National Famine Way Walking Holiday — 10 Days

Your holiday begins at Strokestown Park, where the National Famine Museum holds the estate archive that makes this trail possible, including the record of the 1,490 tenants cleared from the land in 1847. Take your time here; the walking makes far more sense once you have stood in these rooms. Collect your Passport before you set out.

20.3 km · about 5 hours · country roads, then canal towpath

Quiet Roscommon roads carry you out of Strokestown and down to the Shannon at Clondra, where Richmond Harbour marks the western end of the Royal Canal. From here the towpath runs unbroken to Dublin. The first of the bronze children's shoes appears along the way, there are over thirty of them set into the route.

23.9 km · about 6 hours · level canal towpath

A long steady day on the towpath through Keenagh, where a short detour reaches the Corlea Trackway, an Iron Age bog road laid in 148 BC and preserved under glass. The canal then carries you southeast into Ballymahon. The trail passes a little outside the town, so the last stretch into your guesthouse is a short walk off the towpath.

18.0 km · about 4½ hours · level canal towpath

An easier day through Abbeyshrule, where the canal is at its prettiest and the towpath runs right past the village. Over the Whitworth Aqueduct and on into Westmeath, finishing at Ballynacarrigy.

19.3 km · about 5 hours · level canal towpath

Past Coolnahay Harbour, where the canal reaches its summit level and the locks stop for a while, then an easy run down into Mullingar Harbour. Mullingar is the biggest town on the route, a good evening for a proper dinner and a look around.

25.4 km · about 6 hours · level canal towpath

East out of Mullingar through Riverstown and Thomastown Harbour to Hill of Down. There is no accommodation at Hill of Down itself, so we transfer you the short distance to your guesthouse at Enfield, you stay there two nights and walk back from where you stopped in the morning.

15.2 km · about 4 hours · level canal towpath

The shortest walking day, and a welcome one after yesterday. A transfer back out to Hill of Down, then an easy stretch through Moyvalley, stop on the Ribbontail Bridge, it is the photograph everyone takes, and on to Enfield, where the Famine Pot stands as a reminder of what the soup kitchens meant.

19.3 km · about 5 hours · level canal towpath

Through Kilcock and into Kildare, with the canal widening and the towpath busier as you near Dublin. The day ends at Maynooth Harbour. Maynooth Castle and St Patrick's College are both a few minutes from the water and worth the hour.

27.4 km · about 6½ hours · canal towpath into the city

The longest day saved for last, and the one the whole trail has been pointing at. Through Leixlip, Clonsilla and Ashtown as the canal threads into Dublin, finishing at the Famine sculptures on Custom House Quay, the quayside where the 1,490 boarded for Liverpool. Your certificate of completion is waiting at the end.

Breakfast and onward travel. If you can spare the morning, the Jeanie Johnston famine ship is moored a few minutes from where you finished, and EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum is next door, both pick up the story exactly where the trail leaves off.