The Blackwater Way: Walking Through Cork and Kerry's Hidden Interior
Ten days. One hundred and sixty-eight kilometres. Three counties, two mountain ranges, one of the great salmon rivers of Europe — and, if we are being straight with you, a considerable amount of tarmac.
The Blackwater Way is the longest continuous walk in Munster and one of the least walked National Waymarked Ways in Ireland. It carries the European E8 route across the south of the country, from the Knockmealdown Mountains above Clogheen to a holy well at the foot of the Paps in County Kerry. Almost nobody walks the whole thing. Plenty of people walk two or three days of it and come home talking about it for years. This guide is mostly about telling those two experiences apart.
What the Blackwater Way actually is
The Blackwater Way is a 168 km linear National Waymarked Way running from Clogheen in County Tipperary to Shrone in County Kerry, following the valley of the River Blackwater across north County Cork. It is waymarked throughout with the standard yellow arrow on a black background, graded Moderate, and typically completed in ten days.
It is not really one trail. It is two trails that were joined together: the Avondhu Way from Clogheen to Bweeng in County Cork, managed by the Avondhu Blackwater Partnership, and the Duhallow Way from Bweeng on to Shrone, managed by IRD Duhallow. They meet at a small village on the side of a hill and the join is seamless on the ground, but the two halves are separately maintained and separately mapped, which matters a great deal when you go looking for information.
A word about the numbers before you plan anything. Sport Ireland describes the combined route as 168 km, but its own section pages list the Avondhu Way at 126.2 km and the Duhallow Way at 67 km, which adds up to 193 km. We cannot reconcile those figures and we would not try to. Plan your days from the individual section maps rather than from the headline distance.
The Avondhu Way: Clogheen to Bweeng
126.2 km, about six days, graded Moderate, with roughly 3,690 m of aggregate ascent across the route as a whole.
You start in Clogheen, a village sitting under the Knockmealdowns, and you climb almost immediately — up through forestry towards the Vee Gap, that famous notch in the ridge with the Golden Vale spread out behind you. From there the trail runs west on mountain tracks over Crow Hill, and this first day is, by fairly general agreement among people who have walked it, the best on the entire Way. Walkers report around 33 km and 1,050 m of ascent from Clogheen as far as Mountain Barrack. That is a long day. Splitting it is sensible.
After Mountain Barrack the character changes. The trail drops through woodland to the village of Kilworth and on into Fermoy, a handsome market town standing on the Blackwater itself. Here you finally get the river — briefly. It is a recurring frustration of this route that a trail named after one of the finest rivers in Ireland spends only about two kilometres actually walking beside it.
West of Fermoy the Way climbs onto the northern flanks of the Nagle Mountains, passing Ballyhooly and Killavullen before a long high loop brings you round through Ballynamona and finally to Bweeng. Standing stones, stone circles, cairns, holy wells and cillíní — the small unconsecrated burial grounds where unbaptised infants were laid — are scattered along the whole of it. You are walking through a working landscape that has been farmed continuously for four thousand years, and it shows.
The Duhallow Way: Bweeng to Shrone
67 km, three days, 21 km of it on local roads.
The Duhallow half is wilder and emptier. From Bweeng the trail crosses the Boggeragh Mountains to Nad Bog on easy bog roads and forest track, then works west through moorland to Millstreet, the only town of any size on this section. Sport Ireland grades the Bweeng to Nad Bog and Millstreet to Croohig's Crossroads stretches as the easiest walking on the section.
Then comes the finish, and the finish is the whole reason to walk the Duhallow Way. In the last 15 km the trail climbs 560 m beneath Caherbarnagh and the Paps of Anu, the two near-identical summits of 690 m and 694 m that the old stories name for Anu, mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The Way ends at Shrone, at Cathair Crobh Dearg — known simply as "the City" — a stone ring fort holding an ogham stone, a primitive stone altar and a holy well just outside the wall, still walked to in pilgrimage on May morning. Very few Irish trails end anywhere half as good.
The road problem, and how to walk around it
We are not going to soften this. Fifty-one kilometres of the Avondhu Way — 54% of it — follows local roads, and Sport Ireland puts around 28% of the whole route on roads carrying fast traffic. On the Duhallow section it is 21 km out of 67.
Some of that road walking is genuinely pleasant: quiet boreens between high hedges with nothing coming the other way for an hour at a time. Some of it is not, and walkers have said so in plain terms. "The massive amount of road walks is frustrating and boring" is a fair sample of the published reviews.
