The Grand Canal Way: A Towpath Walk Across the Heart of Ireland
There is a moment, somewhere west of Robertstown, when the hedges fall away and you realise the canal is running along a shelf above the bog. Still water on one side, held up by two centuries of engineering. Brown moorland on the other, flat to the horizon. Not a hill anywhere. It is the strangest, quietest walking in Ireland, and almost nobody does it.
The Grand Canal Way follows the towpath of Ireland's oldest canal for 117 km, from the edge of Dublin to the River Shannon. It is the flattest National Waymarked Way in the country and, on paper, the easiest. Whether it is the most enjoyable is a different question, so this guide tries to answer it honestly: what the route is, where the good walking is, where the tarmac is, and how it connects with a trail we know rather better.
What the Grand Canal Way actually is
The Grand Canal Way is a 117 km linear National Waymarked Way running from Lucan Road Bridge, near Adamstown in west County Dublin, to Shannon Harbour in County Offaly. Sport Ireland grades it Easy, suggests five days, and lists 31 km of the route — about 26% — on local roads. It is managed by Waterways Ireland and waymarked with the standard yellow arrow on a black background. Dogs are allowed, on a lead.
Two things about the distance. First, the official trail begins where the suburbs end, at the 12th Lock, not in the city. If you start at Grand Canal Dock, as plenty of people sensibly do, you will walk closer to 140 km. Second, Sport Ireland's own trail description gives the length as 124 km against a headline figure of 117.1 km. We cannot tell you which is right. Plan from the thirteen section maps on their website rather than from either number.
Forty-seven years in the making
The canal deserves a paragraph, because you will be looking at it for a week. Work began in 1757. The stretch from Sallins into Dublin opened in 1779, the Barrow Line to Athy in 1791, and the full line to the Shannon in April 1804 — forty-seven years after the first sod, at an average of under eight metres a day. The delay was the Bog of Allen. Nobody had carried a canal across a raised bog before, and the first attempts simply sank; in the end the engineers spent years draining the ground before they dared to dig. The main line has 43 locks, five of them doubles, and its summit is at Robertstown in Kildare, which tells you everything you need to know about the gradient.
The last working cargo barge passed through in 1960. In the decade that followed, Dublin came close to draining its stretch of the canal for a dual carriageway; a petition of 100,000 signatures stopped it. Today the whole line is navigable again, and the towpath is being rebuilt, section by section, as the Grand Canal Greenway. That rebuilding is the single most important thing to understand before you go, so it gets its own section below.
The route, west from Dublin
Lucan Bridge to Sallins, about 18 km
The first day is the day the canal shakes off the city. From the 12th Lock you pass Hazelhatch, where a new stretch of greenway opened in March 2026, and then the towpath settles into Kildare: a grassy bank, a stone bridge every couple of kilometres, and herons that have seen it all before. Sallins has trains, pubs and beds, and is where most people walking the whole route spend their first night.
One warning that walkers keep repeating in their reviews: at Sallins the Naas branch leaves the main line to the south, the waymarking at the junction is poor, and it is easy to follow the wrong water for half an hour. The Grand Canal Way carries on west.
Sallins to Robertstown, about 14 km
Short, and the best stretch on the eastern half. Just outside Sallins the canal crosses the River Liffey on the Leinster Aqueduct, which is a genuinely odd thing to walk over — a river passing beneath the water you are following. Then quiet towpath to Robertstown, a canal village built around the Georgian hotel that once put up passengers from the Dublin flyboats. If you want a two-day taster of the Grand Canal Way, this is it, and Sallins has the train home.
Robertstown to Edenderry, about 22 km
Two kilometres west of Robertstown is Lowtown, the busiest junction on the canal, where the Barrow Line branches south towards Athy. Hold that thought. The main line continues through Allenwood and out across the Bog of Allen on its raised bank, past Ticknevin and along the long straight to the Edenderry branch. Edenderry itself sits a kilometre off the main line at the end of its own spur, with shops and accommodation, and after the bog you will be glad of both. This is the section where the towpath is still rough grass. Do not expect a surfaced path here yet.
Edenderry to Tullamore, about 31 km
Into Offaly, and onto the greenway proper. From the Edenderry branch to Daingean, about 18 km, and from Daingean to Tullamore, about 13 km, the towpath has been rebuilt with a firm surface, which turns a long day into a fast one. Daingean, once the county town, is quiet enough that you should carry lunch. Tullamore is the biggest place on the route, with a railway station, hotels and a whiskey distillery, and it is the natural finish for anyone doing the canal in two visits. Split this day at Daingean if 31 km is more than you want.
Tullamore to Shannon Harbour, about 35 km
The last day is long, flat and, for us, the finest. West of Tullamore the canal runs through Rahan and Pollagh, a bog village where the towpath is now surfaced, and into country that feels emptier with every kilometre: bog, birch scrub, the odd Bord na Móna railway line, and a great deal of sky. Then Belmont, a run of beautifully kept locks, and Shannon Harbour, a Georgian canal port with a ruined hotel, a lock-keeper's cottage and Ireland's longest river sliding past the end of the pier. Very few Irish trails end this well. The final 15 km into Shannon Harbour were still being surfaced in 2026, and accommodation between Tullamore and the Shannon is thin, so most walkers either do this as one long day or arrange a taxi back to Tullamore and finish the next morning.
