Annaloughan National Loop Walk
This National Loop Walk overlooks Dundalk Bay. It is mostly on track, but the mountain section requires good boots, with heathery mountain slopes and a return through the pines and spruces of Rockmarshall Forest.
Route Description
A–B
Start from the small layby and picnic area beside the main road at Jenkinstown. Alternatively, you can park in the grounds of Fitzpatrick's Bar and Restaurant. The route is marked with purple arrows and signs. From the trailhead, follow the arrow to the right, where a narrow road leads uphill past some houses.
Follow this road for about 300m to reach a narrow laneway on your left. Turn left and follow the laneway to exit at a farm shed where you turn right at the OPW Rockmarshall Court Tomb. Shortly afterwards, turn right at a T-junction and follow the roadway uphill to reach a barrier entrance to forestry. Just past the barrier, turn right onto a forestry roadway.
B–C
After just 50m continue straight on at a junction and follow the forestry roadway as it ascends to a 3-way junction from where the loop proper begins. Information plates on the waymarker offer you the choice of doing the loop clockwise or counter-clockwise.
It is suggested that the route is best done clockwise, so continue straight on. The loop continues to ascend for the next 2km before joining a surfaced road. Turn right.
C–A
Follow the road for only 50m and cross a stile on your right which takes you onto a path by the edge of forestry on your right. Keeping the forestry fence on your right, stay on this path for 1.5km as the loop crosses the shoulder of Annaloughan Mountain.
Near the end of this section, a slight deviation to the left from the fence takes you to a stile where you enter the forestry. Follow the stony path downhill to reach a 3-way junction where you turn left and continue downhill. After 300m, swing right at a sharp bend and soon rejoin the outward section of the loop at the junction mentioned at B above. This time turn left and follow the purple arrows back to the trailhead.
As well as enjoying the scenery, keep an eye out for the memorial plaque erected to the crew of an RAF B-24 Liberator Mk. II aircraft which crashed in poor weather conditions on 14 March 1942 with a crew of six and thirteen passengers on board, of whom only five survived.
Directions
The M1 is the motorway connecting Dublin and Belfast. Leave the M1 at Junction 18 and join the R173 in the direction of Ballymascanlan and Carlingford for 6km. The trailhead is just past Fitzpatrick's Bar and Restaurant on the left-hand side.
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