The practical answer is to walk the Blackwater Way in sections rather than end to end, and to choose those sections carefully. The consistently praised stretches are the Vee to Kilworth, Fermoy to Ballyhooly through the hills, and the final climb to Shrone. If you have three days to spend in north Cork, those three days are the trail.
Practicalities
Waymarking is good. Reviewers mention marker posts at every junction and solid metal stiles where the route crosses fences. Be careful with GPX files found online, though: parts of the route have been realigned and older tracks are still in circulation, which has sent walkers several kilometres in the wrong direction. Maps are OSI Discovery sheets 74, 80 and 81. The EastWest Mapping guide to the trail is out of print.
Dogs are not allowed. The route crosses working farmland with livestock throughout, and the off-road sections exist only because landowners permit them.
Transport is the hard part. There is a daily express bus and a limited local service at Clogheen, and effectively nothing at the Bweeng end or at Shrone. Accommodation is sparse once you are away from Fermoy, Mallow and Millstreet. Between them, those two facts are why nobody operates a supported walking holiday on this trail, ourselves included.
As for when to go: late spring and early autumn. Some sections are wet and muddy after rain, and the overgrowth on the quieter stretches is at its worst in high summer.
Where the Blackwater Way fits
The Blackwater Way forms part of European walking route E8, which runs from Dursey Island in west Cork all the way to Istanbul. The Irish leg strings together the Wicklow Way, the South Leinster Way, the East Munster Way, the Blackwater Way, and parts of the Kerry Way and Beara Way. The East Munster Way finishes exactly where the Blackwater Way begins, at Clogheen, so the two can be walked as one continuous line from Carrick-on-Suir into Kerry.
At the western end there is no marked link onward. An unmarked route connects Shrone with Killarney and the start of the Kerry Way, roughly 15 km to the west.
Which is where we would gently point you, if the idea of walking across Munster appeals but the tarmac does not. The Kerry Way starts more or less where the Blackwater Way runs out — the same corner of Ireland, the same old mountains, almost none of the road walking, and beds booked and bags moved ahead of you each day. It is about forty minutes' drive from Shrone. Have a look, or simply ask us what we think. We are happy to talk about trails we do not sell.
And if you want the wider picture first, our guide to Ireland's National Waymarked Ways covers all of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the Blackwater Way?
The combined route is usually given as 168 km from Clogheen to Shrone. Sport Ireland's individual section pages list the Avondhu Way at 126.2 km and the Duhallow Way at 67 km, which does not reconcile with the headline figure, so plan from the section maps.
How many days does the Blackwater Way take?
Ten days end to end is the standard figure — about six for the Avondhu Way and three for the Duhallow Way. Most people walk it in sections over several trips rather than in one continuous push.
Is the Blackwater Way difficult?
It is graded Moderate. There are no sustained ascents until the final 15 km, where the trail climbs 560 m beneath Caherbarnagh and the Paps, but the aggregate ascent over the whole route is around 3,690 m and the first day out of Clogheen is a genuinely long one. The bigger difficulties are logistical rather than physical.
How much of the Blackwater Way is on roads?
Fifty-one kilometres of the Avondhu Way, about 54%, and 21 km of the 67 km Duhallow Way. Sport Ireland estimates that around 28% of the full route is on roads carrying fast traffic. This is the most common complaint in walker reviews.
What is the best section of the Blackwater Way to walk?
Clogheen to Mountain Barrack, over the Vee Gap and Crow Hill, is the standout day — roughly 33 km with 1,050 m of ascent, so consider splitting it. The final climb to Shrone beneath the Paps of Anu is the other section worth travelling for.
Can you bring a dog on the Blackwater Way?
No. Dogs are not permitted. The route crosses working farmland with livestock along its length and access depends on landowners' goodwill.
Where does the Blackwater Way start and finish?
It starts at Clogheen, County Tipperary, where the East Munster Way ends, and finishes at Shrone, County Kerry, at the ancient ring fort of Cathair Crobh Dearg beneath the Paps of Anu.
Does Walking Holiday Ireland offer the Blackwater Way?
We do not. There is too little accommodation in the right places and no realistic transport at either end to build a self-guided walking holiday with luggage transfers. For walking in the same part of Ireland we would point you to the Kerry Way, which begins about 15 km west of where the Blackwater Way finishes.
