Overview
The thing worth coming to Broadford for is a hole in the ground that’s been replanted. The village arboretum occupies a worked-out limestone quarry on the edge of the settlement, restored over the past two decades into a woodland of 26 native Irish tree species – the most concrete piece of the village’s reinvention from a quarry-and-creamery place into a walking base. Broadford (Irish: Béal an Átha, ‘the mouth of the ford’) sits on the R466 in the foothills of the Mullaghareirk Mountains in west Limerick, with a resident population of about 276. The centre is compact and walkable: a post office, a supermarket, three pubs and a children’s playground. The village itself is relatively young – first recorded by cartographers in 1837, before which the area went by the name of its medieval church, Killagholehane.
The Broadford Arboretum
What’s now woodland was a disused limestone quarry and dumping ground. Local volunteers, led by the environmentalist Ted Cook and the Broadford Development Association, started with pioneer species – birch, willow, alder – to reclaim the degraded quarry soils, and those early plantings have grown into a mixed stand of ash, oak, lime and native shrubs, all of Irish genetic provenance. There’s a wildlife pond and a reputation among birdwatchers as a spot for the treecreeper; the site has featured on TG4’s Garraí Glas for its biodiversity work. It’s open and free to wander, year-round, reached by a waymarked path from the main car park opposite the village church.
Walking the Broadford-Ashford trails
Broadford is the main trailhead for the Broadford-Ashford Walking Trails (formerly the Mullaghareirk Walking Trails), a National Trails Office-accredited network of seven waymarked routes that won the Get Involved Sustainable Initiative Award in 2016. The trails run through rolling farmland, wooded glens and quiet lanes, with panoramic views toward the Shannon Estuary and, on a clear day, the distant Paps Mountains. Four of the seven routes start and finish at the arboretum car park; the rest begin elsewhere on the network, so check the trailhead before you set out. One caveat that catches people: dogs are not permitted on the trails, to protect the native flora and nesting birds.
If you only have time for one, the short Killagholehane Way does the most work – it takes you straight to the 15th-century ruins. The fuller routes:
- Gleann Beag Loop (6.7 km, ~2.5 hours): red arrows, a moderate walk along quiet laneways and across working farm fields, with an overlook of West Limerick. It passes Curramore House, burned down on 11 August 1922 by anti-treaty forces – its 69-year-old owner, Herbert Sullivan, left for Devon and never returned.
- Gleann na gCapall Loop (9.5 km, ~2.5 hours): blue arrows, a moderate route that briefly crosses the county border into Cork and descends to the glen where the stream that runs through Broadford rises.
- Killagholehane Way (2.2 km, ~1.5 hours): purple arrows, a short family walk to the 15th-century church ruins, with storyboards on local history along the way.
- Gortnaclohy Loop (6.1 km, ~2–2.5 hours): green arrows, the strenuous one, with a steep climb up the old Mass path known as ‘Cobs Road’ and views of the Galtees and Knockfierna.
History and heritage
Killagholehane Church ruins. About 2 km west of the village, these 15th-century ruins are a protected national monument, with a distinctive three-light east window and a tomb niche in the north wall. The burial ground holds graves dating to the Famine of the 1840s and a Republican plot for local dead of the War of Independence. A separate reminder of that period sits on the hillside at Farrihy, north of the village: a mass rock on Cnoc na gCairn, where local tradition places Oliver Plunkett at the consecration of a Bishop of Limerick in 1677. The hillside has since been planted over, and the rock is no longer visible.
Daithí Ó Bruadair monument. A bronze by the sculptor Clíodna Cussen stands across from the village church, to Daithí Ó Bruadair, reckoned one of the great Irish poets of the 17th century. He studied at the local bardic school and was bard to the Fitzgeralds at nearby Springfield Castle, writing through the collapse of the Gaelic order he’d been born into.
Heritage storyboards. Around the village, plaques mark local figures. The Sheehy brothers’ board near the former creamery remembers David Sheehy, an Irish Parliamentary Party MP, and his brother Fr Eugene, the ‘Land League Priest’. A plaque opposite the car park marks where the schoolteacher Mortimer Duggan was killed during the War of Independence.
Village life and amenities
Amenities cluster within walking distance of the arboretum. There are three pubs for a pint and pub food, a supermarket and post office for essentials, and the old schoolhouse, now a community hall that hosts events like Biodiversity Week and, in July and August, the Seisún evenings of traditional music, song and dance. The former Carnegie Library serves as a meeting room and public toilets, and there’s a vintage agricultural machinery display near the centre.
Getting there and practical info
- Getting there: Broadford is on the R466 between O’Callaghan’s Mills and O’Briens Bridge. The TFI Local Link Route 318 runs seven days a week between Ennis and Limerick, with four return journeys daily.
- Parking: Free parking at the arboretum car park opposite the church, with roadside spaces on the R466.
- Facilities: Toilets in the community hall beside the arboretum. There’s no charge for the arboretum, the storyboards or the trails.
- Nearby: Ballyhoura Country is a short drive north for mountain biking and longer scenic routes.
For the best of the arboretum, come early when the bird activity peaks, and use the Local Link 318 if you’d rather not drive back to Limerick or Ennis.