Go Walk: Lough Avalla Farm Loop, Co Clare

Magical. That’s the only word to describe this walk in north Co Clare. We discovered it by accident, when a nagging knee put Mullaghmore beyond reach. Looking for something easy, we spotted this on a leaflet – although the name ofLough Avalla farm loop walk doesn’t do it justice.

This walk has something for everyone. There’s a holy well, promising to cure diabetes (terms and conditions apply!), mossy hazel wood like a rainforest. It’s a classic Burren limestone landscape – though watch where you step: this is ankle-twisting terrain.

There’s wildlife in abundance. Our tally starts with a slow worm, my first time seeing this snake-like lizard, which was introduced to the Burren in the 1970s. Sadly also, it’s my first time seeing a dead one: this specimen has just been run over. Later, we will see ravens on a nest, and back near the car a stoat will cross our path.

And of course the flowers: blue gentians to gladden the heart, carpets of mountain avens, clumps of anemones. Even the farm animals are attractive: white-belted Galloway cattle and inquisitive goats.

The walk itself is a stroll on green roads and woodland trails, and across farmland and limestone pavement. It is well way-marked: the purple medallions are easy to follow yet small and unintrusive; an information board near the start outlines the way, and you would need a map only in poor visibility. We start and end at Mullaghmore Cross, where there are some parking spaces.

Setting our backs on Mullaghmore, we follow a green road for the first kilometre, along part of the Burren Way. Then we leave it to turn up a farm track.

At the first gate the farmer has left hazel walking-sticks for visitors to borrow. It’s the first sign of the warm welcome the owners are extending here.

Now the route plunges into the verdant hazel wood, thick with birdsong and gurgles of water from the holy well. It’s a short detour to the spring, where cups are supplied for those taking the cure.

At intervals, we pass through handmade hazel gates (above) and clamber over some wooden stiles. The Burren may look wild, but the cattle are a reminder that this is a managed landscape: the grazing animals help to control the scrub and let the wild flowers flourish.

The next kilometre takes us back down, to pass little Lough Avalla. We bump into the landowners, Harry and Maria Jeuken, organic farmers hard at work. Those hazel gates we admired? Harry tells us that, because they are softwood, they must be replaced every seven years. Our last kilometre brings us over a small hill to complete the loop. You could do this walk easily in two hours, but you’d miss the magic.

Then it’s back to our comfy base in Ennistymon, to slake our thirst in Cooley’s house before dinner in Byrne’s. The perfect end to a perfect Burren day.