A story of my 2005 round Ireland cycle. I took 19 days and covered 1340 miles in total. I followed most of the coastline (32 counties) clockwise from Dublin but took some short-cuts here and there. I went solo in July/August. It would have been nice to have a suitable companion or two but it was not to be. the plan was to use B&B’s for sleep/breakfast and so I didn’t need to carry a tent etc, just 2 panier bags with light quick-dry clothing plus 2 litres of water. I would buy food for the day along the way and stop when tired. I would carry a minimum of clothes and emergency food. Total pannier weight with water would be about 22 lbs or 10 kilos.
Day 1: The journey started in Malahide, North County Dublin when I bade adieu to my doubtful spouse and youngest child and said I’d give them a call. I cycled steadily towards south Dublin and then along the coast to Killiney and then Bray. At this point, sick of going up and down hills, I decided to try the main road to Wexford and made great progress. I found it difficlt to find a B&B and continued onwards trying to find one. It was late when I eventually found one 5 miles north of Enniscorthy. I had cycled an unwise 100 miles. Light was fading fast when I tried my last hope at a B&B close to the main road. thankfully, it was available.
Day 2: The next morning after the customary B&B Irish breakfast, the skies darkened and it began to piss rain. It would rain all day in buckets. Because of this, I decided to stick to the main road. It was a boring, cold and wet cycle apart from a quick visit to the wife’s niece in Glenmor who fed me and dried my jacket. Getting back into freezing wet leggings was memorable. The low point of the day came when I stood freezing – with rapidly diminishing body heat – and soaked at the side of the boring wind and rain-swept main road to Dungarven trying (with frozen, wet hands) to open a sandwich wrapper, 15 miles from my destination. I persevered, as I do, and got to a lifesaving shop 4 miles on where I bought a hot cup of coffee which revived me enough to beat the remaining elements and get to my B&B. (65 miles).
Day 3: It started sunny the next day, which was good for my spirits as I had had enough rain the day before and my achilles was sore from the unaccustomed repitition of cycling movements. It would culminate in a sharp pain every 20 or so minutes which made me somewhat fearful for my future progress. However, it eased later on in the day. I bypassed Youghal thinking I should make better time on the bypass. Bad decision, it was a circuitous hilly route. I continued on to Cork and thought briefly about going through the tunnel under the Lee but didn’t. I decided to go through Cork and see how far I would get before I was tired enough to call it a day. Bandon fit the bill, where I found a nice B&B in an old house. (75 mi).
Day 4: The next day, again with decent weather, I struck out for Mizen Head. The best scenery starts after Bandon with glandore. I ate in Schull on the way and got indigeston from listening to a garrulous, pretensious woman at the next table. Cutting the stop short I made off on the long road to Mizen head. I made it as far as Toormore and stopped for the night. Here I met the famous Violet Connell who ran the B&B. You have to meet her, she’s unbelievable. Her breakfast is also a sight to behold. (63 mi).
Day 5: The next morning, during a magnificent breakfast, the other lodgers quiz me about where I am going. the men look interested but I fancy the women clutch on to their menfolk and look alarmed when they hear what I am doing (don’t you get any ideas buster, and keep him away from me, he’s clearly off his top). I then cycled out to Mizen head but didn’t bother with the little bridge at the light house, preferring to continue on. It is a long way out to the head, but an interesting, if hilly, cycle. I back tracked and continued on to Glengarrif. I was getting tired at this point and my left knee was getting very sore. I persisted, but it was difficult to cycle with the soreness. I stopped many times to rest it. Unfortunately, there were many hills, some of them quite steep. By the time I got to Castletownbere, I was boll**ed. It had been a very hard day (84 mi).
Day 6: I set out from ‘bere remembering the previous day’s knee problems and fearing the worst. Unfortunately it was a very windy day and very hilly with ups and downs and ups and downs. My knee did indeed give trouble and I was forced to walk up some of the worst hills to lessen the wear and tear. The scenery was beautiful travelling to Allihies which compensated somewhat. Weather was a bit cold and overall, it was a struggle to make progress with my knee. I finally stopped in Kenmare (50 mi).
Day 7: cold, wet and windy. No fun really. Knee sore all day. A day to hang in and not give in. No fun. I made it to Ballyheigue and threw in the towel (for the day anyhow!). (50 mi).
