Walking between counties, possible/safe?

passive

Not entirely sure where to put this so...

Tomorrow I intend walking from Dublin-Drogheda just for the sake of it, for some kind of achievement and for some introspective musical time. I am, however, unsure if this can be physically done.

The route I am thinking of walking is pretty much the N1. Are pedestrians allowed to walk alongside these type of roads (National Primary or whatever). Forgetting "allowed" can anyone who drives along this type of main road with any type of regularity tell me if there is generally a grass verge/footpathy space alongside that would facilitate this adventure?

I'd walk along the coast but google earth shows a train only bridge from malahide to whatever it is north of malahide, and I'd rather avoid any kind of small, windy, car demolishing me after a sharp corner, type roads.

Em... please move if there's anywhere better suited for this (road safety? east region? dublin? meath? louth? walking? famous last posts?)

Thanks

Tha Gopher

The tone of your post indicates that you intend to reach Louth in time for last orders

Havent been there in 6 odd years but i recall Louth and Monaghan having very narrow roads.

Btw have you thought this through? A person can walk and average of 3.5 mph, but this will slow as you walk further.

edit- wipes eyes. Jaysus, I thought you had said Donegal to Drogheda.

Right, im going to bed

dermot_sheehan

Cycle it, it can be done in 2 and a half hours or so.

Winters

It took me about 3 hours to walk from Dublin to my house here out in Howth. I hope you have cleared your day for the walk as it will take you many hours.

As gabhain7 said, your better off cycling it. You can do it in a few hours.

Also, with the recent weather, dont forget to bring an umbrealla.

passive

The day is set aside for it, i'm planning to leave my house at about 7. I may go the coastal route for safety reasons, but that starts to get complicated as i get further north (or so google earth says)

em.. it's about 35 miles (says google maps) and I walk quite quickly so i think I can do it within daylight hours if i can find a walkable route... Thanks for the advice... I'm gonna walk one way or another and see how for I can get. My bike squeaks like crazy and is horrible/only to be used in emergencies, plus it's kinda about the walking. I'll let you know how i get on!

And hee, yes, Dublin, Not Donegal O_o.

Pighead

Bring a laptop too and give us hourly updates. One thing though, why the hell did you choose drogheda as a destination point. Believe me buddy you will feel absolutely no sense of achievement upon arriving in Craptown.

wyndham

How are you getting home Forrest?

passive

Bus home if i make it by 9, or so says my plan. If that fails I have a friend who lives in Termonfeckin who'll have a surprise late night knock on the door... em... i don't have a laptop/infinite wireless signal... And why Drogheda? Damn good question... 'cos i make it to be about a day's walk away i guess?

About the N1 again though... anyone know if there's walkable grass most of the way up/if it's illegal to walk along that type of road?

goodnight and i'll talk to ye tomorrow night... (great, now i'm under pressure to do this or make up a damn fine fictional account of it tomorrow...)

bug

passive wrote:

Bus home if i make it by 9, or so says my plan. If that fails I have a friend who lives in Termonfeckin who'll have a surprise late night knock on the door... em... i don't have a laptop/infinite wireless signal... And why Drogheda? Damn good question... 'cos i make it to be about a day's walk away i guess?

About the N1 again though... anyone know if there's walkable grass most of the way up/if it's illegal to walk along that type of road?

goodnight and i'll talk to ye tomorrow night... (great, now i'm under pressure to do this or make up a damn fine fictional account of it tomorrow...)

are you going to eat on the way?
what happens if you want to go the toilet.
This is madness george.

Go for a walk up the mountains instead. Getting jelly legless, tired and lost or drowned wont give you any musical introspectiveness.
Unless you are trying to prove you're stupid I suggest the above.

brataccas

Some hitchhiker HI.

Kintarō Hattori

Fair play to you passive. It's an interesting idea and something cool to do with your time instead of drinking in the pub, or sitting on the couch all day watching TV.

FunkZ

I tried walking from Swords to Julainstown drunk last summer, I cried for most of the way. Good luck!

Kintarō Hattori

LazyFingers wrote:

I tried walking from Swords to Julainstown drunk last summer, I cried for most of the way. Good luck!

Are you still drunk??

