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FARRANFORE

CO. KERRY · IE

Farranfore
An Fearann Fuar

The Wild Atlantic Way
Transit / 06

An Fearann Fuar · Co. Kerry

Kerry's front door. The runway is the reason you've heard of it.

Farranfore is the village you land at and don't see. Walk out of the terminal, get into a hire car or onto the airport bus, and the road points you at Killarney fifteen kilometres south or Tralee seventeen kilometres north, and that is what nine in ten visitors do. The village itself is a kilometre east of the runway and most travellers never set foot in it.

The Irish name is An Fearann Fuar — the cold land — and the place started as a turnpike at the boundary of the Earl of Kenmare's estate. Then in 1859 the Mallow-to-Tralee railway came through, and Farranfore became a junction: the change for the Valentia Harbour branch, the westernmost line in Europe, until the branch closed in 1960. Then in 1969 the county built itself a regional airport on the flat plain north of the station, and the village's job changed shape again. It has always been somewhere you pass through. That isn't a complaint; it's the village's actual purpose.

If you're staying overnight here, you're almost certainly catching an early flight. That's a fine reason. Otherwise, drive on. Killarney is fifteen minutes south. Tralee is twenty north. The N22 will not detain you.

Population

~700

Walk score

Five minutes end to end

Founded

Turnpike at the Earl of Kenmare's boundary; railway junction 1859

Coords

52.1714° N, 9.5503° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The airport

Kerry Airport (KIR), one runway, thirty flights a week.

Dublin twice daily, London Stansted and Luton, Manchester, Frankfurt-Hahn, Berlin, and seasonal Faro and Alicante. Ryanair has had a base here since 2008. You walk from the plane to the terminal in about ninety seconds.

Stories & lore → 02 The junction

The Mallow–Tralee line still stops here.

Iarnród Éireann runs four to five trains a day each way between Mallow and Tralee, and Farranfore is the change for nowhere now — but for sixty-six years it was Farranfore Junction, the gateway to the westernmost railway in Europe out to Valentia Harbour.

Getting there → 03 The function

A turnpike with a runway bolted on.

There is a main street, a church, a primary school, a GAA pitch and one or two pubs. The whole village sits on the N22 between Killarney and Tralee, and most of the people you'll meet are in transit. So is the village, in its own way.

The letter →

02 / 07

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Ballygarry Estate (Tralee)	Hotel — 15 minutes north	Country-house hotel on the edge of Tralee, the closest properly-good-bed-and-breakfast option to the airport if you want a real night before an early flight. Spa, decent restaurant, manicured grounds.
Manor West Hotel (Tralee)	Hotel — 15 minutes north	Bigger, more modern, sat next to the retail park on the Tralee bypass. Family-friendly, leisure centre, fine for a fly-in fly-out night.
Killarney hotels	Town — 15 minutes south	If you have the time, drive on to Killarney and pick from forty-odd hotels. The Great Southern, the Killarney Park, the Lake Hotel — all on the wrong side of Farranfore for catching a 6am flight, but on the right side for everything else.
Herlihy's Half Way House (Farranfore)	Self-catering	The old village pub at the crossroads, in business since the 1900s, closed as a bar in January 2017 and reopened as wheelchair-accessible self-catering. Sleeps four. Two minutes from the airport. About as close as the village gets to a place to stay.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Farranfore Junction, 1859–1960

The junction that built the village

The Mallow-to-Tralee line opened on 18 July 1859 and Farranfore was a station on it. From 1893 a branch ran south-west from here through Killorglin and Cahersiveen to Renard Point, opposite Valentia Island — the westernmost railway in Europe. For sixty-six years Farranfore Junction was where you changed trains for the Atlantic. The branch closed on 1 February 1960, the timetables forgot the name 'Junction', and the village reverted to being a station on a quiet country line. The platforms are still there. So is the line. You can still get on a train and go to Mallow or Tralee. You cannot any longer get on a train and go to Cahersiveen.

