Overview
The Esker Riada is the reason there has long been a road from Dublin to Galway at all. It’s not a single hill but a chain of low ridges of sand, gravel and boulders, dumped by meltwater streams running under a glacier about 10,000 years ago and left behind when the ice melted. Crucially, it runs roughly east to west across the middle of Ireland – through Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Westmeath, Offaly, Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon and Galway – and it stands just high and dry enough to give a firm footing over a midlands that was otherwise impassable bog.
Manage your expectations before you go looking for it: this is a subtle, low ridge, not dramatic scenery. Its interest is almost entirely in what it meant, and a lot of it has been quarried away for its own gravel. The rewarding way to ‘see’ it is to understand it, then notice it – the dry rise your road or footpath is sitting on as the bog spreads out either side.
The Great Way
The name says what the ridge was for. Eiscir Riada combines the Old Irish escir, a ridge, with ríad, the riding or driving of horses and oxen – a road, in other words. For centuries it carried the Slí Mhór, the ‘Great Way’, the main artery across the country, and it linked the great monasteries: Clonard in Meath, Durrow in Offaly, and Clonmacnoise on the Shannon. After a 2nd-century battle at Mag Lena, the line of the eskers became the agreed boundary between Leath Cuinn, Conn’s Half in the north, and Leath Mogha, Mogh’s Half in the south – a partition of the whole island that followed a gravel ridge.
The modern echo is hard to miss: the N6 Dublin-to-Galway road still closely follows the route the glacier laid down. The threat to it is gravel itself – sand and gravel extraction has eaten through long stretches, and most of the Rathmoylon esker in Meath, for instance, has been quarried out. That damage is why Offaly County Council has moved to protect the ridge in its development plan and has pushed to have the Esker Riada recognised as a World Heritage Site.
Walking the ridge
There’s no single waymarked Dublin-to-Galway trail along the esker; what you’ll find are stretches and local paths where the ridge is walkable. The going is usually firm sandy track – good grip, though it softens after heavy rain – on slightly raised ground with open views over the surrounding farmland and bog.
In County Meath the ridge gives elevated paths with long views across the Boyne Valley, and it runs right beside Bective Abbey, a 12th-century Cistercian ruin that makes a natural short stop with its own bit of riverside walking. The whole corridor is open-access and free.
Esker Hills and Shane Lowry
The single most rewarding place to stand on the esker is, oddly, a golf course. Esker Hills Golf Club, about three miles north-west of Tullamore in County Offaly, opened in 1996, and its architect Christy O’Connor Jr deliberately kept the earth-movers off it – the course is routed through the natural sand-hills and valleys of the ridge, which is why O’Connor called it the only inland links-type course he knew. It’s an 18-hole course with sand-based greens that play firm and fast all year.
It also produced a major champion. Esker Hills is the home club of Shane Lowry, who won the 2019 Open, and where in 2009 he became the first amateur in the professional era to win the Irish Open. Green fees apply (separate from the free walking access), there’s a clubhouse with catering, and visitors are welcome – book ahead.
Practical information
- Access: The walking and cycling routes along the ridge are free and open at all times. Esker Hills Golf Club is off the N52, about 3 miles north-west of Tullamore, with free on-site parking that doubles for trail visitors.
- Public transport: Limited. The nearest regular buses run from Tullamore, with services to Dublin and Galway; a car is much easier for reaching the ridge itself.
- What to bring: Sturdy shoes for the sandy tracks and a light waterproof – the midland exposure means weather rolls through quickly.
If you want the esker to come alive, drive a stretch of the N6 west of Kinnegad and watch the road ride a low, straight ridge while the bog falls away on both sides: that’s the Great Way, doing the same job it has done for two thousand years.