Know Before You Go: There are several trails of varying lengths in this park. We hiked Kerry Way from Derrycunnihy Church to Lord Brandon’s Cottage for a total of 6.26 miles that included a detour to see a waterfall. Length: See above. Time: Our route took us 3 hours. Terrain: Mostly crushed aggregate and some boardwalk through a bog. Difficulty: Moderate. Dog-friendly: Yes. Dogs must be leashed. Kid-friendly: Yes. Killarney National Park is a beautiful wooded area in County Kerry. It offers many miles of hiking trails; we chose to hike the Kerry Way from Derrycunnihy Church to Lord Brandon’s Cottage for a little over 6 miles. Parts of this hike are hilly, and on calm days can be buggy. We successfully warded off the midges (small biting insects) with vanilla perfume, which incidentally made us want cookies for the entire hike.
The hike starts at the ruins of an old church, and takes you down into a verdant valley through a beautiful wooded area. You then walk past the ruins of old homesteads, through a bog to Lord Brandon’s Cottage, where we loved the old bridge spanning the river. We did this as an out and back, but detoured to view a gorgeous waterfall on our way back.