The Kerry Way

A Walk Around the Edge of Europe Our Kerry Way tours begin in Killarney, a market town at the head of three famous lakes surrounded by Ireland's largest area of native woodland. The first stage crosses Killarney National Park, passing Torc Waterfall and the ancient yew and oak woods around Muckross Lake. The air smells of damp moss and wet bark. Red deer move through the trees at dawn — descendants of Ireland's only surviving native herd. From the national park, the trail climbs into the Black Valley — one of the last places in Ireland to receive electricity, in 1976. The landscape here is raw and quiet: stone-walled fields, turf stacks, a handful of farmhouses beneath mountain ridges. The silence is thick enough to notice. The route then turns west towards the Atlantic. The terrain opens into high bogland, and the coast appears first as a distant shimmer, then as a crashing presence. Cahersiveen and Waterville are the main overnight stops on the western leg — small towns with strong characters. Waterville was the favourite holiday retreat of Charlie Chaplin, who returned every summer through the 1960s. South of Waterville, the trail passes Derrynane House and the exquisite beach at Derrynane Bay, then the massive drystone walls of Staigue Fort — a 2,000-year-old ringfort standing on a hillside with views to the Kenmare River. The fort is 27 metres in diameter, its walls nearly four metres thick at the base, built without a drop of mortar. The eastern leg moves through Sneem — a village of painted houses on the Kenmare River estuary — and on to Kenmare, a Georgian market town with the best restaurant scene on the entire trail. From Kenmare, the final stage follows the Old Kenmare Road back to Killarney, an ancient track over the mountain saddle between Peakeen and Mangerton.