide white drop down a mossy rockface, the sound of it reaching you before the path turns the corner. The final kilometres wind past Muckross House and along the lake shore into Killarney. You walked out of this town ten days ago. You have walked 170km around the Iveragh Peninsula to come back to it, and the town is ready to celebrate with you.

A last full Irish breakfast, a last look at the MacGillycuddy's Reeks from the town, and then onwards. Killarney has trains to Dublin (three hours), buses to Cork and Shannon, and Kerry Airport twenty minutes away, so onward travel is easy in any direction.

Most walkers leave already thinking about which trail to walk next. The Dingle Way is right next door.