A Guide to Blar Meanbh

At the bottom of our road, cross the bridge and take the a left down the embankment and through the gate. Wade through a passage of overgrown fern and you’ll find yourself in this incredible little forest.

The Routes

Please be aware that these woods are not maintained, trees fall making some routes impassable at any time. I’ve found the best way of exploring the forest is just taking a random turn each time and see where you end up. Make sure you have GPS, a phone, at least 3 hours of daylight to play with, a head torch and a sense of adventure. The paths are very rough, the bridges can be very slippy so great care needs to be taken with route finding and with navigating the bridges safely. You should assume your legs will go shin deep in bog at least once while you’re in the forest.

Having said all that I’ve found it a really amazing place to explore so far. Parts of it will take your breath away and you’re quite unlikely to bump into another person while exploring.

On the right is all the paths I’ve taken so far, I will keep updating the map as I keep exploring.

Here is a list of my stravas of the different options I’ve found, you can export the GPX from strava and upload it to your smart device.

Short Loop

Medium Loop

Long Loop