Day 8: Oh no, another windy day. I set off into the wind and continued into the wind! It was cool and overcast but no rain thankfully. I got 25 miles before the knee started to hurt which was better than the previous 2 days. This was welcome news. I took the Tarbert to killimer ferry rather than cycle into Limerick and out. I continued on to Miltown Malbay – a rather odd place. (57 mi).
Day 9: Another cool day. Jacket needed. Went through Lahinch, a sandy seaside place and continued on to the cliffs of Moher, stopping to visit. The knee was holding up fairly well today. I went on to Lisdoonvarna (nothing much there) and the well-named corkscrew hills to Ballyvaughan and then along the coast to Oranmore and in to Galway where I stayed with a cousin of my mothers and met her adult children whom I hadn’t met before (my second cousins!). (72 mi).
Day 10: A lovely day. No jacket needed today. The scenery was beautiful along by Inverin, Casla, Maam Cross and Leenane where I lunched, feeling rather pleased with my self and upbeat again after my travails of the previous few days. Amazing what a bit of good weather can do. Leenane is a beautiful spot and I rested in the Sun in the heather beside a small lake out the road. The road out to Louisburg is also beautiful. Louisburg itself, on the other hand, is a very wierd place. Everyone I met in that small kip, from the bar who took an hour to get my dinner, to the shop owner who turned off the light when I went in and then stood looking away from me at a shelf, to the gurriers who threw a stone at me, the car of duckbill hatted imbeciles who swerved towards me and the land lady who sniggered when I told her about it. I concluded that it was the hole of Ireland. (75 mi). At this stage I notice I have cycled 691 miles, an average of 69 a day and decide that my target will be to do an average of 70 for the whole trip with no days off. (I’m like that, a wee bit competitive with myself).
Day 11: I wash the dust from Louisburg off my feet and continue on. I am over half-way now and feeling cocky. I have settled into the routine of the man of the road. I can handle myself and anything the world throws at me. There is good weather today and some lovely stretches. The wind is side-on and then behind me for a while. Alas, I pay for this later when I cycle the last 12 miles into a very strong wind to a wind-swept Belmullet. (75 mi).
Day 12: Belmullet still windy but hello, the wind is behind me. I arrive at the junction for the Ceide fields and decide not to do the detour, preferring to enjoy the novelty of being blown along by the wind through a vast empty bog road. I head towards Sligo and have trouble finding a B&B due to a race meeting. everythings booked out. I continue out the road and get lodgings near Yeat’s grave. (93 mi thanks to the wind). Later I visit the grave and tread softly. Actually I prop my bike against the headstone to the shock of another tourist, and take a picture. I reckon Yeats wouldn’t have minded. Good food nearby.
Day 13: On from Drumcliff. I decide to treat myself to a short day after yesterday’s long cycle. I go through Bundoran, a seaside kip with arcades and crappy gift shops. Good riddance to old Ireland. I lunch in the middle (literally) of Donegal town on a small park in the middle of a roundabout which is rather amusing. The wind is favourable until the last 15-20 miles. During the last part, I strain my right quad going up very long hill. It just seemed to strain, give way suddenly. Its wet and overcast. I pull in to shelter from rain later on. I stop just outside the fishing village of Killybegs. (60 mi).
Day 14: Oh dear, sore right quad all day. No fun. My hands are now getting sore from gripping the handle bars or road shock or both. (I have no shock absorbers on the front of the bike). Its hilly today and unfortunately into the wind for the first 25 miles. I am making slow progress.Today I visit Dungloe (Mary of), Gweedore and Glenveigh National park. There is a long road up Errigal and around the park which is …. lengthy. It rains a bit today also. Late in the day I puncture and stop to fix it. I am getting very tired now. I call it a day just North of Letterkenny. (75 mi).
Day 15: In and quickly out of Letterkenny. A big uninteresting town. The weather is ok and the scenery is excellent for most of the day out to Malin head. Its a long and hilly way out though. some really nice spots on the peninsula. I find a nice old B&B near Malin and dump my gear to cycle out the the head and back. the head itself is a bit bleak and concretey. However, it has to be visited as its the most Northerly point in Ireland. (no other reason !) I am tired after a hilly end to the day. (74 mi). I am later wakened up by two insomniac OAPs talking loudly (complaining about this and that as old people tend to do) in the middle of the night in the next room. I finally give up and move out into the house to find another room. Luckily the hostess has many rooms and doesn’t lock them.
