After a 5-week break from cycling, I set off on my eBike from County Wexford in the South-east of Ireland to begin a ‘clock-wise’ tour of the island, more-or-less hugging the coastline on Eurovelo 1 and the Wild Atlantic Way to Kerry and Limerick.
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Monday 5 August 2019. Yoletown · Dungarvon |103 km|
[Overcast and 17°C. 25km/h winds from SW. The route took in: Tintern Abbey, Saltmills, Fethard, Duncannon, Arthurstown, Ballyhack (ferry), Waterford, KilMacthomas and Dungarvon]
I was waiting in Yoletown: after rain most of the Saturday and Sunday, it looked like it was finally going to clear up on the Monday. Still, I hung around just to be sure and didn’t get going until after 1 pm with the weather still looking pretty bad – the rain did hold off but there were strong head winds most of the way. There were no big hills but I still had just over 800m of climbing to do, and the ride was mostly on quiet country lanes, first following the well-marked Eurovelo 1 route for 40 km to the ferry at Ballyhack, then a fairly quiet main road for 17 km into Waterford, and finally 46 km on a brand new dedicated bike path called the Waterford Greenway that goes along an abandoned railway line.
The seaside villages of Fethard and Duncannon were bustling with holidaymakers on this bank holiday Monday. Pity about the weather – 17° and blustery – but the Irish would count that as a good summer’s day for sure.
The short (5 minute) ferry ride across the Suir River estuary from Ballyhack in Wexford County to Passage East in Waterford County cost €2 (including 50 cent* for the bike). Cars pay €8 plus €1 per passenger. Capacity is 28 cars, and they were full in both directions. *Not a typo: the plural of cent is ‘cent’ in Euro money terms.
I arrived at Waterford town (city, really) at 4 pm and set about buying an Irish SIM from Vodafone (good value: 25 GB and 100 minutes for €20, plus unlimited weekend calls, plus unlimited texts), and got some maps and info from the very helpful guy in the Tourist Information Office. I’ve been critical of tourist offices in the past, so it’s only fair to say this man knew his business! He told me about the Wexford Greenway that goes from Waterford town centre 46 km all the way to Dungarvon town centre along the route of an abandoned railway line, and so that’s the way I went.
Dungarvon didn’t have much going for it in terms of available accommodation, but after a quick lap of the town I did manage to find a room in the excellent Lawlor’s Hotel – cheap too, at €55 bed and breakfast. The wharf dates back at least 150 years, at least according to the date on this bollard. So 2019 makes it the sesquicentenary of that particular part of the wharf! Other bollards had later dates – but I didn’t check them all.
Tuesday 6 August 2019. Dungarvon · Cork |110 km|
[Weather similar to yesterday (17°C and overcast), except that the wind was stronger, with 30km/h winds from W and SW. The route took in: An Rinn, Gaeltacht na n’Déise, Ardmore, Kinsalebeg, Youghal, Midleton and Cork]
This was a terrible day’s riding really: firstly because of the incessant head winds and secondly because for 70 km I was on the breakdown lane of the very busy N25 motorway with cars whizzing past every 5 seconds.
Out of Dungarvon I first had to do 6km on the N25 again but then turned off to the left to follow the signs for Eurovelo 1 on the quiet R674 road that took me into the Gaeltacht (Gaelic-speaking) area centred on the village of An Rinn (meaning ‘The Cape’), that sits on a peninsular on the southern side of Dungarvon Bay.
This part of the day’s ride, past Ardmore and on to Youghal (pronounced Youll) was great.
The route bypasses Ardmore and then heads back out to the N25 again at Kinsalebeg which is just before Youghal – there’s no other choice because you have to go round the deeply-indented Blackwater Bay.
The batteries were already getting depleted by then, and to be on the safe side I back-tracked 4km (down a whopping great hill) to the village of Youghal sat in the Old Imperial Hotel there for 2 hours on the charger. Their roast of the day was edible, but only just.
Good thing I gave the old beast a decent charge though, because the 65-km ride on to Cork after that was a very hard slog against a 30km/h wind all the way (not to mention that long 13% hill back up to the main road again). I arrived into Cork just in time for the evening rush-hour, but was mostly able to zoom up the footpath past all the traffic at a standstill.
I tried at least 6 hotels downtown, but they were either booked out or ridiculously overpriced (like plus €200!), so I set my sights a bit lower. The fifth B&B I tried, Audley House, which is still quite central and near the university, had a tiny kitsch room for me for a mere €100. Hmm – It’s going to be an expensive cycling trip if this keeps up. There were a few eateries nearby and some bars with live music – I looked in on a few but the menus/ atmosphere/ music were deplorable and I settled for 3 packets of M&Ms (peanut) and two beers back in the room.
