Tralee – Fenit Greenway

The Tralee to Fenit railway was opened in 1887 with grand ambitions of capturing some of the valuable Trans-Atlantic trade with the railway terminating on the pier in Fenit to facilitate the smooth transfer of goods. These ambitions never fully materialised; passenger traffic ceased on December 31, 1934, though the line remained in use for goods and summer excursions until June 1978. During the greenway’s delivery, original Victorian infrastructure—including stone overbridges and station buildings—was carefully restored to preserve the route’s railway heritage..

This part of Kerry is deeply associated with the War of Independence and Civil War . Indeed, Fenit served as a landing site for the National Army with the SS Lady Wicklow arriving off the Kerry coast at dawn on 3rd August 1922 with 450 solders of the Dublin Guards brigade. This seaborne landing was part of a strategy along the Cork and Kerry coasts to essentially create a second front at the rear of Republican positions. Within a day of the Fenit landing, the force had taken Tralee. An extended period of violence was to follow in this part of the country between the two sides.

It is said that anti-Treaty forces had mined the viaduct to thwart the landing, but the charges failed to detonate. It is said that local dockers, fearing for the survival of the port, secretly cut the wires to save the structure. An extended period of violence followed this landing across North Kerry.

St Brendan the Navigator

All along the Tralee to Fenit Greenway are links to St Brendan the Navigator, patron saint of mariners, County Kerry, and the United States Navy.

According to local tradition, the sixth-century saint was born in Fenit in 484AD where a bronze statue of him stands on the Great Samphire Island. He is reputed to have founded a church at Kilfenora, close to the former railway station (now a private residence).

The name Kilfenora – meaning ‘Church of the bright flame’ – refers to the bright light which was seen over the house in which St Brendan was born on the night of his birth. Clogherbrien, which the greenway passes through, also has links to St Brendan while close to the greenway access point in Rock Street, Tralee stands Our Lady and St Brendan’s Church.

There is an icon of St Brendan in the church, a stained glass window, and outside are a series of 13 bronze panels telling the story of his world famous voyage across the Atlantic from Ireland to North America.

Nearby, the poignant Fishermen’s Memorial offers a quiet moment of reflection, honouring those who lost their lives at sea. Over on Little Samphire Island stands the iconic Fenit Lighthouse, built in 1851 to safeguard shipping routes into Tralee Bay. Once manned by lighthouse keepers and now automated, the white tower remains a powerful symbol of Fenit’s deep maritime heritage and enduring connection to the Atlantic.