Timans

Why would you possibly want to excercise? You could miss The Afternoon Show! :eek:

humbert

I think it's perfectly legal to walk along a national road but they are a bit walker unfriendly in places if memory serves. motorways between dundalk and dublin now so at least they should be quieter. just stay on the right hand side of the road and keep your head up.

Capt'n Midnight

humbert wrote:

a bit walker unfriendly in places if memory serves.

Drogheda-Dundalk is just suicidal on the main road.

Dublin-Drogheda isn't as bad but still not pretty - best to check out the route in a vehicle first.

Karlusss

Pighead wrote:

Bring a laptop too and give us hourly updates. One thing though, why the hell did you choose drogheda as a destination point. Believe me buddy you will feel absolutely no sense of achievement upon arriving in Craptown.

"Craptown", you must've spent hours coming up with that one.

I've always wanted to walk somewhere far away, after all Ireland's only a tiny wee island as we keep reminding ourselves. Good luck OP.

biko

Someone once told me you can walk on the beach between Bray and Wicklow, would that be an alternative?

Blush_01

eo980 wrote:

Fair play to you passive. It's an interesting idea and something cool to do with your time instead of drinking in the pub, or sitting on the couch all day watching TV.

Knowing passive, he'll have his massive bottle of Smirnoff in his backpack.

Fair play to you, although considering you walked from college to work I have no doubt you'll do it.

[off topic]Wear your rainbow trousers Passive. No black tops! And bring an umbrella. Listen to Baz Luhrmann's advice. Don't take candy from strangers. Remember that if you bump into a certain someone on the way there (or back) Fleur misses him, and it was your fault he went on his merry yellow way in the first place. Take photos. Leave the flowers alone. And don't drop your litter![/off topic]

event

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Drogheda-Dundalk is just suicidal on the main road.

which main road?

bug wrote:

Getting jelly legless, tired and lost or drowned wont give you any musical introspectiveness.
Unless you are trying to prove you're stupid I suggest the above.

how would you drown on a road?

Tar.Aldarion

Anybody going to drive along and find him, maybe drive slowly behind him jeering?

Stephen

Its legal to walk along national primary roads (i.e. N1) but NOT motorways (M1). Pedestrians on motorway = suicide.

kdouglas

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Anybody going to drive along and find him, maybe drive slowly behind him jeering?

***grabs megaphone and jumps in car

fair play passive, i think i'd probably be dead after a few hours walking... best of luck with it

Dord

whats the bets that he'll get lost along the way!

Mr.Plough

N1 becomes the M1 at like santry. and i dont think you can walk on the motorway as my bro got picked up for walking down the M50 once.

he was p*ssed, but not stumbling or anything.




he was naked though

Jimoslimos

Pighead wrote:

Bring a laptop too and give us hourly updates. One thing though, why the hell did you choose drogheda as a destination point. Believe me buddy you will feel absolutely no sense of achievement upon arriving in Craptown.

Could be worse - he could be heading for Dundalk! At least in Drogheda he'll be able to converse in broken english with the locals;)

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

loyatemu

the main road from Dublin to Drogheda is now the M1 motorway and you're not premitted to walk on it. The old N1 is now a regional road and the signposting may not be the best if you are going a long distance on it.

I presume the OP has set off by now, but a better idea might have been to walk to Wicklow as you can follow the coast all the way down.

cailinoBAC

Maybe somebody could ring up a radio station and tell drivers to look out for him and report on his progress? Anybody?

January

cailinoBAC wrote:

Maybe somebody could ring up a radio station and tell drivers to look out for him and report on his progress? Anybody?

I volunteer you cailinoBAC!!

Collie D

Anyone else notice that this thread was posted at last orders time? Many a great idea to be had at that hour that never gets followed through.

Giblet

Pfft, I've walked from Dublin, to Wicklow, to Kildare in 20 mins.

Collie D

Giblet wrote:

Pfft, I've walked from Dublin, to Wicklow, to Kildare in 20 mins.

..in your bare feet?

Giblet

Well I actually did walk it, I live on the border of Dublin and Kildare :>

John Mason

are you mental?????????? have you ever driven on these roads? the N1 isnt in the best of condition and there a lot of building sites along the way, so there is a strong possibility of been mowed down by a passing JCB

there are no footpaths or grass verges and load of dead animals. i wont drive that road in the dark

and termonfecking is a long way outside drogheda

Capt'n Midnight

biko wrote:

Someone once told me you can walk on the beach between Bray and Wicklow, would that be an alternative?