Kerry Airport opens, 1969

The airport on the bog

By the late 1960s Kerry was the only county in the south-west without a regional airport. A site was found on the flat plain between the village and the river Maine, and Kerry Airport — Aerfort Chiarraí — opened in 1969 as a small turboprop aerodrome. For its first thirty years it was a quiet operation: Aer Arann to Dublin, the odd charter, light private aircraft. Then in July 2008 Ryanair opened a base here, the runway extension caught up with the demand, and the Stansted, Luton, Manchester and Frankfurt-Hahn routes turned the village's fields into a working international airport. The runway is just over two kilometres long. It is the only airport on the Wild Atlantic Way south of Shannon.

N22 Farranfore–Killarney scheme

The bypass that didn't come

The N22 between Tralee and Cork is Kerry's spine, and the section through Farranfore has been on the upgrade list for two decades. The Macroom bypass — twenty-two kilometres east of here — finally opened in 2023 and cut seventeen minutes off the Killarney-to-Cork run. The Farranfore-to-Killarney section is still in design, due to be built as a 2+1 road, with public consultation rounds running through the 2020s. Until it's built, every coach and HGV between Tralee and Cork goes straight through the village's main street. Cross the road carefully.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Through the village Main Street from end to end and back. Church, school, GAA pitch, a pub or two, the level crossing. Done.

1 kmdistance

15 mintime

Airport perimeter (plane spotting) The road north of the runway gives a clean view of the threshold. Time it for a Ryanair arrival and you'll see a 737 land over your head. Bring a coat. The wind off the plain is real.

Variabledistance

An hour if you're patienttime

Riverside out to the Maine A short loop down to the River Maine, the small river that gives the valley its name. Quiet, flat, no drama. A way to stretch the legs between flight and hire car.

3 kmdistance

45 mintime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

Lambs in the fields visible from the runway. Quietest the airport gets all year. Cheap flights.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun–Aug

Airport at full tilt, terminal queues real, hire cars sold out three months ahead. Book everything early.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep–Oct

Faro and Alicante still running, weather still fair, Kerry visibly itself again as the coaches thin out.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov–Feb

Seasonal routes shut. Schedule pares back to Dublin and the UK. Fog can close the runway for a morning.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Staying in Farranfore unless you're flying out tomorrow

There is no real reason. Killarney is fifteen minutes south and has a town. Tralee is twenty minutes north and has a town. Farranfore has a runway and a pub.

Looking for the village from the terminal

The actual village sits a kilometre east of the airport, the other side of the N22. You can walk it in fifteen minutes, but there is nothing in it that you came to Kerry for.

The train, if you're heading west

The Valentia branch closed in 1960. The line you can still ride only goes Mallow–Tralee. For Dingle, Cahersiveen or anywhere on the peninsulas, hire a car at the airport.

Treating Farranfore as a base for the Ring of Kerry

It isn't. Killarney is the Ring's launchpad and has the hotels, restaurants and tour buses. Farranfore is fifteen minutes too far north and has none of those.

Getting there.

By car

Farranfore sits on the N22, fifteen minutes north of Killarney and twenty minutes south of Tralee. From Cork it's an hour and forty minutes — the Macroom bypass cut a chunk out of that drive in 2023.

By bus

Bus Éireann 270 (Tralee–Killarney) stops at the village and the airport, several services daily. Local Link runs a connecting service from the terminal to Killarney train station.

By train

Iarnród Éireann's Mallow–Tralee line stops at Farranfore station four to five times daily each way. The station is a five-minute walk from the airport terminal — a quiet, useful detail that's not on most signs.

By air

Kerry Airport (KIR) is the village. Ryanair flies to Dublin, London Stansted, London Luton, Manchester, Frankfurt-Hahn and Berlin year-round, with seasonal Faro and Alicante in summer. Aer Lingus Regional has run the Dublin route in past years; check current carrier. About thirty flights a week in total.