Boyne Valley Lakelands Greenway

Strangely this is my first Greenway on foot. I’ve cycled the Waterford Greenway. I’ve walked sections of the Royal Canal Greenway where it sneaks into Meath at Longwood but that’s a canal walk maintained by Waterways Ireland so I classify that as a blueway with a path alongside it (sorry, lads). I have crossed plenty of railway tracks but I’ve never walked one.

This particular line opened in 1872. It stopped carrying passengers in 1947. Gypsum was the cargo until 2001. Normally I would avoid linear walks like this. There is something about going over old ground that puts me off, even though the views are always different on the way back. But Spring has well and truly sprung and I am back on the roads so Ireland’s latest Greenway is a good way of getting back into it.

The last few weeks I was exploring the uplands of Ireland – Dublin Mountains, Wicklow, Mournes, Kerry. Whatever it is about the hills I feel no need to blog about them – probably because the routes are harder to track than the roads. When I’m in the hills I tend to just go and I don’t stop except for food. The vistas are harder to describe also. They are more expansive and I soak them up rather than detail them. Road-walking is a different experience. Every bend and turn in the road is new. The landscape tends to be more varied – full of hedgerows, fields and trees and houses, unlike the vast expanse of heather, scrub and slope in the uplands.

railway line boyne greenway

I walked from Castletown to Nobber and back last week – a nice distance of 10km. I started in Castletown, or Castletown Kilpatrick as it is officially known. There was no sign of a castle but there is a church with marks in the stones that miraculously appeared after Patrick knelt there for a quick prayer on his way to Tara. St Patrick left marks like this all over the country. There isn’t a rock in the whole land that he didn’t touch and make something sprout out of it. As for the road to Tara, lets just say that it must have taken him a while to get there as he allegedly stopped off at every village in a 360 degree radius.

Castletown itself is a wonderful example of a 4-road crossroads town. On one side is a church. On the other is a pub/shop. There is a lovely little Pitch ‘n’ Putt course, a school and a graveyard. All life is here. Some people might live here all their days and never feel a want for anything. Others might be tempted by the bright lights of Navan. Me, I was Nobber bound.

I joined the Greenway section next door to one of those wonderful houses with their own personality that makes walking the roads of Ireland so interesting. Not only did it have some amazing garden displays. It also had statues of giant birds and a wishing well with a pair of long legs sticking out of it. On the wall was a lovely mural by an artist called Sarah Whyte showing a train running into the station.

castletown railway mural

The Greenway runs parallel with the R162 Navan to Nobber road and is never far from it but you can barely hear the road traffic. It is a corridor of hedgerows, trees and birdsong. At this time of the year Buzzards circle in updrafts, either tracking rabbits or just enjoying the warmth.

It’s a nice section, crossing the main road twice and going over another road on a newly built bridge. Sometimes the line is submerged in a row of green banks. Sometimes the greenway travels above the fields with water filled ditches either side. Bright green fields are never far from the eye. Rabbits hop, ducks quack, cows moo. It’s pure Meath agricultural countryside and the weekend I walked it, the rape seed was topping off the green with bright bursts of happy yellow.

boyne greenway rape seed

I met a few other walkers on the route – couples strolling, families pulling each other along and power-walkers working off the frustration of the daily grind. Only one cyclist, but I imagine it will get busier once all the sections line up. There are a few benches for breaks if need be. The route is well fenced, the surface is compact gravel and all the road crossings are signposted and gated. Here and there are stacks of railway sleepers and in places they are utilised into the fencing.

Once you cross the brand new steel bridge at Cross Guns, the line starts to ascend slightly but it is so slight that you wouldn’t notice it. The Greenway curls in places so there is always something to see around the next bend. At one stage you go under a bridge and from here to Nobber the landscape starts to change.

Cavan and Monaghan are the next counties so the flatlands of Meath start to roll into drumlins the closer you get to Nobber. Before you reach the town you cross the River Dee, a slow moving tranquil waterway that has been making its way towards the Irish Sea from Bailieborough. All across the land from here to the West of Ireland are linear earthworks called the Black Pigs Dyke. They are manmade but nobody knows what exactly they are for. They don’t make sense as enclosures or for any military function. Local folklore tells that a powerful magician would change himself and his pupils into animals and run across Ireland. When he was eventually caught, as a rampaging black pig digging mounds out of the Earth, he became the waters of the Dee. It’s a weird one.

Nestled in the rolling hills around it, Nobber is a nice little village. I didn’t explore it, apart from poking around the derelict train station and checking out the ruins of the old monastery which were in the process of being restored. Moynagh Lough is nearby – site of one of the best excavated Crannógs in Ireland. Nobber is the birthplace of Turlough O’ Carolan, the famous blind Irish harper. The other big name around these parts in history were the Cruices, Norman landowners and ancestors of Hollywood top gun, Tom Cruise.

boyne greenway nobber bench

The Greenway carries on towards Kilmainhamwood from Nobber but I turn back here and head back to Castletown. The whole greenway will connect up from from Navan to Kingscourt this year, making it a nice 30km distance overall.

Google Maps: 53.7740111359807, -6.7196933451661325

Distance: 10.2 km

Time: Three hours

Type of walk: Single track greenway

Views: farmland

Animals: Cows, buzzards, rabbits

Plant of the Day: Borage

boyne greenway borage

Score : 7/10

If anyone has anymore information, especially regarding places to stop for coffee on route, please add them in the comments below.

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