The Hymany Way is a long-distance trail in County Galway, Ireland
It is 80 kilometres long and begins in Portumna and ends in Ballygar. It is typically completed in four days. It is designated as a National Waymarked Trail by the National Trails Office of the Irish Sports Council and is managed by the Aughrim Development Company Limited.
The trail was developed with funding assistance from the NTR Foundation, a philanthropic organisation of NTR plc. It was officially opened on 24 September 2010 by Councillor Jimmy McClearn, Mayor of County Galway. It is planned to extend the trail from Aughrim to Ballygar where it will join with the Suck Valley Way.
Hymany
Starting in Portumna, the trail follows the banks of the River Shannon before turning inland at the townland of Friarsland, near Eyrecourt, to reach Clonfert. From Clonfert, it crosses bogland to the townland of Cloonascragh. On the final approach to Aughrim, it passes the site of the Battle of Aughrim.
North of Aughrim it passes the Esker Riada and its exposed face is a series of ridges stretching from Dublin to Galway across the midlands. These geological features were created at the end of the last ice-age when silt, sand and gravel were deposited by rivers of glacial melt- water under the ice. “Eiscir’’is a mound or an elevation and this was the highway used by travellers going from east to west through the midland bogs of Ireland.
On the way to Ballygar you pass Cloonigny Castle, now in ruins, with its moated site, was occupied by “Shane De Moy’’ (O Kelly) in 1574. Close by is a ringfort containing a souterain. Due to the ecological importance of its plants and animals, Killure Bog was declared a Natural Heritage Area in
2003.
The Hymany Way forms part of the Beara-Breifne Way, a walking and cycling route from the Beara Peninsula, County Cork to Breifne, County Leitrim following the line of Donal Cam O’Sullivan Beare’s march in the aftermath of the Siege of Dunboy in 1602.
Collect Your Stamps
As you walk the Hymany Way section of the Beara-Breifne Way, collect your passport stamps in each of the following locations. Click to find out more about each of the locations you’ll visit on your route.
