Qualla: South Kerry Greenway https://qualla.com/south-kerry-greenway en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/b/south-kerry-greenway-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: South Kerry Greenway https://qualla.com/south-kerry-greenway South Kerry Greenway: Introduction https://qualla.com/south-kerry-greenway/ Photo credit Joe King, CC BY-SA 3.0. The trains stopped in 1960 and the rails came up shortly after. For sixty-five years the corridor sat empty between Glenbeigh and Cahersiveen - a thin scar across the south side of the Iveragh Peninsula, marked by a few stone bridges and the embankments where a narrow-gauge line once carried passengers from Farranfore to Valentia Harbour and the transatlantic cable station beyond. Then somebody noticed that empty railway corridors make excellent paths for bicycles. The South Kerry Greenway, thirty-two kilometres of off-road trail along the old line, has been one of the more contested infrastructure projects in modern Ireland - dismissed by the High Court, appealed to the Supreme Court, finally cleared to proceed in 2022, with the first sections finally opening to the public in December 2025.

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Image: Joe King | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/b/south-kerry-greenway-wp/gc2b-south-kerry-greenway-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full South Kerry Greenway: A Line to the Edge of Europe https://qualla.com/south-kerry-greenway/ Photo credit Joe King, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Farranfore-Valentia Harbour line opened in 1893, built by the Great Southern and Western Railway to connect Kerry's interior to the country's western edge. Valentia Island was, at the time, one of the most strategically important places in the western world. The first success...

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Image: Joe King | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/b/south-kerry-greenway-wp/gc2b-south-kerry-greenway-a-line-to-the-edge-of-europe.mp3 0:06 2 full South Kerry Greenway: The Trail Idea https://qualla.com/south-kerry-greenway/ Photo credit Joe King, CC BY-SA 3.0. The proposal to convert the corridor into a greenway emerged in the 2010s, part of a broader Irish enthusiasm for rail trails. The Great Western Greenway in Mayo had proved the model: take an old railway, lay a smooth surface, add signage and bridges, and watch cyclists and walke...

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Image: Joe King | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/b/south-kerry-greenway-wp/gc2b-south-kerry-greenway-the-trail-idea.mp3 0:06 3 full South Kerry Greenway: The Legal Fight https://qualla.com/south-kerry-greenway/ Photo credit Joe King, CC BY-SA 3.0. What followed was not a construction project but a legal one. Compulsory purchase orders to acquire strips of land along the old railway corridor met sustained opposition from some landowners. Two legal challenges aimed to halt the greenway in 2021, citing planning failures and e...

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Image: Joe King | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/b/south-kerry-greenway-wp/gc2b-south-kerry-greenway-the-legal-fight.mp3 0:06 4 full South Kerry Greenway: Building Slowly https://qualla.com/south-kerry-greenway/ Photo credit Joe King, CC BY-SA 3.0. Construction has been deliberate. The first section - a 3.1-kilometre stretch near Kells - opened in December 2025. A further section between the Glenbeigh trailhead and Mountain Stage opened in early April 2026, bringing roughly seven kilometres of the trail into public use. The...

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Image: Joe King | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/b/south-kerry-greenway-wp/gc2b-south-kerry-greenway-building-slowly.mp3 0:06 5 full South Kerry Greenway: What the Route Will Show https://qualla.com/south-kerry-greenway/ Photo credit Joe King, CC BY-SA 3.0. Where the greenway is open, riders and walkers trace a route that runs near the coast, with views across Dingle Bay to the mountains of the Dingle Peninsula and inland to the high ground of the MacGillycuddy's Reeks. They pass through farmland that has been worked for generations...

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Image: Joe King | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/2/b/south-kerry-greenway-wp/gc2b-south-kerry-greenway-what-the-route-will-show.mp3 0:06 6 full