Day 16: On from Malin via Quigley’s point, around Derry city, out to Limavady and around Coleraine. Very very long hills up to coleraine, and very tiring. I didn’t like going through County Derry. The road and terrain are very boring and the villages along the way are full of the kind of people who have made the North of Ireland the sectarian dump that it has been for years. Bleak small villages with unionist flags and painted kerbs and sullen people. The mood changed perceptibly as I crossed the border into Antrim. I skipped Portrush as I was getting tired due to the hilly days cycle and my quad was starting to give trouble again. (70 mi). I find a nice B&B run by a typical warm Antrim lady just up the road from the Giant’s Causeway. I later way around it and climb onto the basalt, narrowly missing a fall backwards and down 10 feet when I try to take a picture. One step from disaster.
Day 17: On from the causeway to Carrickfergus via the A2, Ballycastle, Cushendall (in its own timewarp), Carnlough, Larne. Quad sore for the last 20. after a hilly first 15, thankfully the middle part of the day’s cycle is flat on a road blown out of the cliffside and doesn’t unduly stress the injury. Its sunny and there is little wind. Have trouble finding a B&B but get one eventually in a farmhouse. (72 mi).
Day 18: On to Newry via the A2, Belfast, Lisburn and the the A1 to Newry. Impatient now to get out of the North. the road is very busy and skinny with lorries skimming past my shoulder. The only time I have felt remotely threatened by traffic the whole trip. My right knee and quad are gettig sore, making Newry the limit of my ambitions. I am tired and glad to be nearing the end of the journey. (60 mi).
Day 19: (68 mi). Nearly home now. I am tempted to slow down as I cycle out of the North (good riddance) and on towards Louth and Dublin. Its very hot today and there is no wind. As I near the home stretch, I am filled with conflicting feelings. I am glad that it is coming to an end as my right quad and knee need a break from this lark but I have grown used to my own company and the routine of pedaling until I’m tired, resting and then doing it again, eating and drinking when I need to. It will feel strange to be back in my own bed with the bike back in the shed. What was familiar 3 weeks back now feels strange. My daily routine about to be swapped back to an older one – going back. On this trip, I have always gone forward, never back.
Journey’s end, I round the corner. I’m back but I really don’t want to be. I have liked being a solitary traveller for a while.
However, I will remember freewheeling through a bog somewhere in Mayo, driven by the wind, with my feet up on the crossbar, thinking about nothing and not giving a damn about anything or anyone. (this probably happens when you cycle for 800-900 mile on your own and is definitely worth visiting).
I passed through a myriad small towns I have never visited and never will again, just stopping to buy a sandwich and a coffee. I cycled into strong winds and beating rain at times but more often I had fair weather with the more than occasional following wind and fine day.
And now, some advice if you feel inclined to do something similar
I recommend a rest day here and there to avoid strains. I had some knee problems early on and a quad strain in the last week (which wouldn’t have happened if I had put in a rest day every 5-6 days). I was aerobically fit from regular running (c. 25-30 miles p.w.) but am not a cyclist. In fact, I just bought the bike a week before I went, not having cycled for about 20 years. Its not that big a deal to go cycling!
A more leisurely 50 miles a day would give more time for sightseeing and dawdling along and would be easier on the legs (thights)and butt!
There is no real need to book B&B’s ahead of time unless you happen to coincide with a major festival. B&B owners will always have the names of other people nearby who may not be listed and may therefore be available. Many people will give them a call for you also to check availability if you don’t have a mobile phone with you. (You should buy a local SIM card or cheap pay-as-you-go mobile phone if you are considering a long B&B based trip. It is a useful prop also to have a B&B guide for the whole country – just for peace of mind, not strictly necessary).
It isn’t really that hard. just one step (or rotation) after the other. Stop when you must, eat when you should, rest when you can’t go on and then continue on until you reach your goal. You just need the will to continue.
(and yes, I beat my target of 70 mi a day!)
