How difficult is the The Dingle Way?

Two thirds of this stretch is canal bank, back road and near empty boreen, and one part of it governs everything: the open flank of the Slieve Mish above Tralee Bay, where the line is carried across wet ground on large red sandstone slabs laid as stepping stones. It is slow, you watch your feet instead of the view, and a boot goes into the bog sooner or later. Below Killelton the trail drops onto an old hedge lined road, the pre railway Tralee to Dingle road, used as a cattle drove and churned accordingly. Past Camp the character changes completely: quiet minor roads over a 235 m saddle between Corrin and Knockbrack, the one conifer plantation on the whole circuit, a rough track up from the Emlagh River, then the high ground above Inch strand and a dead straight road down into Annascaul. The last part descends to the lonely beach below Minard Castle and climbs steeply back onto farm boreens for Lispole.

Navigation: Waymarked with the standard yellow walking man posts and hard to lose on the road sections. The open mountainside is where attention is needed: the line is defined by posts and by the laid slabs rather than by a worn path, so in cloud the posts are what you are following. On the boreen network west of Camp the junctions come thick and a marker is easy to miss; one walker's account of this stretch describes taking the wrong arm of a junction and adding the best part of a mile before realising.

In poor weather: Rain is what makes this section slow rather than dangerous. The bog between the sandstone slabs on the Slieve Mish flank goes ankle deep, the slabs themselves get greasy, and the old drove road below Killelton turns to deep mud where cattle use it. Gaiters earn their keep here more than anywhere else on the circuit. The 235 m saddle beyond Camp is open to anything coming off Tralee Bay, and in low cloud the two things that redeem the day, the bay behind and Inch strand ahead, are simply not there.

Escape options: The N86 Tralee to Dingle road shadows this whole stretch from the valley below, and Camp at about km 17 (a kilometre downhill from the trail junction), Inch at about km 29 and Annascaul at km 34 all sit on it with food, a shop and a bus stop. The gap is the mountainside between Blennerville and Camp: roughly 9 km with no vehicle access on it at all, and ground rough enough that getting an injured walker off it would be slow.

A short link with one real change of character in it. From Lispole the Way crosses the N86 and turns inland on a minor road toward Croaghskearda, then leaves tarmac to cut across farmland and climb onto the lower slopes at Lios Deargáin. That is about 5 km of field and hillside going, with gates, stiles and stock, and it is the muckiest ground on the eastern half of the peninsula. It tops out near 150 m, drops to the Garfinny River bridge, crosses the Conor Pass road, and then hands over a steady road descent into Dingle with the town in view almost the whole way, which is longer in the head than in the legs.

Navigation: The road sections at both ends are obvious. The 5 km across farmland and open slope is the part that needs the map and the posts together, because the line runs gate to gate and stile to stile rather than along anything worn in.

In poor weather: Only the middle matters. The farmland and lower slope crossing is described as mucky in ordinary conditions and gets appreciably worse after rain, which is where the time goes on an otherwise short section. Everything either side is tarmac and walks the same wet or dry.

Escape options: Short enough that this is rarely a question. Lispole sits on the N86 at the start and Dingle is a full town at the end. The hill crossing in the middle climbs away from the main road but stays inside the minor road network below Croaghskearda, so nowhere on it is far from tarmac.

Easy walking with one nuisance at the end of it. Out of Dingle along the harbour and over the Milltown River, then low farmland lanes before the signed line turns north with the Pilgrims' Route and cuts across country to the saddle at Mám an Óraigh, where the ground is wet underfoot. From there it drops to Ventry and onto sand, a long arc across Ventry Harbour with the streams bridged, and it is the first genuinely restful walking of the circuit. Firm ground, lanes and tracks follow. Then the route meets the Slea Head Road, where an access problem has closed the mapped path and walkers are put onto a narrow, verge free tourist drive instead.