Wednesday 7 August 2019. Cork · Kenmare |120 km|
[15°C, completely overcast, two ½-hour rain showers, but no wind. Very hilly (1,483m climbed for the day) on quiet minor roads for 90 km almost to Killarney, then on the major tourist route The Ring of Kerry for 30 km to Kenmare. The route took in: Blarney, Tower, Rylane, Aubane, Millstreet, Rathmore, Killarney, Molls Gap and Kenmare]
Even though the minor road I was on, the R617, was almost dead straight for 50-odd km, it crosses over a series of valleys and the ride was very hilly, including a monumental climb up out of the village of Tower. This, of course, flattened the batteries in quick time and at 12.30, after only 60km, I was obliged to stop at The Wallis Arms pub in Millstreet for a couple of hours to recharge. Their shepherd’s pie was delicious but, I have to say, a bit suss, because within 24 hours I had a raging stomach bug that took over a week to clear up. A mild dose of Giardiasis, perhaps? See what Doctor Google has to say about it.
Now, apart from Dublin, there are more hotel beds in Killarney than any other town in Ireland (Booking.com alone has 150 listings). And it shows! The approaches to the town that I used, the N22 in from the east and the N71 out to the south, had mega-resort style hotel after hotel for several kilometers on both sides. OK, maybe the town centre is still authentic under that deluge of rampant tourism but… I dunno, because I just peddled right on through there as fast as I could.
But I certainly do ‘get’ the attraction of the area. Immediately past the last mega resort on the southern fringe of town, the Killarney National Park begins – and it is beautiful. First, it was an easy walking/ cycling track of 4 km or so, and populated with lots of walkers and cyclists and horse-drawn carts. Then it was on to the famous ‘Ring of Kerry’ itself, with a 10km section of narrow, twisting and extremely busy main road climbing up a picturesque lake-strewn wooded valley to Molls Gap, and then a 10km downhill run into Kenmare town. There are tourist buses coming at you every couple of minutes, and in some places, like sharp bends or bridges, there isn’t enough room for passing (even a bicycle and a bus!) and one or the other has to wait.
But don’t worry, it’s OK – all the buses are mandated to travel the full 70 km long Ring of Kerry only in the counter-clockwise direction, so if you’re going clockwise (like me) you each have plenty of time to react and for one or the other to pull over (and usually, following the ‘downhill-waits’ protocol, it’s the bus that pulled over).
The downhill run in to Kenmare was exhilarating. The town itself was not. Maybe it’s just because I was expecting a seaside town – it’s not, it is a good way off Kenmare Bay.
But that didn’t stop it being pretty much booked out, though, and once again I paid top dollar (€120) for a room, this one at the Lansdowne Arms Hotel at the top of ‘the other main street’.
Main Street itself had lots of bars advertising live Irish music (I counted 8): I looked in on a couple and they sounded simply atrocious, so once again it was M&Ms and a couple of beers back in the room.
Thursday 8 August 2019. Kenmare · Cahersiveen |87 km|
[It was sunny for a change, and warmer too – 18°C – and not much wind to complain about either. The first 50km were excellent, along the northern side of Kenmare Bay, which is like a long narrow mountain-fringed loch; then it was spectacular views at Beenarouke Lookout and across the broad Iveragh Peninsula and back down the other side of it. The route took in: Blackwater Bridge, Sneem, Whitestrand, Caherdaniel, Beenarouke lookout, Waterville and Cahersiveen]
After about 15km from Kenmare, around about Sneem, the scenery became quite picturesque, and then, for a short while after Caherdaniel as the road started to climb to cross over the peninsula, more dramatic.
The sky was gradually clouding over, and, quite happy with my day’s ride, I decided to take an early rest at 2pm at the town of Cahersiveen. Just as well too – by 5pm there was a light drizzle and by 7pm it was raining steadily. The rain kept up most of the night.
Friday 9 August 2019. Cahersiveen · Dingle |98 km|
[Mainly overcast, plenty of rain all the way, but not much wind to speak of. The route, along the Wild Atlantic Way, took in: Glenbeigh, Killorglin, Milltown, Inch and Dingle]
When I woke up it was still raining. Nothing else for it but to gear up and head off out into it!
After the pretty little town of Inch, with its genuine surf beach, the weather began to clear a little and I was rewarded with some quite nice views along the southern coast of the Dingle peninsula. In spite of the beckoning surf, I only stopped for a few minutes in Inch – the smell of raw sewerage was all-encompassing. I got into conversation with 2 brothers and the two teenage boys of one of them, who were admiring my bike and who were also all doing the Dingle loop on their bicycles.
