Glenafelly Loop
- Glenafelly Forest, Kinnitty, Co. Offaly
- Download Map (PDF)
- Listed in Loop Walks, Glenafelly, Eco Walks
- Distance: 7km / 2 hours, follow red arrows
- Services: Kinnitty (5km)
- Trail Grade: Hard
- To suit: Higher than average levels of fitness
- Terrain: Forestry tracks
- Min. gear: Walking boots, fluids, snacks, hiking clothing, mobile phone
- Trail maintenance: hikeit@slievebloom.ie
Trail Directions
Follow the Red Arrow Markers.
- A-B Leave car park. Follow forest road into Glenafelly. Swing down to cross river at first junction.
- B-C Cross river, then turn right on track. This passes an old house before climbing through the trees to a forest road.
- C-D Turn right on forest road. Follow this around barcam. Keep straight on at junction.
- D-E After approx 1km turn downhill right on forest path leading back to car park.
Directions to Glenafelly trailhead
From Kinnitty Village, take road towards Roscrea (also signposted for Glenafelly). After 1km, turn left for the entrance to the forest is on the left after 1.5kms.
Glenafelly is one of the dozen or so glens that radiate out from Slieve Bloom like the spokes of a wheel. Most of the valley is covered with glacial deposits, so that the underlying bedrock is seldom seen – except where the Glenafelly stream and its tributaries have cut deeply to the base of the till, and sometimes along the sides of the glen.
Four valleys meet at the mouth of Glenafelly: the valley you walked or drove along on your way from Kinnitty, a second wide valley that runs to the north-east, at the foot of Knocknaman, the river-carved valley of Glenafelly itself – and the narrow, wooded gash in the hills through which the road runs south of the car park. This is the Tulla Gap. Unlike Glenafelly, it is not a river valley. It is a glacial spillway.