I walked the Slieve bloom way. I took 2 days, but would suggest doing it in three. I had lovely weather on the first day, and pretty good on the 2nd. I started in Clonaslee and went anti-clockwise. Some points:

  • A lot of it is through commercial forestry, like many Irish hiking trails. Lots of clear cutting.
  • A lot of trees were down, likely from storm Éowyn. The photo below is over the forest track I was supposed to take.

trees down

  • It feels more remote than other Irish trails, there are no villages or shops apart from when starting. You do pass through Cadamstown, but there isn’t much there. This might be changing. Kinitty castle hotel is marked as having a cafe, and Coillte has a toliet and planning permission for a cafe in Castleconnor.

  • There’s a lot of new MTB trails in the area. I didn’t see many bikers, but it was not the weekend.

  • I mostly used Open Street Map and the online maps for nav. The trail is not directly on OSM. I also took the OSI sheet, but the trail has been moved north to go through Kinnitty forest since my OSI sheet was printed. This change is an improvement, I think.

  • I met other folks - some people on horseback, other hikers, and a couple chaps doing trail maintenance, but no one else doing the trail.

All the photos