With its annual horse race meeting on, it was the busiest weekend of the year and Dingle was packed. That is, accommodation was once again at a premium, and I shelled out €300 to get a cut-price deal for 2 nights stay at the nice-enough Dingle Bay Hotel in the thick of things on Main Street. Not that there was too much happening anyway – on the Friday night I just ended up watching Liverpool thrash Norwich in the opening game of the English Premier League season at Paddy Bawn Brosnan’s bar, where my cyclist friends from Inch also happened to be.
Saturday 10 August 2019. Slea Head Circuit |68 km|
The weather was miserable when I poked my head out at 10am, ready to ride the Slea Head Circuit. I waited until 11, but couldn’t see any sign of improvement and so pushed off – straight into a vicious gale from the west. The conditions were atrocious and since I wasn’t planning on going very far that day, I decided, after 10 km at the village of Ventry, to turn around and go back and to wait for some improvement in the weather.
So I hung about until 2.30 before pushing off again, but the wind was even stronger – 45km/h gusts from the west and qualls of driving rain – but I was determined this time and pushed on. Actually, if truth be known, I was spurred on by the courageous endeavours of two old biddies battling into the hurricane on their ordinary bikes as I edged past them – if they could do it, so could I! But my friends from Inch couldn’t: I saw them zooming back towards town from their hostel with the gale behind them just as I was setting out for the second time.
The wind and sleet intensified as I crawled up to the Slea Head lookout. I won’t forget in a hurry inching up that narrow road into a buffeting 50km/h gale, with horizontal rain stabbing my eyeballs and visibility down to 100m – with a 200m drop into the raging ocean just the other side of a broken-down ½-m high stone wall that was only a metre off to my left. Scary!
But it was only for a short section, and once I ‘turned the corner’ at Slea Head, conditions improved enough to get a few snaps, and from then on for the rest of the circuit I largely had the wind behind me.
I was back at Dingle by 6.30 and the rest of my Saturday was entirely uneventful. I didn’t feel like venturing out too far in the rain and for dinner I settled for a half-chicken and coleslaw from Supervalu that I ate back in my room.
Sunday 11 August 2019. Dingle · Caherconlish |165 km|
[16°C, 15 km/h wind from SW, rain showers. The weather was patchy: it started off ok but deteriorated as my long ride progressed. I was mainly on quiet minor roads and laneways through picturesque undulating sheep country, with some steep climbs (1,534m total for the day]. The route took in: Tralee, Knocknagashel, Bulingary, Croom, Meanus, Herbertstown and Caherconlish]
My day started early (8am) with a huge 7km climb at 10% gradient out of Dingle over Conor Pass, the highest mountain pass in Ireland. Very enjoyable!
I was making for a house on a small estate in the countryside near the tiny village of Caherconlish which is near Limerick – Molly’s aunt and uncle and 3 cousins live there, and I was invited for a couple of day’s stay.
It was a long ride, but the weather was still below par and I was keen to get it over and done with in the one day so I pushed it fairly hard. It was pretty countryside, especially for the first 100km, without being particularly photogenic. I only passed through a couple of small villages on the way, and they were all shut up tight for the Sunday anyway, so there were only limited opportunities for re-victualisation and recharging.
There were 3 massive wind farms strung out along the way and I noticed they didn’t seem to be churning out too much power in spite of the steady wind. Maybe it was too windy for them, or maybe a lot of the turbines hadn’t been commissioned or hooked into the grid yet?
I did get to have one long recharging stop of 2 hours at about the halfway mark at the very obliging Dillane’s Shop which is located at a crossroads just before the village of Abbeyfeale, and then hurried off as soon as I thought I had enough charge to go all the way because the rain was threatening to press in again.
I got to my destination at the relatives’ house just after 4pm as it started to rain in earnest, but then had to wait on the porch for another hour anyway for someone to arrive home and let me in! Only uncle Doney came home – the others were still in Wexford with Molly, but Doney had to return for work on Monday – and we had take-away Chinese and a couple of beers before calling it an early night.
I rested up for the next day, doing a load of washing and working on this blog. No choice about staying if truth be told, because Doney locked me in the house when he left for work!
I actually completed writing this entire section, but, after double-checking it all, and on the last press of the button to publish – phfft ! I lost the lot! So it’s taken me 2 weeks to get over it and rewrite it all. It was much better the first time around too!
-ends-
Europe 2019: 7,066 km, 35,610m climbed
Bike total: 12,029 km
Nice picture of Duncannon!
Thanks. It was quite windy there too that day.