Ireland's Trails

Sport Ireland Outdoors, previously known as the National Trails Office, was established in 2007 by the Sport Ireland to coordinate and drive the implementation of an Irish Trails Strategy, and to promote the use of recreational trails in Ireland.

Sport Ireland Outdoors maintains a National Trails Register (currently >920 trails listed) in conjunction with a number of partner agencies and bodies, promotes standards and good practice for trail development, supports new trail initiatives and also undertakes promotional work aimed at increasing the awareness and usage of recreational trails in Ireland.

What is the National Trails Register?

  • The National Trails Register has been established to record all Waymarked Trails in Ireland. Any community, voluntary or public organisation may notify Sport Ireland Outdoors of trail developments for inclusion on the register.
  • The register includes trails at various stages of accreditation and development. The National Trails Register is the basis for the trails displayed on this website. Trails at an early stage of development, or trails which have outstanding safety issues, will not be displayed.

5 Levels of Trails

  1. Accredited: trails which meet the Management Standards for Recreational Trails
  2. Partially Accredited: trails that may have some safety issues and /or other work to complete in order to fully meet the standard
  3. Non-Accredited Trails: trails that meet basic requirements in relation to access and safety, but otherwise do not meet the requirements of the Management Standards for Recreational Trails
  4. Closed: trails that do not meet the basic requirements for access and safety, or have other significant issues
  5. Under Development: new trails which are under development, or existing trails which are being extensively re-redeveloped

Inspection / Assessment of Trails

  • For trails to be included on the National Trails Register they must be inspected.
  • Inspections will be carried out using the standard template and scoring methodology as developed by the National Trails Office.