Mizen To Malin - 8 days

Ted Striker

Hi, Couple of non-cyclists doing Malin to Mizen in 7 or 8 days. Don't think it should be all that difficult given the time we are giving ourselves to do this.

Porposed route might be something like.. (mileage taken from AA route planner)

Mizen Hd - Kenmare (54 miles)
Kenmare - Abbeyfeale (51 miles)
Abbeyfeale - Ennis (64 miles)
Ennis - Galway (46 miles)
Galway - Charlestown (58 miles)
Charlestown - Ballyshannon (56 miles)
Ballyshannon - Letterkennny (44 miles)
Letterkenny - Malin Hd (46 miles)

Anyone got any comments on this route good/bad? Saw plenty other routes but they all seemed to be doing the run in 3-5 days.

Cheers

ROK ON

Ted Striker wrote: »

Hi, Couple of non-cyclists doing Malin to Mizen in 7 or 8 days. Porposed route might be something like.. (milage taken from AA route planner)

Anyone got any comments on this route good/bad? Saw plenty other routes but they all seemed to be doing the run in 3-5 days.

Cheers

Hi I will give you my tuppence worth on the streches of road that I am familiar with.

(1) Mizen - Kenmare: Mizen to Bantry is spectacular, but roads are pretty undulating so can be tiring. Head from Bantry to Kenmare via Glengariff and the Caha Pass. Climbs about 300/350m, tough in parts but beautiful view from near the tunnels. Downhill to Bonane (great chocolate shop) and then Kenmare. Kenmare is great. (Fantastic places to eat, and try Florry Batts for a pint).
(2) Kenamre - Abbeyfeale: I would not go as far as Abbeyfeale. Road from Killarney to Limerick goes thru Castleisland and Abbeyfield. It is a very very busy road, and neither town has anything to recommend it on a trip like this. IMO, head toward Tralee and up the coast via Ballybunion etc, and aim to cross the Shannon, not at Limerick, but using Tarbert Killimer ferry. Roads are much less busy than Killarney Abbeyfeale.
If you are heading over Molls Gap you can take a detur to head via Gap of Dunloe (but some tough climbing here I am informed).
(3) Abbeyfeale - Ennis: As I said above I would not do this. I travel this road regularly in a car, and would not do it on a bike. No real hard shoulder and a lot of trucks, vans etc. I am a Limerick man, and if I was doing this, I would avoid Limk and use the Tarbert Killimer ferry.
(4) Ennis - Galway: Horrible broing road with a lot of traffic. Would be better to come up the coast Killimer, Kilkee, Miltown Malbay, Lahinch, CLiffs of Moher, Doolin, Fanore and Ballyvaughan. Flat to Lahinch, short sharp climb t Cliffs of Moher, dowhill (practically to Ballyvaughan). Also one of the most spectacular roads anywhere (Ireland or anywhere else IMO). Great views, lots of lovely pubs etc.

Thats how I would do if I was planning the trip.
Best of luck, stay off the main roads, and have a great trip.
Dead jealous.

Ted Striker

Thanks ROK ON for the advice. Sounds like a much better route. How much distance would this add however? and can you recommend any places to stay if we went this way?

petethedrummer

Some folks are doing it the other way round but in 6 days, there maybe some useful information here.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055481970

Ted Striker

Did some research using AA routefinder based on ROK ON's comments and came up with this...

Mizen Hd - Kenmare (54 miles)
Kenmare - Listowel (57 miles)
Listowel - Cliffs of Moher (54 miles) via Tarbert/Killimer Ferry
Cliffs of Moher - Galway (49 miles)
Galway - Charlestown (58 miles)
Charlestown - Ballyshannon (56 miles)
Ballyshannon - Letterkennny (44 miles)
Letterkenny - Malin Hd (46 miles)

ROK ON

Ted Striker wrote: »

Did some research using AA routefinder based on ROK ON's comments and came up with this...

Mizen Hd - Kenmare (54 miles)
Kenmare - Listowel (57 miles)
Listowel - Cliffs of Moher (54 miles) via Tarbert/Killimer Ferry
Cliffs of Moher - Galway (49 miles)
Galway - Charlestown (58 miles)
Charlestown - Ballyshannon (56 miles)
Ballyshannon - Letterkennny (44 miles)
Letterkenny - Malin Hd (46 miles)

Are ye camping, b&bomg or hosteling or other.
But re places to stay Loads in Kenmare and Listowel.
For Cliffs of Moher stay in Lahinch or Doolin. Only 1 good pub with good grub in Lahinch IMO (Kenny's really good pubgrub). But lots of places in Doolin.
Also in Lahinch there is an Italian veggie restaurant (Holywell people who like pasta love this place, but the Pizza is overrated). Just outside Doolin there are 2 pubs that are very good for eating.
From Lahinch to Galway, there is good food at Monks in Ballyvaughan.
For food/refuelling.
Kenmare - PH, Prego (Pizza/pasta), The Horseshoe (Good steak and a great pub). For something really nice try Packies, Lime Tree or Mulcahys.
At Molls Gap try Stawberryfields

Ted Striker

plan at the moment is to B&B and hostel ... too much gear to carry to camp we reckoned.

