Overview

Distance: 10 km Looped Trail
Time: 2 - 3hrs (depending on fitness and personal preference)
Start Point / Parking:
The info board for the start of this trail is here on google maps. There’s room maybe two cars to park at the junction here without impeding access to the lanes.
Trail difficulty: Easy
This trail primarily follows wide gravel logging tracks, with a short stretch on rural lanes.
Explore our trail grading list here.
Trail quality: 2/5
This is an exceedingly quiet trail, which can add to the appeal of escaping from the world - but can also manifest in the trail being a touch forgotten. The infrastructure surrounding this trail is well worn.
Views: 3/5
While surrounded by tall forestry for the most part, there are several moments where the trail offers nice views of the surrounding hills. And despite the face that most of this forestry is commercial, plantation style growth, there is still wildlife to be found in the reclaimed pockets.
Buggy/Wheelchair friendly: No
The tracks that make up this trail use a lot of hard core or large gravel, which would be hard under wheels.
Dogs allowed: No - according to Leitrim Tourism.
External Resources:
- Tullylacken Trail Map by Leitrim Tourism.
- I’ve mapped out this trail on Hiiker here.

It’s a warm May evening as I park the car in the small lay-by at the info board. As I get out and begin to gather my things for the walk, I listen to the general hum of nature and the gurgle of the stream behind me. While there are many ways of interpreting the phrase “the middle of nowhere” (snowy, isolated peaks; miles deep in an ancient woodland) this trailhead feels like the most Irish version of the saying. The valley that the Tullylacken Loop meanders through is a a narrow river valley that somewhat divides the Iron Mountains area from the Cuilcagh Mountains. There is a bridge, there is a gravel track, there’s some bog, and that’s it.

But that’s okay - I’m not here to find long forgotten summits, or searching for glacial lakes. I’m here to appreciate the sunshine, and explore in a more minute way.

A note on way-marking

Depending on what information you read the way-markers for this trail are referred to by different colours - and are then different again once you see them in person. I think this is partially due to the age of the trail and the sun-bleaching of the signage. The way-markers that I followed for most of this trail were purple and pink arrows. I think the “blue arrow” that Leitrim Tourism refers to in their trail description has faded to the purple colour I saw (and to add some confusion, the purple they talk about I think might now be the pink). I think this is a route best walked with downloaded digital maps.

Trail Overview:

The start point of this trail is at its most southerly end, and walks in an anti-clockwise direction. On the walk out, you will stay quite east of the Yellow River, with glimpses of it down below you to the left. At the most northerly point of the trail, you’ll come to a four-way crossroads. The trail turns left here, heading back down the valley, closer to the banks of the yellow river. If you keep going straight here, and will soon hit a bridge that crosses the river. It’s only on the return journey that you will cross over the river to the westerly bank.

The trail never brings you right alongside the river. Descriptions of its original route make it sound like it once did - but in it’s current form, the whole route sticks to the logging tracks of the forest.

After maybe an hour of walking on that sunny evening, I was struck again by the quiet of the place. I’d not heard a soul since half way through my drive over, and I doubted I was about to see anyone any time soon. And that is the gift of this trail - the solitude. It can’t offer the excitement of Kerry, or the development of the Mournes, but it can give you space.

As I neared the end of the return journey, two large red shapes stepped out from the trees and began walking along the track ahead of me. My brain froze - these were the biggest reddy-brown creatures I’d ever seen. For a split second, my thoughts shouted “moose?!”. But of course, it was a much more native animal in front of me. It was two red deer bucks, the largest, reddest bucks I’d ever seen. They walked with no hurry in their steps, and as the second reached their unmarked turn-off, it looked back at me as if laughing at my incredulous stare.

The Tullylacken Loop is a nice evening outing. It’s not a trail I would travel to Leitrim for, but if you are here and want somewhere new to walk, it’s a perfectly good option. And who knows, maybe you’ll meet the same two bucks that I did - if you do, give them a wave from me.