Overview:

Distance: 165km
County: Roscommon - Longford - Westmeath - Meath - Kildare - Dublin
Format: Linear Trail
Time: 5 - 8 Days
Start point: The National Famine Museum, Strokestown, Co. Roscommon
Start point on google maps
End point: Dublin Docklands
The end is both/either EPIC (The Irish Emigration Museum) and/or the World Poverty Stone, depending on your choice.
Trail difficulty: Easy
The trail follows quiet roads, canal banks, with a small percentage of farmland.
Way-marking: Yellow arrows / walking figure on a black background (affectionally known as Elvis on this website).
Read about trail grading in Ireland here.
Trail quality: 3/5
This trail uses a lot of hard surfaces along the canal. This means that it’s also a very lovely cycle route, but sometimes tiring on the feet. However, it is also very easy to follow, with towns spaced nicely along it.
Views: 2.5/5
A wide variety of terrain and landscapes
Buggy/Wheelchair friendly: No
Dogs allowed: No
Accommodation / Camping options:
There is the official list of accommodation options on the National Famine Way website. While we camped along the Royal Canal when we first walked it, it’s become much more developed and is a widely used cycle path. I am doubtful camping would be possible along this route currently.
When did we walk it:
- The Royal Canal Way Dublin - Cloondara: April 2017
- The National Famine Way Cloondara - Strokestown: September 2019
Maps:
- Download free maps from Sport Ireland
- Access the map digitally on HiiKER

Typical Route Stages:

Strokestown, Co Roscommon to Clondra, Co. Longford – 20km
Richmond Harbour in Clondra, Co. Longford to Abbeyshrule, Co. Longford – 32km
Abbeyshrule, Co. Longford to Mullingar, Co. Westmeath – 27km
Mullingar, Co. Westmeath to Longwood Harbour, Co. Meath – 30km
Longwood, Co. Meath to Maynooth Harbour, Co. Kildare – 28km
Maynooth, Co. Kildare to Famine Scupltures in Dublin’s Docklands – 27km

There is the option of filling out a passport by collecting stamps along this Way. Find the Stamping locations here.

Overview

From 2017 to 2019, Carl and I walked the 42 National Waymarked Trails of Ireland, exploring everything from open mountain sides to wild river banks and quiet forest floors. However a list of trails is never a static thing, as the people and land that it interacts with change over time. Which is why, only a couple of months after finishing all of the trails, we were back out again on a new Way.

This is the National Famine Way, a 165km historical trail from Roscommon to Dublin. Starting at Strokestown House and the National Famine Museum, it connects to the Royal Canal, which you then follow the whole way to Dublin and the famine statues at the World Poverty Stone in Dublin Docklands. It’s a new trail, but an old tale.

“The National Famine Way … traces the footsteps of the Strokestown tenants, men, women and children who were marched from Roscommon to Dublin in 1847 after they failed to pay their rent. In Dublin, they boarded a ship to Liverpool before journeying to North America on board some of the worst coffin ships of the time. Not all of them made it alive. They became known as the 'Missing 1490'.”

Developed around the stories of those who had to emigrate en-masse from rural Ireland, the National Famine Way focuses on the experiences of individuals from the time to help us see past the numbers to the personal. One of the key stories is that of twelve year old Daniel Tighe, who was part of the Missing 1490. His story is told along the walk by the bronze shoes you’ll find. There are some 30+ shoes installed along the trail, and at each one you can listen to the next part of his story reimagined by author Marita Conlon-McKenna.

Bronze shoes installed beside a bridge, Co. Roscommon

Having previously walked the Royal Canal from Dublin to Cloondara in 2017, Carl and I decided to walk the remaining 20km to the National Famine Museum, and learn about this trail and it’s development. It was mid-September in 2019, and is often the case in Ireland, we were having a “back to school heatwave”. We had only finished our original Tough Soles list of 42 National Waymarked Trails that July. It was strange to be back out again so soon, but also something of a relief to be doing something we knew so well. Was this list ever going to be over? Did we ever want it to end?

However, we didn’t need to solve such questions, as our good friend and long-time Tough Soles supporter Jen had made the trip to Roscommon with us, and as such was providing the perfect distraction from our own introspection. We wanted her to have a true Tough Soles Experience.

Starting in the tiny village of Cloondara, it’s a short 1km walk up to the next village, Termonbarry. This is also the last town or village you will pass through until Strokestown some 19km away, and so it also meant reliving the age old Tough Soles tradition of finding our one chance at coffee.

As we sat in the classically dimly lit Irish pub with our mid-morning snacks, we got to watch Tarmonbarry Bridge (one of the narrower crossing points of the River Shannon) raise the middle section straight up like someone lifting both ends of a table moderately up, as if to move a rug in underneath.

Continuing on, we were predominantly on small lanes for the rest of the day, taking as close to a straight line as back-country roads can offer.

The National Famine Way is an interesting trail. As I’ve mentioned, we came to this having walked the Royal Canal Way before. The canal was a perfect starter trail - the terrain is very flat, and it’s almost impossible to get lost. But it lacked a story to connect you to the places you passed, resulting in a bit of a monotonous few days.

The creation of the National Famine Way gives you context and lens with which to see the landscape around you. This trail engages with a dark part of Irish history, and those quiet in-between sections of trail provide time to reflect. The emptiness of the bogs in the midlands takes on a new silence. Reflecting on the two experiences, I think that the Famine Way is the better way to experience this route through bog and waterways.

It gives context to land, connects people to history, and reminds us to care for the people and world around us.