Prolonging the network lifetime for a reasonable period while meeting users' needs is key in developing a data gathering algorithm for WSNs. Clustered sensor networks are considered as an efficient approach for extending the network lifetime of WSNs. In clustering, sensor devices are arranged in clusters. Inside the cluster, non‐cluster head nodes transmit data to the cluster head (C_H) nodes while the C_H forward the message to the sink. Irrespective of how the clusters are formed, a clustered WSN requires sturdy energy‐balanced (EB) and energy‐efficient (EE) communication protocol. Different from the previous clustered based routing protocol, this paper develops and analyses a selective‐path priority table EB and EE clustering based routing protocol, which employs a mobile sink. The priority table is formed by prioritising the two shortest paths to the C_H or sink according to some simple but efficient rules. The rules are derived using some routing metrics such as transmission range/power and residual energy. The simulation results show that the proposed routing protocol can be integrated with most clustering formation algorithms, even in large scale WSNs. Besides, results show that this routing protocol improve the network lifetime and throughput as compared to similar schemes.