Outdoor Odysseys

Kerry Way and Torc Mountain: A Highland Trek from Kenmare to Killarney

In one respect, my longer stay in Killarney was a year too early. 2023 brought an enhanced bus service between Killarney and Kenmare. That would have made for an earlier start along the main hike of my second full day in Kerry: the section of the Kerry Way between Kenmare and Killarney. The later start may have meant that I had longer around Killarney before setting off, yet the long Irish summer evenings meant that there was no major impact in the end.

If I was too early for making use of better bus services, I was optimally timed for avoiding overtourism. A stroll through Knockreer this past July brought that home to me. While it might have been a later arrival from Cork that put me in the time slot for hotel guests being conveyed on horse and carriage tours by jarveys, I was left with the impression that jarveys owed nothing to passing walkers and cyclists. Convoys of them were going my way, and it did not feel very comfortable at all. The 2022 forays avoided all that in a world only slowly emerging from the pandemic tourism nadir.

Unless I have some business to do, I tend not to loiter around Irish towns if I can avoid doing so. That was how it went for me in Kenmare, so I set to finding the route of the Kerry Way and ascending a back road leading unyieldingly uphill from the town. As it did so, I was treated to ever expanding views of Kenmare River and nearby Beara Peninsula on any rest breaks that were needed. The quietude of my surroundings was a marked counterpoint to extensive commercial business ongoing in the town that I left behind me.

Not many others passed me in the opposite direction as I ventured further into the hills. As I did so, it was what surrounded me took up my attention in place of what lay behind me. Gradients also eased to make for less demanding progress along the boreen. It was as if I were passing through such an emerald idyll past which it was rude to rush. Many photography stops ensued as I closed in on Peakeen Mountain and Knockanaguish.

Leaving tarmacked boreens behind me, I took to the gravelled track leading me between Peakeen Mountain and Knockanaguish. It was hereabouts that the skies clouded to limit photography, and a rain shower overtook me to provide the only wetting of the day. Nevertheless, it soon passed to let me imbibe the delights of the bucolic surroundings. It really was special to have such a place deserted and to allot me one of the best lunching stops that I have ever enjoyed. That Windy Gap was not living up to its name made the experience even better.

After that elevated lunching spot, a descent was in order on a track leading to Galway’s Bridge and Derrycunihy. However, that was not the direction to be following for Killarney, so I turned right to ascend to Esknamucky Glen; the name of the glen means place of the pigs in Irish (Eisc na Muicí). Before getting, someone going the other way asked for directions to Lady’s View, an inquiry that surprised me. A consultation of the map revealed that they were not so misplaced, though a walk along the N72 did not strike me as anyone’s idea of pleasure.

If I was expecting a gravel track all the way through Esknamucky Glen, disappointment would have been my lot. Since the surface of the trail is at times uneven along the lower slopes of Cromaglan Mountain, I was glad to be wearing boots. The aforementioned hill might make for a pleasing outing, especially after I opted not to reach its summit, and it is far from being the highest in the area by a long shot.

Only for someone else already being there, I might have dawdled near a small lake and an attendant waterfall on an off-trail break. It would have been well-placed after all the care with foot placement that preceded it. Instead, I made for the track that brought the idea of following the Old Kenmare Road section of the Kerry Way to my notice in the first place.

That was on a claggy day trip to Killarney from Tralee the previous June. Then, I made my getaway from a human throng that centred on Muckross Road to reach the top of Torc Mountain, despite the lack of any views because of the low cloud base. My passing the same hill in better conditions meant that I could not decide against making another ascent, even after the ups and downs of coming all that way from Kenmare.

The added exertions were amply rewarded. Some Americans making their descent shared their astonishment at what they saw; the word “awesome” got used. As overused as that term might be, the panoramic views that I had missed on the earlier encounter were all there to be savoured. All of Killarney’s lakes lay below, from Upper Lake to Muckross Lake to Lough Leane, along with Lough Guitane near Glenflesk and nestled beneath Mangerton and its neighbouring hills. This was a spot on which to linger, yet there was a good distance to walk to get to Killarney, and I needed to get going. That would have put paid to any designs on reaching the lower west top of the hill, should they ever had existed.

Conscious of time, I made my descent over boardwalk and pitched path, hardly a great combination for scurrying downhill when one’s fear of tumbling takes control. Once on the track below, I rejected the prospect of a descent by Torc Waterfall for a gentler gravelled, and later tarmacked, one following the course of the Old Kenmare Road before crossing the N72 into Muckross.

By this stage, my recollection is that things had degenerated to a sort of zombie trot. Fatigue was to blame at the time, though I now wonder if time also was of the essence. Whatever was the combination of causes, it felt rude to be scurrying past Muckross Friary in the state of mind that I had entered by then. After travelling several more kilometres, I was back at my accommodation, ready for a good night’s rest after an often stunning day.