There’s a sense of freedom that comes from starting an adventure on foot, from your own front door.
I crave mountains but find myself settled in the flatlands of north Tipperary. Each day the hills south of here – the Devil’s Bit, Slieve Felim, and Silvermines – sing to me from a distance, their height accentuated by the flatness all around, so that in my mind they could be Kilimanjaro or Aconcagua.
I want to explore this landscape slowly, to see it on foot. And so, eager to be a tourist in my own home, a plan forms in my mind: to walk from my home in Cloughjordan in Tipperary south into the Slieve Felim hills, and finish at one of my favourite pubs, Jim of the Mills in Upperchurch, a distance of around 35km.
I leave on a still, mildly lit afternoon, following the Beara-Breifne Way south towards Toomevara, the musical cadence of that village’s name rolling around in my head.
The Beara-Breifne Way is Ireland’s longest walking trail, starting from the tip of the Beara Peninsula in west Cork and finishing in Blacklion, Co Cavan.
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