Clare Burren Marathon Challenge, live.

Road and green trails across the Burren

The Clare Burren Marathon Challenge is a full marathon, a half marathon and a 10 km run or walk on road and cross country trails in the Burren, starting on the seafront in Ballyvaughan.

The 20th edition is on Saturday 29 May 2027, starting at 9am on the seafront in Ballyvaughan, County Clare. The organiser describes the Burren as a landscape of vast rocky pavements with an array of Arctic, Alpine and Mediterranean flora.

The full marathon leaves the village, turns up Fineona road past the Burren College of Art, continues by Glenfort and the ruins of Rathbourney Church to Poulacapple and the green trail road, then climbs the Caher Valley trail. Above Fanore there are views of the Aran Islands and the South Galway coast, and the route takes in part of Fanore beach before a last trail over Blackhead to Gleninagh and the road back to Ballyvaughan. Road and trail alternate in stretches of about 4 miles.

The half marathon shares the opening, then follows the green road by Faunarooska, Lismacsheedy and Aghaglinny and comes down over Gleninagh to the coast road and the finish. The full and half are for participants over 16, with an 8 hour cut-off. The shorter race is all on road, open to all ages and wheelchair accessible, and finishes on the pier.

Numbers and chips are collected in the marquee at the start line on the Friday evening or early on race morning, unless posted. Water stations come about every 4 miles, mile markers line the routes, and every finisher gets a T-shirt, a medal and soup and a roll. Parking is a 5 minute walk from the start.

On Livebib you can follow a participant live when they choose to share the position of the phone they carry. That position comes from the participant's own phone and is not the organiser's timing, so official results and splits come from the organiser.