Leaving the N59 between Leenane and Kylemore, we turn right onto the minor road L5102, marked Tullycross, to head to the Killary Famine Walk at Rosroe.
On the way, we pass Lough Fee and the former house of Sir William Wilde, father of Oscar. Beyond, at Salruck, stands the lovely old Church of Ireland church and, to its side and down a laneway, what was once the “pipe cemetery”.
J Harris Stone, writing in 1906, comments that
“A very curious old custom is associated with interments here…A box of pipes (short clays) is brought with each corpse, and a pipe with tobacco served out to each mourner. The pipes are smoked after the earth has been filled in and a mound of stones raised above the grave; the ashes are knocked out on the top and the pipes broken or left behind…The origin of this singular custom is unknown, but it certainly is very expressively emblematic of ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’.”
Continuing, we reach a cul de sac at the little harbour, where we can begin the lovely Killary Famine Walk at Rosroe.
During the multiple famines of the 19th Century, most notably the Great Famine of the 1840s, the local population would have been hit hard. Part of the route we follow here is what would have been a famine ‘relief’ road. We can see that it was well-engineered, crossing a relatively steep and rugged slope.
The way is punctuated with roofless ruins and long-abandoned potato ridges. Above the old settlement of Foher is a gap in the hills, known as Salrock Pass. Legend has it that the gap was formed when the devil dragged the local St. Roc over the hills with a chain, when enraged by the cross he discovered tied around the saint’s neck.
While the nicest, unpaved section of this walk only lasts 5.4km, nevertheless it provides great views all around, especially of the fjord itself and Mweelrea on its northern shore. Note how aquaculture does not appear to be permitted in the County Mayo half of the fjord, as all infrastructure ends abruptly midway across the water.
Having gone through a gate, there remains another 2.6km of pleasant (though paved) minor road to the junction with the N59, then 800m on that busy road, before another 7km of off-road track into lovely Leenane village. This last section forms part of the Western Way long-distance hiking trail, coming northwards from Maam and Máméan to the south.
A very nice day’s walking with great views.
Killary Famine Walk at Rosroe – Details
Total 16km; time 6h at a leisurely pace.
You’ll need your bike to get back to the start, a distance of 15km on the roads and 1 hour of cycling.
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