Beara Bridleway: Ireland’s first long-distance horse trail

Exploration of the local Wild Atlantic Way is now possible on horseback

Blayne Sheehan near the beach at Allihies on the Beara peninsula heading out for a trek with Charlie on the Beara Bridle Way. Picture: Dan Linehan

Ireland’s first official long-distance equestrian trail, the Beara Bridleway, has emerged in West Cork’s Beara Peninsula, with exploration of the local Wild Atlantic Way now possible on horseback, with the permission and co-operation of several local farmers and landowners.

Following private and public tracks along the Sliabh Miskish Mountains, a large section of the bridleway was already historically a horse trail when, during a local industrial age, it first opened in 1824 to facilitate copper mining at Allihies.