National Famine Way Walking Holiday — 13 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. With thirteen days ahead there is no need to rush: see the house, the walled gardens and the woodlands too. Collect your Passport before you set out.

18.0 km · about 4½ hours · quiet country roads

Out of Strokestown on the roads the 1,490 walked, through Scramogue and northwest to the Shannon at Tarmonbarry. The first of the bronze children's shoes appears along the way, there are over thirty set into the route, each one marking a stage of twelve year old Daniel Tighe's journey. Carry a packed lunch; there is nothing on this stretch.

16.0 km · about 4 hours · canal towpath from Richmond Harbour

A short walk to Richmond Harbour at Clondra, where the Royal Canal begins and the towpath takes over for the rest of the trail. From here it is level, waymarked and quiet all the way to Dublin. The canal carries you south through the Longford bogland to Keenagh.

12.0 km · about 3 hours · level canal towpath

The shortest day of the holiday, and deliberately so, it leaves the afternoon free for the Corlea Trackway, an Iron Age oak road laid across the bog in 148 BC and now preserved under glass in a purpose built hall. Allow an hour. Then an easy stroll on into Ballymahon.

17.7 km · about 4½ hours · level canal towpath

Through Abbeyshrule, where the canal is at its prettiest and the towpath runs right past the village, a natural lunch stop. Over the Whitworth Aqueduct and across into Westmeath, finishing at Ballynacarrigy.

18.8 km · about 4½ hours · level canal towpath

Past Coolnahay Harbour, where the canal reaches its summit level and the flight of locks gives out, then an easy run down into Mullingar Harbour. Carry a packed lunch, services are thin between the two. Mullingar is the biggest town on the trail, and you have two nights here.

No walking today. Mullingar has the most Famine history of anywhere on the route: the original workhouse and the famine graveyard can be walked as a loop from the town. Further out, the Hill of Uisneach, the ancient ceremonial centre of Ireland, and the Carn Famine Village are both worth the trip. Or do none of it, and simply rest your legs.

15.0 km · about 4 hours · level canal towpath

An easy restart east out of Mullingar on the towpath. Riverstown Bridge is a Passport stamp point, so have the booklet to hand. A short day that leaves time in the afternoon, the pewter workshop on the way out of Mullingar does a half hour tour if you fancy it.

19.1 km · about 5 hours · level canal towpath

Through Thomastown Harbour and the hamlet of Hill of Down, crossing from Westmeath into Meath. Stop on the Ribbontail Bridge at Moyvalley, it is the photograph everyone takes, and the reason is obvious when you get there.

19.1 km · about 5 hours · level canal towpath

On through Enfield, where the Famine Pot stands as a reminder of what the soup kitchens meant, and into Kildare as far as Kilcock. Kilcock has no guesthouse of its own, so we move you on to Maynooth for the night and bring you back to the canal in the morning, your bags travel separately as always.

18.5 km · about 4½ hours · level canal towpath

Back to Kilcock to pick up the towpath, then on through Maynooth and Leixlip with the canal steadily widening as Dublin approaches. Maynooth Castle and St Patrick's College sit a few minutes off the water if you want to break the day. Clonsilla has no accommodation either, so you stay in Dublin tonight and tomorrow, one unpacking for the last two nights.

14.5 km · about 3½ hours · canal towpath into the city

A short last day, and the one the whole trail has been pointing at. Out to Clonsilla and in along the canal through Ashtown, past the Croppies' Acre and down to 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. The Jeanie Johnston famine ship is moored a few minutes from where you finished, with EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum next door and the Custom House Museum close by, all three pick up the story exactly where the trail leaves off. Worth the morning if you have it.