Greenway or towpath? An honest condition report
The Grand Canal Way is halfway through becoming something else. Waterways Ireland and the county councils are rebuilding the towpath as a shared walking and cycling greenway, and the state of play in autumn 2026 is roughly this: most of Offaly is finished, the western Dublin suburbs are finished, the Kildare middle from the Offaly border through Lullymore to Sallins is not, and most of the stretch between Sallins and Hazelhatch is under construction.
For walkers this cuts both ways. The finished sections are dry, fast and easy on the feet, but they are also cyclists' territory and, on a fine Sunday near a town, busy. The unfinished Kildare sections are grassy, wet after rain and slow, and one reviewer on the Sport Ireland trail page called them, approvingly, "the last of the true greenways". We would not argue. If you like your towpaths wild, go soon.
Then there is the road walking. Thirty-one kilometres of the official route is on local roads, mostly quiet canal-side lanes, but there are stretches where you will be on tarmac for an hour at a time. Sport Ireland also notes that waymarking is unreliable in places. Carry the section maps.
Practicalities
Maps are OSI Discovery sheets 47, 48, 49, 50 and 53, or the Waterways Ireland guide to the Grand Canal. Sport Ireland's thirteen downloadable section maps cover the whole route and are the best free resource going.
Food is what catches people out. Between Sallins and Tullamore the villages are small and the pubs keep short hours; several reviewers say bluntly that there is nowhere to eat compared with the Royal Canal. Carry a day's food and fill your bottles whenever you can.
Transport is good at the eastern end — Dublin Bus to Lucan, trains from Heuston to Sallins and Tullamore — and poor at the western one. Shannon Harbour has a limited weekday bus and nothing at weekends. The practical answer most people arrive at is to walk from Dublin to Tullamore and take the train home, then come back another time, take the train to Tullamore and walk the last 35 km to the Shannon.
Best time is April to October, with the caveat that the grassy Kildare sections are wettest in spring and most overgrown in high summer. The bog sections have no shade at all. Walkers do get sunburnt on the Bog of Allen; it happens more often than you would think.
Where the Grand Canal Way fits
Go back to Lowtown for a moment, that busy junction west of Robertstown. The Barrow Line leaves the main canal here and runs 46 km south to Athy, where it meets the River Barrow. That line is the opening section of the Barrow Way, a 114 km National Waymarked Way that follows the canal and then the river all the way down to St Mullins in County Carlow.
We know the Barrow Way well, because we sell it. It has everything that is good about the Grand Canal Way — flat towpaths, locks, herons, old canal towns — and then, from Athy onwards, it has a river: wide, wooded and slow, through Carlow and Graiguenamanagh to the tidal water at St Mullins. If a week of flat, meditative walking beside water appeals but the bog and the tarmac do not, our self-guided Barrow Way walking holiday is the version we built handpicked B&Bs and luggage transfers around. Or simply ask us which would suit you. We are happy to talk about trails we do not sell.
Half an hour south of Tullamore, the Slieve Bloom Way offers the hills the Grand Canal Way so completely lacks. And for the wider picture, our guide to Ireland's National Waymarked Ways covers all of them, including the Grand Canal's northern twin, the Royal Canal Way, which we will walk next.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the Grand Canal Way?
The official Grand Canal Way is 117 km, from Lucan Road Bridge near Adamstown in County Dublin to Shannon Harbour in County Offaly. Sport Ireland's own description also quotes 124 km, and if you start in Dublin city centre at Grand Canal Dock the walk is closer to 140 km.
How many days does the Grand Canal Way take?
Five days is the standard figure, at 20 to 25 km a day. Six is more comfortable, and many people walk it as two separate trips, Dublin to Tullamore and Tullamore to the Shannon, using the train at Tullamore.
Is the Grand Canal Way difficult?
No. It is graded Easy and is the flattest long-distance trail in Ireland; the only climbs are the lock flights, a few metres at a time. The challenges are distance, monotony on the long straights, rough grassy towpath in Kildare, and a lack of places to buy food between towns.
Where does the Grand Canal Way start and finish?
It starts at Lucan Road Bridge by the 12th Lock, near Adamstown in west Dublin, and finishes at Shannon Harbour in County Offaly, where the canal meets the River Shannon. Most people walk it east to west.
How much of the Grand Canal Way is on roads?
Sport Ireland puts 31 km, or about 26% of the route, on local roads. Most of these are quiet canal-side lanes rather than main roads.
Can you cycle the Grand Canal Way?
Yes, and the sections rebuilt as the Grand Canal Greenway are excellent for it. Waterways Ireland advises that the undeveloped sections, mainly in County Kildare, are not suitable for cycling; on those, expect rough grass and mud after rain.
Can you bring a dog on the Grand Canal Way?
Yes. Dogs are allowed on the Grand Canal Way on a lead.
Does Walking Holiday Ireland offer the Grand Canal Way?
We do not. For the same style of flat, water-side walking with the logistics taken care of, we offer the Barrow Way, which branches off the Grand Canal at Lowtown near Robertstown and follows the Barrow Line and then the River Barrow south to St Mullins.
