Kyle Loop

Beautiful trail, the views along the way are great and the walk itself was not very busy and quite peaceful. I did it today (August 2020) and it was easy to find, well marked. The only thing is you have to park in Tinahely and actually walk ~30min to the trailhead but that's indicated, too I just found it a little confusing. Anyways, great walk, I enjoyed it tremendously!

Absolutely fabulous for the first 8.5 miles, at Ballycumber Hill it all falls apart. There are no purple arrows. It took me ages (even with the help of the Wind Farm security guard) to finally find a hand written sign for the Kyle loop, then there are tons of purple arrows for half mile & then it disappears again. As it was getting dark I simply got down off the hill & ended up coming out in Ballinglen...miles from my car. Your C-D directions need to be reviewed and more markers along the wind farm area. I realize darkness falling was my own mistake but in fairness I went there under the impression from yourselves & other Wicklow tourism sites that it was entirely waymarked. I'll definitely go back & try again, but earlier!

Lovely trail until you come to the new site for the Ballycumber Wind Farm. The Construction company there have removed the waymarked route sign and thrown it into a ditch. You have about 4 options, none of which are marked. We kept walking forward, came to a locked farm gate, no stile over it, no marker and so we turned back and made our way to the road to be on safe side. No idea which direction we were supposed to walk in. Ended up doing a 23km route to get back to Tinahely.

Distance from trail head and back is 13,2km, definitely not 16km. If you start from Tinahely GAA parking + 4,2km. Nice views but very muddy.

Walked this route on Monday 22/09 after staying the night in the Kyle Farmhouse B&B which was excellent. I chose to walk the loop in reverse (clockwise) in order to get the road sections out of the way early on. In addition you are treated to great views of Lug and Croaghanmoira as you return north to the farmhouse. It is advisable to bring the downloadable map with you as the route is waymarked in the opposite direction only. The climb up beyond Mangan's Wood is fairly steep but you are well rewarded with fine views across Tinahely from Ballycumber Hill. As you return along the main track heading north there are numerous new tracks which are not marked on the map. Ignore these and continue straight ahead. I did not include the section down to the trailhead so it took 3 hours covering 12kms. Number of other walkers passed...ZERO!!!

Walked this trail on the 02/01/12. The trail is well marked. It’s a good walk for all ages, mixture of forest, river valley and hills, quite back roads etc .Without breaks you can walk this in about 4hrs. Its a quite walk - only meet a couple of groups. Please park at GAA grounds as parking is limited at trail head . Plenty of places to stop and take in the views of the surrounding country side. Please note the section that meets up with the Wicklow way is quite muddy this time of year and good footwear is needed.