Navigation: Two places where the ground and the Ordnance Survey mapping disagree, both of them flagged by the route guides. North of Dingle the signed line joins the Pilgrims' Route for a few hundred metres and then cuts north west across country, instead of running directly for Ventry as the map shows. At Cill Mhic an Domhnaigh the mapped path is unavailable and the waymarks send you along the Slea Head Road, with a lane on the right at the end of the long bend taking you back up onto the mapped route. Follow the waymarks over the map on both.

In poor weather: Mám an Óraigh is wet ground in any weather and worse after rain. The real weather problem here is the enforced road section: the Slea Head Road is a busy scenic drive with no bank or verge on either side to step onto, so in rain, spray and poor light you are relying entirely on drivers seeing you. Single file, and take the outside of bends so cars have longer to pick you up.

Escape options: Dingle at the start and Ceann Trá at about km 65 are both on the R559 with a shop and food. From the strand onwards the road is never far away, which is exactly what makes the last part of this section unpleasant rather than remote.

The walking people come to the peninsula for, and the steepest average climbing of any section on the circuit despite being the shortest. A lane climbs off the Slea Head Road onto a shelf at around 160 m under Mount Eagle, and the Way holds that height for roughly 7 km with the Atlantic directly below and the Blasket Islands opening out as it rounds Slea Head. The hillside is littered with clocháns, dry stone beehive huts in every state of ruin, which is a distraction from the sea rather than an addition to it. It ends back on the main road for the last 3 km, dropping past Dunquin pier.

Navigation: Simple. The shelf under Mount Eagle carries one obvious path and the road sections at either end are unmistakable. What needs care here is traffic on the road, not route finding.

In poor weather: This section is its view, and in low cloud there is nothing in it, which is worth knowing before you spend a day or an extra night on it. The shelf is fully exposed to anything from the west with no shelter along its whole length, and the road at both ends carries the same verge free tourist traffic as the section before.

Escape options: The Slea Head Road stays close below for almost the whole traverse, so reaching tarmac is easy. There is no settlement at all between Ventry and Dún Chaoin.

Two quite different days joined into one stretch. The first is coastal and forgiving: a climb out of Dún Chaoin onto a gravel path round the shoulder of An Ghráig, grassland and cliff top past Clogher, then nearly 6 km of sand across the head of Smerwick Harbour with Ballyferriter left well inland, and about 3 km of cliff path beyond Ballydavid that is marshy in places and overgrown in high summer. The second is the crux of the whole circuit. From Feohanagh a quiet road runs in to the foot of Brandon, an old green road climbs steadily, and the Way crosses the col between Masatiompan and Piaras Mór at about 650 m, the highest ground on any waymarked trail in Ireland, with the Arraglen ogham stone at the top and a 450 m drop straight into the sea on the seaward side. The descent is the part that hurts: steep, saturated, with no continuous path, only water courses and terracing between the posts, helped in places by stone steps. Gravel track and lanes then run down the valley to Brandon and Cloghane.

Navigation: Posted throughout, and on the coastal half it is straightforward. The col is the one place on this trail where navigation genuinely matters, because the descent has no path to follow, only posts across broken boggy ground, and in cloud you find them one at a time. One current difference from older Ordnance Survey mapping: at the T junction by the Ceann Sibéal golf links the route now takes the east side of the course rather than the west.

In poor weather: The crossing is weather dependent in a way nothing else on this route is. After heavy rain the descent from the col is the hazard, steep and saturated, and poles are worth having for it. In strong wind the col is a bad place to be caught: walkers have described being knocked down and pushed downhill by gusts on this crossing, on ground that falls 450 m to the sea on its seaward side. In cloud there is nothing to see and the posts have to be picked up one by one. The coastal half simply gets wet and slow, and the cliff path hedgerows beyond Ballydavid close in during summer.

Escape options: Good as far as Feohanagh. The road is beside or near the route for most of the western coastal stretch, and Ballyferriter, Murreagh, Ballydavid and An Fheothanach all sit on it. After the green road starts climbing at about km 105 there is nothing at all until the valley at about km 116, and the only way off the mountain is forward and down toward Brandon and Cloghane. That is roughly 11 km of commitment over the highest ground on the route, and it is what the day turns on.

