Ireland's Top 10 Coastal Walks — Ranked by Difficulty and Reward
From the thundering cliffs of Donegal to the gentle curve of a Wicklow headland, Ireland's coastline offers some of the most dramatic walking in Europe. Here are the ten finest coastal walks on the island — ranked from easiest to most challenging.
Ireland has 2,500 kilometres of coastline. Much of it is extraordinary. All of it is free. And yet the majority of visitors to this country spend their time in cars and cafés when the finest experience Ireland offers is right there on the cliff edge, in the salt air, beneath the open Atlantic sky.
These ten walks are the best of it.
1. Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk, County Wicklow
The most accessible great coastal walk in Ireland begins at Bray DART station and ends — or begins, depending on your direction — at Greystones. The path winds along cliff edges above one of Ireland's most scenic railway lines, through fields and over gravel paths, with the Irish Sea stretching east and the Wicklow Mountains rising behind. Take the DART to Greystones, walk to Bray, eat something good, and take the train back. One of Ireland's most satisfying days out.
2. Ardmore Cliff Walk, County Waterford
Ardmore is one of Ireland's oldest Christian settlements — St Declan arrived here before St Patrick — and the cliff walk that loops from the village around the headland rewards walkers with extraordinary views of the Waterford coastline, dramatic sea stacks and the ruins of an early monastic site perched above the sea. The round tower in the village, one of the finest in Ireland, is visible for miles.
3. Killarney Lakeside Trails, County Kerry
The paths that wind around the shores of Lough Leane and the Upper Lake, through ancient oak woodland, past ruined abbeys and beneath the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, offer some of the most beautiful walking in Ireland at an entirely accessible level. The views across the water on a clear morning are among the finest this country produces.
4. Burren Way Coastal Section, County Clare
The coastal section of the Burren Way follows the shoreline through a landscape of extraordinary geological beauty, where wildflowers grow in the cracks of the limestone and the light moves across the rock in ways that have been inspiring painters and photographers for generations. In May and June, the Burren bursts into flower — early purple orchids, mountain avens, bloody cranesbill — producing one of the most remarkable botanical spectacles in Europe.
5. Bray Head Loop, Valentia Island, County Kerry
Valentia Island sits off the Iveragh Peninsula in South Kerry, largely undiscovered by the walking mainstream. The loop around Bray Head offers cliff-edge walking above the Atlantic, a nineteenth-century signal tower, views of the Skellig rocks rising from the sea, and a quality of solitude that is increasingly rare on the Irish walking circuit.
6. Great Western Greenway, County Mayo
The Great Western Greenway runs from Westport to Achill Island along a former railway line — traffic-free, well-surfaced and passing through some of the most beautiful landscape in Connacht. The coastal section approaching Achill, where the path runs above Clew Bay with its legendary 365 islands, is the finest stretch.
7. Doolin to Cliffs of Moher Walk, County Clare
Walking to the Cliffs of Moher from Doolin along the coastal path, with the cliffs building gradually ahead of you until they reach their full height of 214 metres, is an entirely different experience from driving there. The walk follows the cliff edge through protected dunes and over rugged headlands, with the Aran Islands visible across the bay on clear days.
8. Inishbofin Westquarter Loop, County Galway
Inishbofin — a small island off the Connemara coast, reached by ferry from Cleggan — is one of the quietest and most beautiful places in Ireland. The Westquarter Loop takes in the ruins of a seventeenth-century Cromwellian fort, dramatic Dún Mór cliffs, blowhole formations, sea arches and the stone beach of Loch Bofin.
9. Dingle Way, County Kerry
National Geographic named the Dingle Way one of the world's great walks. The route circumnavigates the entire Dingle Peninsula, passing through ancient beehive huts, early Christian oratories, the great ridge of Mount Brandon, the beaches of Slea Head and the fishing port of Dingle itself.
10. Slieve League, County Donegal
The sea cliffs of Slieve League rise to 601 metres — among the highest sea cliffs in Europe, and nearly three times the height of the more-famous Cliffs of Moher. The reward — standing above the Atlantic at 600 metres, with the entire coastline of Donegal visible in every direction — is unmatched anywhere on the island of Ireland.