Beara Way 8-Day Gentle Tour (Hillwalk Tours)

The Beara Way is a 152km (95 mile) long circular route around the Beara Peninsula that begins and ends in Glengarriff, County Cork. The route passes through magnificently rugged mountain and seacoast scenery in Counties Kerry and Cork. Additional walks (e.g. on Bere Island and Dursey Island) can bring the overall length of the Beara Way to more than 200km.

The Beara Peninsula itself (as opposed to the Beara Way) is a 48km long mountainous stretch of land which reaches into the Atlantic Ocean. Quite remote, it has remained perhaps the most unspoilt part of the southwest region of Ireland, and, similar to the Kerry Way to the north, it is a magical world of mountains and lakes surrounded by a picturesque seacoast. The route frequently passes superb archaeological evidence of a prehistoric people in the form of standing stones and burial monuments.

There are also many lovely villages and towns along the trail, such as Glengarriff, Castletownbere, Kenmare, Allihies and Eyeries. A loop of the route includes a visit to Bere Island, and (by an exciting trip on Ireland’s only cable-car) a visit to the sparsely inhabited Dursey Island.