Southern Ireland

Unknown
Unknown
edited December 1969 in Tour & expedition
On monday I am off to the Isle of Man for a couple of days then will be going over to Southern Ireland for a couple of weeks.
down to Kerry, Killarny Dingle,Bantry Bay Cork etc.
I will be riding the Ring of Kerry. Gap of Dunloe but please:-

Any other good roads/places/recommendations would be most welcome.

Looking at www.trentobike.org I found this website which is a bit different to the normal photoshoot
http://home20.inet.tele.dk/jacobi/Irland/Irland.html

Nice watercolours instead of photos.

cheers george

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Comments

  • kilo
    kilo Posts: 174
    Firstly I can recommend getting the OS maps for this area. I've ridden in the killorglin area a few times and found the rng of kerry to be quite busy with coaches and narrow in places. There is also a ring of kerry cycle rote which takes you away from the main roads. I can highly recommend travelling from Killarney to Killorgln and turning off towards Glencar. Glencar is one of the nicest areas i've been to. There are some great rides, ranging from a loop around Loch Caragh to a longer ride heading from Glencar south and over the pass towards Mastergeehy & Waterville (can't find my OS map with the name of the pass). On a nice day its a brilliant ride through open empty land with stunning mountains to the sides and then up a stinging climb before decending through forests. When you reach the very end of this road your very close to a cracking beach at Garyglass. There is another great hill from Glencar towards Boheeshil and south towards the R568 and Sneem. On the Ring of Kerry Derrynane is very nice and Daniel O'Connell's house, Derrynane House is an interesting stop off with a good cafe

    A good B&B in Glencar is http://www.glencar-blackstones.com/, stayed there a lot very good value and friendly. i'v always found Killarney a bit over touristy and prefereed Killorglin, Bianconis in Killorglin is good for food and B&B and QC's in Cahersiveen is a good seafood restaurant. The Ballinaskelligs area is nice and if you have time a trip to the Skelligs is an intersting and possibly highly frightening diversion. The road from St Finians Bay following the coast to Portmagee has one of the nastiest climbs I've ever done in my life on it but is a great ride with a massive descent into Portmagee. Valencia Island is also nice. Sorry about the lack of place names if I find my maps I'll update this
  • MichaelW
    MichaelW Posts: 2,164
    The smaller peninsulars further south are worth exploring.
    Check out the South Pole (pub) on Dingle.
    The Skull-Baltimore ferry is probably more scenic than the road and there is a great hostel at Baltimore.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Thanks for the info guys.
    I was over there about 20 years ago, and have been trying to get back since.

    Kilo:
    what is terrifying about Skelligs?

    george

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  • kilo
    kilo Posts: 174
    The Skelligs are two islands about forty minutes out to sea by small boat. The day my wife and I went there there was a fair amount of seasickness even though the skipper said it was fairly calm. On top of the larger of the two islands are a series of 10th/12th century buildings built by monks. It is supposedly one of the oldest religious buildings still intact in Europe. To get up to these buildings you have to walk up an extremely steep hillside using a series of 10th/12th century stone steps built by the aforementioned monks. As it is a rare heritage sight there are no guiderails, ropes or security devices and the stones can be slippery. You look to you side and see a nice drop!! If you're ok with hights it is ok, my wife and her mother hated it, she recently described it as one of the worst days in her life [:D]. There was talk of making it a UNESCO site and stopping visitors. It is a realy impressive place and worth a visit. For a falavour look at http://www.skelligislands.com/gallery.html
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    The trailer is loaded and the tickets are here.
    I am setting off for the ferry, its about 25 miles away, soon.

    See you all later

    tailwinds

    george

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