The South Kerry Greenway is a proposed greenway

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It is intended to be long when completed and run from

Glenbeigh Glenbeigh or Glanbehy () is a town and civil parish on the Iveragh peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The parish includes Rossbeigh beach, Coomasahran Lake and a number of important rock art sites. Owing to its natural heritage, history and i ...

Cahersiveen Cahersiveen (), sometimes Cahirciveen, is a town on the N70 national secondary road in County Kerry, Ireland. As of the 2016 CSO census, the town had a population of 1,041. Geography Cahersiveen is on the slopes of 376-metre-high Bentee, and ...

. It is an off-road trail intended for use by cyclists and walkers along some of the route of the

Farranfore–Valentia Harbour line The Farranfore–Valentia Harbour line was a long single-track broad gauge railway line that operated from 1892 to 1960 along Dingle Bay's southern shore in Ireland. It was the most westerly railway in Europe. History A plan to extend the ...

, which opened 1893 and closed in 1960. The line was operated by the

Great Southern and Western Railway The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) was an Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland from 1844 until 1924. The GS&WR grew by building lines and making a series of takeovers, until in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was the ...

. In July 2021, legal challenges against the greenway planning permissions and associated compulsory purchase orders, as well as environmental impacts, were dismissed. It was announced that leave to appeal applications and further challenges would be assessed in November 2021. On 15 October 2021, it was reported that planning permission to construct the greenway was upheld. By December 2021,

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

proceedings had been initiated. On 8 February 2022, the Supreme Court rejected the applications seeking leave for appeal, and Kerry County Council announced that it could "now proceed with the construction of the greenway". As of May 2023 the greenway was under construction. As of December 2023, Kerry County Council proposed that a "main contractor" for the works would be appointed in mid-2024 and that the greenway could be completed by mid-2026.

References

Long-distance trails in the Republic of Ireland Geography of County Kerry Tourist attractions in County Kerry Rail trails in the Republic of Ireland Irish Greenways {{Trail-stub