Flat, long, and mostly sand. A quiet undulating road leaves Cloghane over the Owenmore, swings inland round Drom, and returns to the sea at Fermoyle, and from there the Way takes about 11 km of unbroken strand, the longest beach in Ireland, out to the Maharees. Firm wet sand near the water is fast walking; the dry sand higher up is not, and the choice between them is made for you by the tide. Several streams cross the strand and can run deep after heavy rain or on a big spring tide, when the dunes are the answer rather than the water. Sand ends at Fahamore and Scraggane Bay, a shorter beach runs back down the east side of the Maharees, tarmac leads into Castlegregory, and then flat bog with old turf cuttings takes the route back to the shore for a final stretch of shoreline walking that the tide can close.

Navigation: Nothing to lose on 11 km of beach, and the questions here are about tide and streams rather than about the line. The two places worth paying attention are coming off the strand at the right point for the Maharees, and picking the route back onto the shore after Aughacasla. On that last shoreline stretch the sea level line cannot always be walked, and the alternative is a short pull up onto the low cliffs above, which becomes obvious when it is needed. One thing about where you put your feet rather than which way you go. The whole of this section from Fermoyle to Camp lies inside the Tralee Bay and Magharees Peninsula, West to Cloghane SAC, site code 002070, and the NPWS site synopsis names trampling of dunes next to tourist facilities, alongside over-grazing and fertilisation, as among the most threatening activities there, saying these may lead to severe erosion. The same dune complex holds the largest breeding population of natterjack toads in Ireland, with a second breeding site at Fermoyle at the western end of the strand. Where the tide or a swollen stream pushes you off the sand, use a gap or a crossing that is already worn through the dune line rather than picking your own line up the face, and come back down to the beach the same way.

In poor weather: Wind decides this day. Eleven kilometres of open strand with nothing to shelter behind means a head wind is felt for hours, with blown sand in it. Heavy rain swells the streams that cross the sand and a high spring tide narrows the beach, and both push you into soft sand or the dunes and cost time. On the shoreline before Camp a high tide simply closes the low line and you take the few metres of climb onto the cliff top instead.

Escape options: Cloghane at the start and Castlegregory at km 151 are the realistic places to leave, and Castlegregory is the only sizeable settlement on the north coast. The Maharees in between, out at Fahamore and Kilshannig, is the weak point: it is a dead end peninsula, the road back off it is long, and it is the least escapable ground on the route after the Brandon crossing.

The same mountainside as the first morning, walked the other way round. From the junction above Camp the Way crosses the N86 and climbs straight back onto the flank of the Slieve Mish for about 9 km of open ground: sandstone slabs over bog, stiles coming thick and fast, nine of them with two streams and a gate inside one 2 km stretch, and the Killelton ruins on the old hedge lined road. It reads better in this direction than it did on day one, because Tralee Bay and the Blennerville windmill sit ahead of you and grow slowly instead of disappearing behind. Off the hill it is quiet back road, the N86 through Blennerville, and then the canal towpath for the last flat two kilometres into town.

Navigation: Straightforward, with one thing to know. The junction above Camp is where the circuit meets itself, so a walker arriving there is choosing between the way back to Tralee and the outward line toward Annascaul. On the mountainside above it the route is defined by posts and by the laid slabs rather than by a worn path, exactly as it was on the first day.

In poor weather: Same ground as day one and the same behaviour. The bog between the slabs fills after rain, the old drove road below Killelton churns to mud where cattle use it, and the streams crossed between the stiles come up quickly in heavy rain. The traverse is open to anything blowing in off Tralee Bay, with no shelter along its length.

Escape options: Camp at the start and Blennerville near the end are both on the N86. The 9 km of mountainside between them has no vehicle access on it, and although the main road runs below along the coast, the ground down to it is rough. For a final stage this is a longer commitment than most walkers expect.