No you can't.
You can walk on a path on top of the cliffs though to Greystones. Fairly flat after that I'd imagine.

And as for which is the main road, the motorway BYPASSES Drogheda and it's illegal to walk beside it

Wertz

Don't know why you'd want to do it, but it is possible; ie. there is an N route the whole way. At whitehall you'd need to branch off through santry, past the airport and down throiugh swords....then it's the long road past rush and lusk and onwards to balbriggan. From there it's out past gormanstown and then onto julianstown....by that stage drogheda is only a few miles further on.
The road may be in disrepair, but it only takes local traffic now and IIRC there is plenty of hard shoulder so getting run over shouldn't be that much of a threat (no more than it ever is)...although that said there are some bad bends and narrow stretches....just walk on the right hand side of the road (ie face into oncoming traffic).
The road is a boring drive (who could believe that it was once the main Dublin-Belfast rd?) and I'd say it's an even more boring walk...best of luck with it, but you'd be better served taking a proper hike someplace...

passive

*stumbles to pc*

Hi... okay. Following some of the safety advice, "it'll suck" advice and basci common sense I decided not to walk the N1 to Drogheda and instead set off along the coast, heading North, to see how far I could get.

My route is marked in purple... I had to get the train across the bridge at Malahide, as a malahidian friend told me it wasn't safe. I should have walked though... it looked easy enough and no train crossed for a half hour .
I took a few pictures along the way but i'm too sleepy to properly illustrate this account...

From Donabate (across the bridge) I walked along to the beach, to some places I remember from childhood (ah, memories) and walked along the cliff past a house with a confederate flag, a mental home, then onto portrane beach. I was, until the following misadventure, convinced that there was a path from Portrane to Rush at low tide... There isn't. Then i got lost in portrane because i went to the road instead of back down the beach... queue some frustrated wandering... Then some nice stranger gave me a lift to portrane town, from where i was ready to give up at the prospect of walking the 7 or 8 km to rush to get back on track.

luckily my Luskian friend drove to meet me in Donabate (after I walked back to there.. mbleh...) and brought me to hers for food and resting of feet... By now I was a little sore, and losing momentum didn't help[HTML][/HTML]! I left for hers with the intention of reaching Balbriggan but, in the end, limped to a bus stop in Skerries and got home about an hours ago.

I also got rained on. A lot.

So... to summarise; It was an interesting, introspective and pleasant experience but, as i pushed it too far and got cold and wet and sore, I stopped being able to focus on anything other then getting home. Also; research your route before going on a long walk, in both Malahide and Portrane about 100 metres of low, but fast flowing, water stopped me from crossing to my destination. It sucked monkeys.

Em.. so the picture covers 23km or something... I didn't go as the crow flies.. em... lots... it was lots... I don't think i'll be walking tomorrow. Goodnight people... =/

(edit; just checked the picture to make sure there was nothing private or incriminating around my desktop... I'll upload the "butt-500.gif" to prove it's nothing icky :P)

(edit2: heh... anyone know a better mspaint-like product for mac? I found that one a little awkward to draw with ^_^)

kdouglas

fair play, it's a decent walk alright... dont think i'd have lasted that long, probably have gotten bored after an hour or so

crushproof

fair lay,you cant beat a random walk.
did one last sunday with some friends, ended up in the dublin mountains at some big tower, was a pretty cool spot.
eventuqlly found our way home!

FunkZ

Man you're a legend!

Ya should have walked the 10/15 km extra to Julianstown and we could have gone for a pint!

January

That's a fair old walk, congratulations! I love the vroom vroom and choo choo bits in your map!

Dord

Fair play to ya!

I cycled 23Km a few weeks back, from one side of Dublin to the other. I was knackered after it! To top things off, I hadn't cycled in about 4 years prior to that day.

loyatemu

as suggested earlier - walk to Wicklow is a much better option

Coast Road to Dalkey, then onto Killiney beach as far as Bray, cliff walk to Greystones, then along the beach to Wicklow (or the adjacent railway line - only 10 trains a day or so).