Emigrant Walk places visitors on the landscape where Irish migrants trekked to escape the famine and head overseas.Rob Durston/Courtesy of Tourism Northern Ireland
I expected a hiking trip to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland this summer to leave me with vivid memories of the country’s verdant views.
And it did, but it will stay with me for other reasons, too. The experience took me from the natural beauty of Wicklow Mountains National Park, where day-trippers are practically greeted by vendors selling wool sweaters, to a much more emotional trek on a steep scenic hiking trail, the six-kilometre Emigrant Walk in Northern Ireland’s County Derry, which tells the story of the Great Famine.
My first brush with the disastrous effects of the famine began just down the street from my Dublin hotel at EPIC the Irish Emigration Museum. Its interactive exhibits draw visitors into the individual stories of those who left the country as they detail the vast scale of emigration from Ireland. The next day, on my way to go kayaking in the River Liffey, I walked by the famine memorial statues made by Irish artist Rowan Gillespie. These haunting bronze figures stopped me in my tracks and I felt the need to show them respect by learning more about their suffering.
Local guide Cathy O’Neill’s tour goes up Carntogher Mountain, where famine-struck emigrants once walked their final footsteps on Irish soil.Rob Durston/Courtesy of Tourism Northern Ireland
These Dublin memorials were a good way to prepare for the three-hour guided hike on Carntogher Mountain. The Emigrant Walk places visitors on the landscape where Irish migrants trekked to escape the famine and head overseas. Back then, an improvised coach road served as the only route to Derry where emigrants boarded ships departing for Canada and the United States and is therefore the logical place to retrace their steps.
Local tour guide and amateur historian Cathy O’Neill created the guided tour in 2022. She wanted visitors to learn about this important chapter in Irish history as they wandered the same landscape. They could admire distant ocean views, forgotten farmhouses and fluffy white sheep dotting the green rolling hillsides while learning about the hardships the Irish people experienced.
Before we started hiking, our tour stopped for a filling pub lunch and a wander through Gorta Swatragh’s Famine Story Visitor Centre. This cozy centre tells the story of a couple who ran a soup kitchen here during the famine, and it’s complete with the original soup pot. Somehow the rich stories and the hearty food we enjoyed melded together perfectly rather than leaving me with a sense of irony.
Rob Durston/Courtesy of Tourism Northern Ireland
The Emigrant’s Walk starts like many hikes: in a dusty little parking area by a wooden trailhead sign and map. As we depart, O’Neill suggests everyone present pick up a small stone and place it in their pocket; she will explain later.
Initially, I walk along looking for wildflowers and photogenic sheep or pointing out the interesting stone work of small bridges over the creeks we pass, as I do on a most hikes. Within the group, we talk about the weather as the sun tries to poke through the grey clouds where we glimpse patches of blue sky above.
We pause at an ancient grey stone husk of a farmhouse and O’Neill tells us how this might have been the farmhouse of one of the English gentry. She explains that a decision was made to plant a kind of high yield potato (the “Lumper”), which turned out to have no resistance to disease, and thus the potato famine began in 1845, which led to the deaths of more than one million people and the emigration of an estimated two million people.
Rob Durston/Courtesy of Tourism Northern Ireland
Suddenly, I realized this wasn’t just a hike but an immersive experience through history. Earlier in the day, we had briefly toured the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh where costumed staff spun wool and stoked fires made of peat moss. As informative as that was, this trail also makes it easy to imagine the hardships of emigration during the famine with every step.
From the farmhouse, the trail steadily inclined and, as if on cue, the weather grew colder and windier to fit the mood seeping in through our minds and raincoats. This got me thinking about what it would be like to take this walk without shoes or coat, much like the migrants did.
O’Neill talks about how the people who made this walk were likely starving and would be leaving behind their families and homes to find work in other countries, whether that meant sending money back to Ireland or being able to send for their family to join them.
Near the top of this mountain we stop at a pile of rocks, what O’Neill calls the Emigrant’s Carn. It’s our end point but in the 1840s, migrants would have continued another 77 kilometres on to Derry. We are each invited to place our stones here as those who departed for unknown soils did so long ago. In Gaelic she says, “In ár gcloithe go deo,” which translates to, “In our hearts forever.” Each of us solemnly takes a moment to place our stone, look out at the land and far beyond to the sea.
Rob Durston/Courtesy of Tourism Northern Ireland
And then, in what seems a quintessential Irish moment, our tour guide unpacks a bottle of Irish whiskey and shot glasses to end our hike with a toast. “Sláinte!”
Eventually, we turn to walk back down the mountain, a little sobered despite the whiskey, with our newfound understanding of what it must have been like for the Great Famine’s emigrants after having walked in their footsteps.
Usually I’m not the type of sign up for a guided tour, but I’m glad I did. The Emigrant’s Walk is about so much more than just the views.
If you go:
Carntogher Mountain is in a rural area near the small village of Maghera, approximately a 10-minute drive from Swatragh. Swatragh is a 2.5 hour drive northwest from Dublin. Tours are booked through theemigrantswalk.com and cost £35.
Stop for lunch at Friels Historic Bar & Restaurant in Swatragh, and try the roast beef and potatoes or battered cod with mushy peas. Right next door is the Gorta Swatragh’s Famine Story Visitor Centre (£9.50 entry fee) which focuses on Dr. and Mrs. Mooney, who ran a soup kitchen during the famine. The hike trailhead is a 10-minute drive away.
Special to The Globe and Mail
The writer was a guest of Tourism Ireland. It did not review or approve the story before publication.