National Famine Way

The National Famine Way is an immersive outdoor experience that marks the poignant ill-fated story of assisted emigration in Ireland during the Famine in 1847. At the height of the famine 1,490 poor and hungry were forced to walk the 165km from the Strokestown Park Estate, County Roscommon to Custom House Quay in Dublin. They travelled onward to Liverpool and almost a third of them perished crossing the Atlantic in "coffin ships" bound for Canada.

The National Famine Way is a digitally and physically waymarked 167km National trail that connects the National Famine Museum in Strokestown Park, Co. Roscommon, with Rowan Gillespie’s Famine memorial on Custom House Quay in Dublin, along the banks of the Royal Canal. Your trail will end near the Jeanie Johnston Tall Ship and EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum.  You can set your own pace as you follow in the footsteps of the 1,490 tenants who were forced to emigrate from Strokestown to Canada in 1847.  The trail is waymarked with over 30 pairs of 19th Century bronze shoe sculptures.

The trail is accessible for families, casual walkers and cyclists.

What is Included in your official National Famine Way Package?

Your National Way Famine Trail package is personalised to your group.  It will include: 

• Your personalised Ticket, naming one of the family groups who walked this trail in 1847, so you can truly Follow in their Footsteps.

• The 14 page National Famine Way Passport/Guide allows participants to record their progress with stage stamps. As well as indicating the amenities available along the route the Passport/Guide also calls attention to important local history and cultural highlights.  The guide contains an OSI Trail Map.

Don’t forget to present your stamped Passport when you arrive in Dublin at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum and receive your Certificate of Completion.  Also, discover what became of your family group on their journey in 1847.

• In addition you will receive Discount Vouchers for the National Famine Museum, EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, and Croke Park.

The Free National Famine Way App is available as of June 2021 to download on Android and Apple devices. Search your App store for the Famine Way App

This project was part funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development under the Outdoor Recreation improvement scheme

 PLEASE NOTE: All Famine way Passport are sent via POST and can take 10 working days to recieve. 

Your Billing address is used as the posting adddress unless you otherwise state in comments.