25 Best Walks in Ireland: No matter what your fitness level!

Where can you find the best walks in Ireland?

For such a small island, Ireland offers a huge variety of landscapes to explore. And nowhere is too far from the start point of a good walking route.

“What you find is, when you do the Irish paths,” says writer and veteran walker John G O’Dwyer, “the walk across the Shehy Mountains inland is so different from the skeletal landscape that you get out in Dingle, so different again from the rolling hills of Wicklow — and then you go back up Croagh Patrick and see the lonesome West of Ireland. For such a small island, such a huge variety.”

“We have some of the most stunning, green, unspoilt environments waiting to be explored,” says Jason King, programme director of Get Ireland Walking, a Sports Ireland initiative aimed at encouraging people to boot up and step out. And, he adds, “The database of walking routes is expanding on a weekly basis.”

At the moment there are more than 900 developed trails threaded across the country (and guides to them all are available to download at irishtrails.ie) some of them long distance routes such as the 78km Sligo Way, some shorter looped walks perfect for an afternoon stroll.

There are 250 or so walks through Coillte forests, greenways and towpaths, and national parks to discover.

Even Dubliners are never too far from fresh air and a fine view.

Perhaps the trickiest part of walking in Ireland is deciding which route to choose. So we have asked four experienced hikers, walks writers and travel writers all, to share their five favourites routes to inspire you.

Below, you will find their 25 walks covering all sorts of terrain and levels of difficulty, from buggy friendly to seriously strenuous, from loops to linear routes, from forest to coastal paths.

We’ve included links to downloadable maps, or details of the Ordnance Survey map number you’ll need to take with you, the length of each walk and where it starts and finishes to help you plan your day.

Even where to carb up or reward yourself apres walk!