Slieve Felim Way

Walking
County Limerick
4/5
10 reviews
Grade Moderate
Length 43 km
Time 2 days
Format Linear
Ascent 870 m
Dogs Allowed Yes
Waymarking Yellow arrow on black background
Start Point
Murroe
Finish Point
Silvermines
Nearest Town to Start Murroe
Grid Ref. R 730 554 / R 840 715
Lat. and Long. 52.6492, -8.39897 / 52.79432, -8.23721

The Slieve Felim Way is a 43km linear walking route through the counties of Limerick and Tipperary well away from the hustle and bustle of main roads. The route weaves its way from the village of Murroe through foothills and around Slieve Felim (422m), Keeper Hill (694m) and the Silvermine Mountains (475m) to finish at the former mining village of Silvermines. Near the southern end of the route and worth a visit is the Benedictine monastery of Glenstall Abbey. The terrain consists of quiet roads, forestry tracks and field paths: some wet stretches may be expected. The total aggregate ascent over the route is less than 900m, and there are no significant climbs, but there are some spectacular long views from the route, particularly along the northern section. There are not many options for public transport access or overnight accommodation along the route, so unless you intend covering the entire route in one go careful planning is needed. For more information follow external link to Shannon Region Trails - Slieve Felim Way

Facilities

Car parking At Start - on street in Murroe At End - on street in Silvermines

11 kms or 26% of the Way follows local roads.

Map Guides

Map Guides

Slieve Felim Way Walking Trail - Shannon Development - out of print

OSI Maps

OSI Maps

Discovery Series Sheets 59, 65 and 66
Public Transportation

Public Transportation

At Start: Limited bus service Check with Bus Eireann. At End: Very limited bus service Check with Bus Eireann.

3/5
08/27/2022

Jan Hayes from Limerick

We walked from Silvermines to Murroe in a single day and it took about 9 hours. The stretch from Silvermines to Toor is the highlight of the route in my opinion, providing fantastic views of the area from Keeper Hill. We did run into some issues of signposting and accuracy of the route map around Keeper Hill, there were at least 3 occasions that forks on the road were missing sign posts and had to rely on Google Maps to make sure we were on the right path.
Toor to Rear Cross is also very good, more comfortable to do in the drier season. The beginning and the end of this stretch is subject to muddier and wetter terrain so be prepared if you're planning on going during the winter.
The 1.6km stretch on the R503 ruined the overall experience, it was a reasonably busy road at the time and I counted at least a dozen trucks going through this section. In my opinion, this stretch is far too dangerous and needs to be made more hiking friendly, or the route should be rearranged to avoid the R503 altogether.
From Rear Cross to Murroe is ok, halfway on the path you do get a nice view from the Slieve Felims. 99% of the Glenstal Woods section feels like you're only seeing Sitka Spruce. Once exiting Glenstal Woods, the map route takes you through Garranebane, we veered off the path and went straight through Glenstal Abbey instead which is a nicer route to experience than what the map suggested. I would have preferred to take a different route that would have me end up in Clare Glens.
Overall a pretty good experience but I think it could with some improvements with signage and safety in the Rear Cross section.
4/5
01/03/2022

Úna Ryan from Tipperary

Great trail through the area. Did it over 2 days in December. Good signage - easy to follow.
5/5
08/08/2020

Joan from Cork

We completed this route on mountain bikes in August 2020. We started in Silvermines and took about 5 hours (including a couple of short breaks). The route was really suitable for mountain bikes; generally good surface, only a couple of short sections were too steep to ride, there were hardly any gates or stiles. On the final forest trail descent recent gravel is very rough and uncomfortable to cycle over, but this should bed down over time.
We finished our day with a glorious swim at the nearby Clare Glens. A surprisingly good outing.
11/25/2019

Bob from Limerick

A group of 8 of us ran the trail on the 23rd November, starting in Silvermines and finishing just outside Murroe. Most of the trail is forestry roads but there are sections that are very wet and boggy – just before you cross the Rearcross to Newport Road and the first 2KM out of Toor heading south. We found that some of the trail markers were either missing, knocked or covered in vegetation, so we needed to use the map on our phones a few times to get back on course. It took us 4hours to run the trail and we were all pleasantly surprised by it.
4/5
07/16/2019

Mark from Limerick

Not normally one for lowland forest walks but I'm glad to say I was plesently surprised by this trail. Started at the trail head by Glenstal Abbey and got collected in Toor. Next day started at Keeper Hill trail head and got collected in the Silvermines after a well deserved ice cream. The route is pretty well marked but keep your eyes open for one or two hidden markers. As the majority of the trail is on forest tracks views are not as frequent as you would hope but some nice surprises along the way including some grazing deer more than make up for it. Definitely one to tick off your list.
4/5
12/30/2018

Neil from Dublin

Myself and a friend completed this trail over December 28/29.

45.1km and 1,379m vertical in total.

Day 1 - Murroe to Toor - 23.1km and 566m.

Day 2 - Toor to Silvermines - 22.0km and 813m.

We found a great place to camp in the middle of Toor with flat ground, tables, chairs, benches, bins, fire pit and trail info. There is a little pub immediately in front of the Church. No sign or name over the door, look for an old Harp sticker on the window. There are toilets there and they are happy to fill up your water bottles.

Really enjoyable trail, very well sign posted, not too much hiking on roads. A few fallen trees but easy to pass under them.
4/5
01/17/2018

Thomas from Limerick

Ran the trail from glenstal abbey , murroe in the middle of January. As you'd expect this time of year a lot of patches are very wet and boggy. The signage is very good and I didn't have to look at a map along the whole thing. There were 7 fallen trees on the forest section between the rear Ross rd and Toor village. Snow was covering half the trail, not much about an inch , making it nice to walk on. My watch said 27 miles. Very senic in places and worth the effort. Bring food and water as there is nothing on the whole trail. The majority of the trail is along rolling forestry road's.
08/09/2017

Barry from Limerick

A group of 5 of us ran this trail on the 30/07/2017. The trail is in general good condition. We started in the village of Silvermines. The toughest hill was out of Silvermines "Step". A bit of a boggy bit on the Toor section near the Rearcross road.



The way markers are all there. Make sure to have a map with you for reassurance.



Enjoy.
08/04/2017

Ger from Limerick

Coming from Rearcross to Morroe - great trail and we'll marked. This leg is around 2.5 hrs mostly downhill., The last part is road but by going through Glenstall Abbey grounds, it gives a satisfying finish.



01/03/2017

Pab from Clare

Well marked trail. A group of 4 tackled it on a great day (28th Dec 2016), with visibility from the side of Keeper Hill across the plain to Limerick City and beyond. Some parts of the trail, no more than 2km, were very wet and unavoidable. Parts of the trail are relatively remote and obviously not often used. Probably around 1-2 km total were on road, 6 km on small road and the rest was mountain road or track. Bring your own food and water as there isn't anything apart from the start/finish points in Silvermines or Murroe. Took about 6.25 hours, mixture of running, hiking and a bit of waiting at Toor and on the Newport road. Great trail, now if anyone can recommend the same mix of trails/mountains and isolation, that would be great!

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