Overview
Murroe is the start of the Slieve Felim Way, a 43 km waymarked trail into the mountains, and the home of Glenstal Abbey, a Benedictine monastery whose grounds you can walk for free. The village (Irish: Maigh Rua, ‘red plain’, after the local red sandstone) sits on the R506 in north-eastern County Limerick, about 18 km east of the city and close to the Tipperary border. Around 1,432 people live here at the last count. If you have a couple of hours rather than a whole day, skip the long ridge routes and do the Clare Glens loop – it packs the best of the scenery into a short, wooded circuit.
History and local character
A monastic settlement was established around AD 600 at Clonkeen Church, but the village you see is a 19th-century creation, grown up around the Barrington family’s Glenstal estate. Many of the tradesmen and artisans who built the abbey settled near the estate gates, and that cluster became the village. By the mid-1800s Murroe held two annual fairs and ran separate boys’ and girls’ schools.
The turning point in the village’s modern story came in 1926, when the Barringtons’ Glenstal Castle was given to the Benedictine order and became Glenstal Abbey. The monastery still runs a boarding school and works the surrounding estate. Murroe also gave Ireland John Canon Hayes, born here in 1882, who founded Muintir na Tíre, the rural community movement that spread across the country from the 1930s.
What to see and do
Glenstal Abbey and gardens
The 500-acre Glenstal estate is the reason most people stop. At its centre stands a Norman-style castle, ringed by a walled Bible Garden, lakes and a network of public footpaths through what includes a surviving fragment of Ireland’s primitive oak forest. You are free to wander the flower beds, follow woodland tracks that climb toward Keeper Hill, or sit by the water. Access to the gardens and marked paths is free and signposted from the village.
Walking the trails
Murroe is the official start of one of Ireland’s National Waymarked Trails, and it has several shorter loops as well:
- Clare Glens Loop – A 4 km circuit along both banks of the Clare River, through a wooded gorge dotted with small waterfalls and rapids, inside a Special Area of Conservation. This is the pick if you only have time for one walk.
- Murroe Nature Loop – A gentle 2 km circuit following the river through a red-sandstone glen. It starts at the metal gate beside the village bridge, marked with green arrows.
- Glenstal Woods Loop – A longer climb to open ridges with views across north Limerick, south Tipperary and Keeper Hill to the north; near the end it drops into woodland where the summer rhododendron is spectacular.
- Slieve Felim Way – A 43 km National Waymarked Trail that starts in Murroe and crosses the Slieve Felim range, waymarked with yellow arrows on a black background. It is a two-day walk with about 870 m of ascent; day sections suit experienced walkers.
Keeper Hill, the highest point in County Tipperary, can be tackled from Killoscully near Murroe on a three-to-four-hour return route. Anglers can fish the Mulkear River nearby.
Glenside Pitch and Putt
An 18-hole pitch and putt course sits in the village, open year-round from 10am until about an hour and a half before dusk. There is free parking, club hire, a putting green, a rain shelter and toilets – handy on a wet afternoon when the hills are in cloud.
The Memorial Cross
On a low mound at the village crossroads stands the Murroe Memorial Cross, an ashlar limestone Celtic cross unveiled on 27 May 1923 by Archbishop Dr John Harty of Cashel. The bilingual plaques remember Brigadier Sean Wall, Adjutant Patrick Ryan, Lieutenant John Frahill and other volunteers of the East and Mid Limerick Brigades of the Irish Republican Army who died in 1920 and 1921. In May 2016 President Michael D. Higgins planted a tree beside it to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising. The cross sits on level ground and takes five minutes to visit alongside the Nature Loop.
Practical information
- Getting there: Murroe is on the R506, 18 km east of Limerick City, easily reached by car. Public transport is thin: the Bus Éireann service runs only about twice a day on weekdays (roughly 1pm and 5.40pm, not Wednesday) and twice on Saturday, so plan around a car.
- Parking: There is parking around the village and at the abbey entrance; the pitch and putt has its own free car park.
- Facilities: Toilets are available at Glenside Pitch and Putt. There are no facilities on the open mountain sections.
- Opening times: Glenstal Abbey gardens and the public paths are open daily and free. The walking trails are open at any time, though the mountain sections turn slippery after rain.
- Accessibility: The village centre and the Memorial Cross are on level ground. The Slieve Felim Way and Glenstal Woods Loop involve steep, uneven terrain and suit confident walkers only.
- Tips: Carry a waterproof whatever the forecast – the Slieve Felim range makes its own cloud – and start the Slieve Felim Way early to stay ahead of afternoon mist. Mobile signal drops in the gorge.