Overview
The oak that went into Trinity College Dublin and, it’s said, St Paul’s Cathedral in London came from Tomnafinnoge – the wood at the far end of Tinahely’s railway walk. That flat, traffic-free trail, laid along a disused branch line, is the main reason to come. It runs from the village’s diamond-shaped market square out past stone bridges and riverbank bluebells to one of the last stands of mature oak in Ireland. Tinahely sits in the broad valley of the Derry River in south County Wicklow, near the Carlow and Wexford borders, and doubles as a base for walkers on the Wicklow Way.
The Railway Walk and Tomnafinnoge Oak Wood
The Woodenbridge-to-Shillelagh line opened on 22 May 1865 to serve the Fitzwilliam estate and move timber and farm goods. It closed to passengers and goods in April 1944 and shut completely the following year. Decades on, local volunteers cleared the overgrown trackbed into a public path: the first 2.3 km opened in 2007, later extended toward Aughrim for a total of roughly 5 km.
The surface is compacted gravel, generally fine for wheelchairs, buggies and sturdy bikes – with one exception worth knowing, a cluster of large stones at the Kilcommon Bridge end that can mean lifting wheels over. Two original stone railway bridges mark the start and finish, and a wooden footbridge crosses the Derry near Kilcommon. Bluebells line the bank in spring; the meadows fill with wildflowers by summer. The trail ends at Tomnafinnoge Oak Wood, a Special Area of Conservation planted long ago by the Fitzwilliam family and saved from clear-felling by a local campaign in the 1980s. It’s now in the care of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, with a few shorter loops through the old oaks and hazel.
History and heritage
Medieval churches at Preban and Kilcommon show there was settlement here long before the village took its present shape. That shape came out of the 1798 Rebellion: built to house workers on the vast Coollattin Estate – at its height nearly a quarter of County Wicklow – Tinahely was burned in reprisal and rebuilt in the early 1800s under Earl Fitzwilliam. Monuments around the parish, at Whitefield Cemetery and Ballinglen Bridge, mark battle sites and the execution of the rebel brothers Philip and Patrick Lacey.
The Famine cut deep too. In 1850 the local priest, Fr Hoare, organised the emigration of dozens of families aboard the clipper Ticonderoga to New Orleans. Whitefield Cemetery holds graves from those years, and a limestone marker set up in 2000 records the parish church that stood on the site until 1798.
Other walks
Tinahely is a walking hub as much as a village. Community volunteers have waymarked a set of looped routes for different levels: Mangan’s Loop (6 km, moderate), the Ballycumber Loop (14 km, hard) and the Kyle Loop (22 km, hard), among others, with a free map to download at tinahely.org. The southern stretch of the Wicklow Way passes within a short drive, over Muskeagh Hill with views across three counties. If you only do one, though, walk the old railway line out to Tomnafinnoge – it’s the flattest and the most rewarding.
In the village
Dwyer Square centres on the restored Market House, now home to the public library. Opposite stands the Courthouse Arts Centre, built in 1843 as a working courthouse and, by the 1980s, close to derelict; a local committee restored it with FÁS grants and reopened it in 1996 for theatre, music, film and exhibitions. The box office runs Wednesday to Saturday, 10am–4pm.
Families tend to head for the Tinahely Farm Shop, Restaurant and Activity Centre, which has Wicklow’s only indoor beach, a pedal go-kart track and rare-breed animals – a decent wet-day fallback that’s turned up on RTÉ’s Nationwide. For a quieter stop, there are a few traditional pubs and cafés around the square.
Getting there and practical notes
- By car: Tinahely is on the R747 between Baltinglass and Arklow. The railway-walk car park is on the edge of the village, off the main road, and free.
- By bus: Public transport is thin. Bus Éireann route 132 (Rosslare Europort–Dublin) calls at Tinahely Library on Dwyer Square on Thursdays only; a daily Carlow–Arklow bus stops at Tinahely Pharmacy; and the Wicklow Way bus runs daily but must be booked ahead. The nearest railway station is Wicklow Town, about 30 km away.
- Facilities: Public toilets are near the library. The railway walk and looped trails are open all year, free to use. Dogs are welcome on a lead.
- The show: The Tinahely Agricultural Show has run every year since 1935 on the first Monday of August at Fairwood Park – livestock, produce and a proper country day out.