Killary Harbour's famine road to Rosroe, back by Lough Fee

From the gate at the end of the Bunowen road, follow the Green Road, built as famine relief in the 1840s, west along Killary Harbour's south shore, facing Mweelrea across the water. Pass the ruins of Foher, a hamlet emptied in the Famine, cross the Salrock Gap and drop to Rosroe by the hostel. Take the road south beside Little Killary, past Lough Muck and east along Lough Fee to the N59. Turn left for 300 m, then left up the Bunowen road. The loop goes anticlockwise.

It is 15.6 km round with 109 m of ascent; allow about 4 hours. The grade is Moderate: long, on an old grassy road, rough and often wet in its western half, then quiet roads.

No official page covers this walk. The Green Road is a private road through farmland with no public right of way: walkers use it by the landowners' goodwill. Cattle and sheep graze here; Hillwalk Tours' notes say no dogs. Walk the fast N59, which has no verge, in single file facing the traffic.

The parking at the gate holds only two or three cars; Hillwalk Tours suggest a quarry beside the N59, 200 m east of the Bunowen road. Bus Éireann's route 423 (Clifden to Westport) stops at Salruck Cross, on the loop, about six times a day.

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.