Connemara and Mayo · Moderate · There and back

Achill: Keem Bay to Moyteoge Head and the Benmore cliffs

From Keem Bay on Achill up past the old lookout on Moyteoge Head and along unfenced cliff tops to the high point of the path on Benmore.

Distance
4.8 km (3.0 mi)
Ascent
245 m
Time
About 2 h
High point
293 m
Grade
Moderate

Line © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), checked by Global Adventurer.

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Achill: Keem Bay to Moyteoge Head and the Benmore cliffs
Colin Park · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The walk

From the lower car park by Keem beach, take the path that climbs south-west above the bay to the ruined lookout post on Moyteoge Head. Turn north-west along the grassy cliff-top ridge, the Atlantic on your left and Keem Bay below on your right, and climb to the high point of the path on Benmore, where the walk stops. Croaghaun's far higher cliffs rise ahead, but Croaghaun itself is not part of the walk: there is no path below its top. Return the same way.

It is 4.8 km there and back with 245 m of ascent; allow about 2 hours. The grade is Moderate: short, but on an unmarked path over steep grass along unfenced cliff tops.

The cliff tops are unfenced all the way, and the cliffs on Benmore are about 250 to 300 m high: keep well back from the edge, above all in strong wind or mist, which blows in fast. Wet grass is slippery. No official page covers this walk and there is no waymarked trail: it crosses open hill and commonage by the landowners' goodwill. Keep dogs under close control near sheep. In an emergency call 999 or 112.

The car park is free. Bus Éireann's route 450 from Westport reaches Dooagh, about 4 km short by road: check the times.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.

Good to know

  • Keem is a sheltered Blue Flag beach at the western end of Achill, reached by a road cut into the cliffs.
  • A small ruined lookout post stands on Moyteoge Head, the headland that closes the south side of the bay.
  • From Benmore you look along to Croaghaun, whose north face drops about 600 m into the sea, among the highest sea cliffs in Europe.
  • Basking sharks were once hunted from Keem Bay; the remains of a coastguard station stand above the beach.

Getting there

Start: Keem Bay car park · Free parking. 53.96738, -10.19548

Directions to the start

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Places to stay nearby

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Paths change, and the weather decides the day. The line and figures come from OpenStreetMap and our own checks; take a map, check the forecast, and turn back if it isn't right.