E8 Preview: The Overview

Starting at Dursey Head on the 1st March and with an expected completion date of the 21st in Dublin I will be hiking across Ireland along E8 long distance hiking path.

The route will take me between 550 and 600km (information varies) along 6 of Ireland's national hiking routes. In reverse order, the Wicklow Way, the South Leinster Way (The Barrow Tow Path), the East Munster Way, the Blackwater Way (the Avondhu Way and Duhallow Way ), the Kerry Way and finally the Beara Way in west Cork. Over the next month I will try and do some research what I can expect to find on route, completing quick preview posts on each section.

The above image is taken from the Da La Salle Scout Group, who in 2012 completed the whole thing in 1-3 day stages. I am lucky enough to have a girlfriend understanding enough and a personal situation that allows me to allow me to do the whole thing in one go. I am not sure if anyone else has done it this way.

In fact the internet has only brought up a handful of people (in English) who have focussed their efforts on the E8 as a whole. One other person who I have managed to contact is Jan of e8trail.com who is currently in the process of completing the Polish sections on the E8 and has been really helpful in answering my extremely basic questions; thanks Jan!

Have you, or do you know of anyone else who has done the Irish E8? If so I would love to hear about it and get some tips!

Thanks for reading. :-)