The Great Western Greenway, Co. Mayo: 42km of Off-Road Cycling Through the Wild Atlantic West

A Railway That Became a Road to Somewhere Better

In 1937, the last train rolled along the Midland Great Western Railway's Achill extension and the line closed for good. The route had been built in the 1890s, carved through the bogland and mountains of north Mayo to connect Westport to the remote shores of Achill Island, and it ran for just a few decades before falling victim to the economics of rural Ireland. For seven decades, the old trackbed sat largely idle, its stone bridges and embankments gradually being reclaimed by hedgerow and gorse. Then, in April 2010, the first section of what would become the Great Western Greenway opened between Newport and Mulranny, and everything changed — not just for the trail itself, but for the towns and communities along its route.

Today, the Great Western Greenway is Ireland's longest off-road cycling and walking trail, stretching 42 kilometres from Westport on the eastern shore of Clew Bay to Achill Sound at the gateway of Achill Island. The trail was built at a cost of €5.7 million and officially opened in full by Taoiseach Enda Kenny in 2011. It was named the Irish winner of the European Destinations of Excellence award that same year and has since been voted one of the top three cycle trails in the world by the New York Times — an accolade that didn't so much surprise locals as confirm what they already knew. More recently, a new five-kilometre extension from Achill Sound to Cashel has opened, with further plans to extend the route out to Keel Beach on Achill Island, meaning the greenway's reach is still growing.

Westport to Newport: The Perfect Beginning

The greenway begins in Westport, one of Ireland's most consistently celebrated towns, with a Georgian street plan, a lively food scene and Croagh Patrick — the cone-shaped holy mountain that has drawn pilgrims for over fifteen centuries — watching over the rooftops to the south. The trailhead on Distillery Road is well signposted from the town centre and offers a large car park and bike hire facilities. Set off from here and you immediately enter a tree-lined corridor that tracks the course of the Carrowbeg River through the southern edge of town. In spring, the hedgerows are thick with wild garlic and bluebells; in autumn, the canopy turns amber and copper in the early morning light. The gradient is almost imperceptible for the first stretch, a direct product of the railway engineers who designed the original line with steam locomotives in mind — gentleness of slope built into the landscape's bones a century and a quarter ago.

This first section, 12.5 kilometres from Westport to Newport, takes between one and one-and-a-half hours to cycle at a comfortable pace, or three to three-and-a-half hours on foot. The surface is predominantly compacted limestone dust — firm, well-drained, and forgiving on any tyre wider than 28 millimetres. Mayo County Council resurfaced a section between Westport and the Derradda Loop in late 2025, and conditions in 2026 are excellent throughout. On the approach to Newport, the landscape opens out to give the first views across Clew Bay, with Clare Island sitting low and green in the Atlantic to the south and the drumlin-scattered bay stretching westward. Then comes the Newport Viaduct — a handsome seven-arch stone structure over the Black Oak River that stands as one of the greenway's genuinely memorable architectural moments, a piece of Victorian railway engineering repurposed as a piece of landscape beauty. Newport itself is a charming town of painted shopfronts and stone bridges, worth a coffee stop at minimum.

Newport to Mulranny: The Heart of the Route

The longest and arguably most dramatic section of the greenway runs 18 kilometres from Newport to Mulranny, with an ascent of 82 metres — modest but noticeable — and scenery that shifts from farmland and woodland into the open, wind-swept landscape of the Nephin Beg range to the north and Clew Bay's island-dotted waters to the south. Allow two to two-and-a-half hours cycling, or five to five-and-a-half hours walking. This is the section where the greenway most fully delivers on its promise: car-free, largely off-road, with views that arrive without warning around corners and stay with you long after you've left. Furnace Lough, the Owengarve River and Bellacragher Bay all feature along this stretch, each adding a different dimension to a landscape that oscillates between the dramatic and the quietly beautiful.

A rest stop at Tiernaur, roughly halfway between Newport and Mulranny, offers picnic benches and toilet facilities — welcome on a route that asks you to carry water, since there are no taps along this middle stretch. Mulranny itself is worth more than a passing stop. The village sits on a narrow peninsula between Clew Bay and Blacksod Bay, with a south-facing aspect and a mild, Atlantic-tempered microclimate that allows Mediterranean plants to grow in its famous walled garden. The Mulranny Park Hotel, a restored Edwardian railway hotel, backs directly onto the greenway and has become one of the most popular accommodation and rest stops on the entire route.

Mulranny to Achill Sound: The Finale

The final 13 kilometres from Mulranny to Achill Sound is the section that regular cyclists most often describe as the emotional peak of the journey — the reward for having come this far. The trail runs west along the north shore of Clew Bay before crossing the Achill Sound bridge, with views of Achill Island's quartzite mountains ahead and the glittering expanse of Blacksod Bay opening to the north. The route is generally flat on this final stretch and takes between one and one-and-a-half hours to cycle. Arriving at Achill Sound with the bridge to the island ahead of you, and the realisation that you have just cycled from Westport, is one of those satisfying moments that only certain journeys produce.

The Practical Side: What You Need to Know

The trail is open every day, year-round, and free to use. Bike hire is available at multiple points along the route, with several operators offering multi-depot collection and return services so you don't have to cycle back to your starting point — a significant practical advantage on a point-to-point trail of this length. E-bikes have become the hire option of choice for many visitors, offering full one-way range with battery to spare in all conditions. The trail's signage has been consistently praised in recent reviews, with distance markers every kilometre and directional arrows at all junctions.

According to Mayo County Council's 2025 annual tourism report, the greenway now attracts over 250,000 users per year, generating an estimated €40 million in annual economic activity for the region — a figure that has transformed the commercial prospects of every town and village it passes through. The Gourmet Greenway food trail, which runs parallel to the cycling route and showcases artisan food producers in Mulranny, Newport, Westport and Achill, is a useful companion guide for refuelling along the way.

The Bottom Line: The Great Western Greenway isn't trying to be anything other than what it is — a beautifully managed, traffic-free route through one of the most scenically extraordinary corners of Ireland, built on the bones of a railway that once served communities now served far better by the cyclists and walkers it brings to their doors. If you do one long-distance trail in Ireland this year, do this one.