National Famine Way Part B — Mullingar to Dublin, 7 Days

Here's what your price covers:

• 5 nights accommodation in B&Bs, guesthouses and small hotels (en suite rooms)
• Full Irish or continental breakfast every morning
• Daily luggage transfer between accommodation
• The official National Famine Way Passport Pack, your personalised ship ticket for one of the original Strokestown famine families, the 14 page Passport & Guide, the 30 page End of Trail booklet, your famine family's fate, the Bronze Shoes lapel brooch and your Certificate of Completion
• Transfers between the trail and your accommodation where the trail has no beds of its own
• Personalised digital itinerary and route app for your smartphone that keeps you on the trail at all times
• 24 hours a day emergency contact and on trail support
• Before you travel information pack

Not included: Flights to and from Ireland, Lunches and dinners, Personal expenses.

Any day you like between 15 April and 15 October. This is a self-guided holiday, so there are no fixed departure dates: you choose the day you arrive and we build the trip around it.

You can book online from three weeks ahead. June to August fills up first, so for summer it pays to book early.

This tour is graded Moderate. You walk on 5 days, 14.4–27.4 km a day. There is some climbing, so you should be comfortable walking day after day. A few months of regular walking, including some hills, is the best preparation. You set your own pace, with route notes and our GPS app to guide you.

How we grade our tours

We take a 25% deposit to book, and the balance is due six weeks before you start. If you need to cancel:

• More than 6 weeks before: you lose the deposit only
• 4 to 6 weeks before: 50% of the tour cost
• 2 to 4 weeks before: 80% of the tour cost
• Less than 2 weeks before: 100% of the tour cost

We strongly recommend travel insurance that covers cancellation. If we can't find suitable accommodation for your dates, you get a full refund. Full booking terms

Yes, solo walkers are very welcome and there is no minimum group size. Walking on your own, this tour costs €1,275 instead of €795. That includes a solo supplement of €480 and gives you a room to yourself every night.

Travelling with others but would like your own room? The single-room supplement is €330 per person (6 nights at €55).

Yes. The official National Famine Way Passport is included in your holiday price. You collect a stamp in each county as you walk. Hand your passport in at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin at the end of the trail and you receive your completion certificate.

The trail starts at the National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park, County Roscommon. It finishes at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in the Dublin Docklands, where you collect your completion certificate. The Famine Memorial sculptures on Custom House Quay are a short walk from EPIC, so most walkers visit both on their last day.

It is one of the easiest long walks in Ireland. Most of the trail follows the Royal Canal towpath, which is flat the whole way, with only about 650 metres of climbing over the full route. The challenge is distance, not hills. Daily stages run from about 12 km on our 13 day tour to over 30 km on the longest days of the 8 day tour, so pick the pace that suits you.

Most walkers take six to ten walking days to cover the full trail from Strokestown to Dublin. Our holidays run 8, 10 or 13 days in total, which includes your arrival and departure days. The 13 day tour adds a rest day in Mullingar. Short on time? You can walk it in two halves of 6 days each: Part A from Strokestown to Mullingar, and Part B from Mullingar to Dublin.

Over 30 pairs of bronze children's shoes mark the route. Each pair stands for a child who made the walk from Strokestown to Dublin in 1847. Together they tell the story of Daniel Tighe, who was twelve that year, and who lived. Spotting them becomes part of the walk.