Product Description

This guide provides extensive coverage of all the best long-distance and day hikes; where to get the best Guinness and Irish stew; reliable two-colour maps and illustrated flora and fauna sections.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #111170 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Walking is probably the fastest mode of transport in some parts of Ireland and certainly the best way to experience the wide variety of scenery. Whether you are interested in a long distance multi-day hike or just a day trip from the car, this well-researched guide will help you enjoy some of the best. It includes route descriptions over all regions of the Republic and Northern Ireland, and covers most types of terrain, from mountains, peat bogs and Europe's highest sea cliffs to deserted beaches (for bathing sore feet) and remote islands inhabited mainly by seabirds.

Each walk is charted on a 1:100,000 map with 50m contour interval, which may be adequate for some walkers without additional maps. While stopping for breath you can read about the geological processes that have created your spectacular view, as well as about local archaeology, social history, flora and fauna. At the end of the day, advice on (limited) public transport and cheap accommodation will help walkers get to the pub faster. For those in need of companionship, there is even information on participating in frequent walking festivals. On the downside, some stretches are on roads, many walks are not circular and the book does not suggest sheltered sightseeing alternatives to cover the likely event of bad weather. Yet, overall, Walking in Ireland is highly recommended. --Rob Hadden

Customer Reviews

Compact encyclopaedia for independent walkers
For independent walkers planning a trip to Ireland, this portable encyclopaedia is good value. It covers a huge range, from a scenic two-hour stroll to the 122-mile Kerry Way (nine days), from easy walks to some tough mountain circuits. As you would expect from Lonely Planet, the authors are strong on environmental issues and thorough on practical information.

In 424 well-filled pages they cover the whole island of Ireland, both the Republic and Ulster. The secret of easy access is to use their handy 4-page table of walks organised by region. There is a good index and glossary, and even the boxed text and maps are indexed. Each walk is supported by a small-scale contour map (intended for planning purpose only). As a one-stop resource for walking in Ireland, this book is unrivalled.

Suitable for long hikes
Like every Lonely Planet guidebook, it's impossible to rate it with less than 4 stars! History, Facts, Health and Safety, where to sleep, and some other important chapters are divided in 90 pages helping the reader, like no other book, in the organization of the trip. I was in Ireland for 6 months and I brought 7 different guidebooks, but I didn't use this one as much as I was imagining, since it is more suitable for those who want to do long (some days) hikes. Besides that I want to ask the writers to don't use so many time adjectives like "astonishing", "breathtaking" and "awesome". It's possible to find them describing too many places and so it gets more difficult to choose a hike. And even if Carrantuohill, Top of Ireland, is really an "astonishing" day walk, it's not include in this book! "Great Walks: Ireland" (David Herman) was my best guide for day walks, but it's not enough to plan your trip.

A good book to get lost by
This book is terrible, the directions are vague in the extreme with no distances or times mentioned between landmarks so when it says 'take right fork' you had better hope there is only 1... On the walk we tried there wasnt! Nice information about the flora and fauna which is great but not at the expense on directional detail.

I wonder if the authors of this book actually did the walk as some of the directions are also contradictory. In the end it turned an attempt at a walk into a massively frustrating random tramp including much backtracking and restarting before giving up and going home!

This book did manage to find itself one place... THE BIN!