I have set myself the challenge of doing the entire Dublin Mountains Way from the start in Shakill all the way to the mountains in Tallaght. The trail is approximately 47KM and covers quite a few interesting trails along the way.

At this stage, I have covered the majority of the Dublin Mountains Way, randomly selecting one of the many hikes available using Google Maps and have written about most of them already.

My challenge is to do the trail from the start to the end, so I can discover hikes along the way which I may not have seen yet. So far I discovered one hike which is new to me.

For ease of getting to the hike and back again, I parked at Shankill’s train station, did the hike up to Carrickgollogan and walked back to Shankill where I parked.

The entire hike to the car and back was 12KM. Next time I will park at the Carrickgollogan’s car park and continue the hike.

The route along the Dublin Mountains Way is well sign-posted, with the yellow man hiking symbols, direction indicators and maps which makes the navigating easier.

point 1: Start at shankill – beginning of the route

I started at the route indicated on Google Maps in Shankill. From Shankill, I walked across the Bridge over the M5, Lordello road, took a right into Ferndale road and a left into Rathmichael Wood.

Point 2: rathmichael wood

Rathmichael Wood was a pleasant surprise for me, never having seen it on Google Maps before or in person until now. The Wood offers a short looped walk of 1.7KM through the woodland. There are spectacular views of the bay and surrounding villages: Killiney, Dalkey and Bray. There is even a framed view point, perfect for photographs.

point 3: up to carrickgollogan car park

The walk from Rathmichael Wood to the Carrickgollogan car park for the turn around point was equally scenic. I had started the hike from Shankill around midday, and at this time of year around 3PM I am always surprised when I see the sun nearing the horizon. It’s probably wise to start hikes a little earlier in winter.