Walks & Trails in County Tyrone

Most of this list falls into two groups. In the south-west, Sliabh Beagh spreads over the point where Tyrone meets Monaghan and Fermanagh, a low plateau of blanket bog, peat hills and quiet loughs, with short waymarked loops or the long and demanding Sliabh Beagh Way. Just north of it, the Clogher Valley carries the 30-mile Carleton Trail out of Clogher, past Knockmany passage grave and William Carleton’s childhood cottage; most people take the shorter 13.8km Black Route on quiet roads, and Clogher village adds an 8km bog loop of its own.

The rest is Sperrin ground. Bessy Bell is a 420m hill above Newtownstewart, climbed on a 7-mile return route from the Mellon Country Inn, with two wind farms on the upper slopes. Davagh Forest holds colour-coded mountain-bike trails and the OM Dark Sky Park, which makes it a place to stay late rather than leave at dusk. Drum Manor, west of Cookstown, is gentler: woodland trails, an arboretum and a walled butterfly garden around a big house left deliberately to ruin. Pomeroy Forest is the one for small children.

Drumragh’s riverside lanes sit at the edge of Omagh, and the Clogher walks start in the village itself; the forest parks and Bessy Bell all need a car. The Ulster Way is included here as a whole, and only about 400 of its 625 miles are genuine off-road walking, so it is one to pick sections from. Bog and forest ground stays wet well after rain.