Anyone got some advice on what we need to take with us ? (no support vehicle just carrying what we can on the bikes)

Thanks

Ted Striker

and to ask a stupid newbie question...

when hitting hills are you better to train by getting off saddle using higher gears.. or sit it out in a lower gear? or is it all personal preference?

blorg

Ted Striker wrote: »

and to ask a stupid newbie question...

when hitting hills are you better to train by getting off saddle using higher gears.. or sit it out in a lower gear? or is it all personal preference?

It is nice to be able to do both but in general, sitting spinning in a lower gear is more efficient and is easier on the legs.

GearoidP

Hi Ted,

I'm organising the trip mentioned by Pete the Drummer above. We're planning to do Malin to Mizen in 6 days. We've about 10 people interested so far, guys and girls ranging in age 20 to 60's.

Generally, the biggest mistake is to do too much in the first 2 days and then to be exhausted. If you guys are interested in Joining our trip, maybe by setting off a day or two earlier maybe we could do a few days together. More details on www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/m2m

By the way that www.crazyguyonabike.com site is a great one to read up on thousands cycling trips done by people all over the world.

Gearoid

Ted Striker

Hi GearoidP, Thanks for the advice regarding doing to much on first few days. I guess with the adrealine you can get carried away and leave yourself pretty wrecked.

Thanks for the invite to join you but a few people have also asked us to join up with them on the trip but as we have planned it from the start to do it ourselves we still want to go ahead with that. We are new on the bikes too for this sort of thing so plan is to take lots of breaks during the day and maybe even change where we stay on any given night depending on progress or if we like a certain town (or not).

We literally got out on the bikes for first time last week.. and realised what we have got ourselves in for.

Ted Striker

Does anyone have suggestion of how we can get to Mizen head? We are thinking about bus or train from dublin and then bus from Cork city ?

Assume you can take bikes on buses and trains these days?

Any help much appreciated.

petethedrummer

http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1201093023-Bicycles-&-Animals.pdf

http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie/about_us/faq.asp?faq_id=31#31

A private operator will probably be more accomodating.

blorg

Train Dublin-Cork is no problem with a bike although they have a limit of six I believe. Don't know beyond that although Bus Eireann allow them on coach routes "space permitting" (not generally a problem.) Note that bikes can easily get damaged on a coach as they are put in horizontally and bounce around bumpy road surfaces; on trains you have them vertical.

hynesie

So are you guys going to start from Mizen Head or Brow Head, given that Mizen Head isn't the most southerly mainland point?

thebouldwhacker

ROK ON wrote: »

(1) Mizen - Kenmare: Mizen to Bantry is spectacular, but roads are pretty undulating so can be tiring. Head from Bantry to Kenmare via Glengariff and the Caha Pass. Climbs about 300/350m, tough in parts but beautiful view from near the tunnels. Downhill to Bonane (great chocolate shop) and then Kenmare. Kenmare is great. (Fantastic places to eat, and try Florry Batts for a pint).
(2) Kenamre - Abbeyfeale: I would not go as far as Abbeyfeale. Road from Killarney to Limerick goes thru Castleisland and Abbeyfield. It is a very very busy road, and neither town has anything to recommend it on a trip like this. IMO, head toward Tralee and up the coast via Ballybunion etc, and aim to cross the Shannon, not at Limerick, but using Tarbert Killimer ferry. Roads are much less busy than Killarney Abbeyfeale.
If you are heading over Molls Gap you can take a detur to head via Gap of Dunloe (but some tough climbing here I am informed).
(3) Abbeyfeale - Ennis: As I said above I would not do this. I travel this road regularly in a car, and would not do it on a bike. No real hard shoulder and a lot of trucks, vans etc. I am a Limerick man, and if I was doing this, I would avoid Limk and use the Tarbert Killimer ferry.
(4) Ennis - Galway: Horrible broing road with a lot of traffic. Would be better to come up the coast Killimer, Kilkee, Miltown Malbay, Lahinch, CLiffs of Moher, Doolin, Fanore and Ballyvaughan. Flat to Lahinch, short sharp climb t Cliffs of Moher, dowhill (practically to Ballyvaughan). Also one of the most spectacular roads anywhere (Ireland or anywhere else IMO). Great views, lots of lovely pubs etc.

Thats how I would do if I was planning the trip.
Best of luck, stay off the main roads, and have a great trip.
Dead jealous.

I'd agree with ROK, if you go Kenmare-Limerick while the views will be worthwhile you will miss out on some fantastic coasts... I reckon this route is far better. Also it will cater for yer needs, hotels, pubs, activities, locals used to bringing cyclists to hospital when they drop from tiredness, bike friendly(ish) roads, fellow travelers & did I mention the views?

Ted Striker wrote: »

Does anyone have suggestion of how we can get to Mizen head?

Once you get to Cork City there is a local op who travels to West Cork, Harrintons Coaches (let me know if you cant track their number down & I'll get it for you, i reckon they should meet your needs.

Also as ye will be a simi large group & ye will be traveling mid week I would ring the hotels too, many of them will have self catering accomodation for rock bottom prices (ie kenmare bay hotel)

I'm living in Bantry at the mo so if I can be of any more help let me know & I'll see what I can do!:cool:

(one tip for cycling around here though...get some hill training in....:D)

Ted Striker

Thanks for the help guys.

hynesie - i think mizen will be fine!

Ted Striker

thebouldwhacker -> afraid we arent a large/semi large group at all. Just the two of us so private buses arent really an option. I would be hoping we get somewhere close by a public service bus and even cycle the rest.

hynesie

Ted Striker wrote: »

hynesie - i think mizen will be fine!

I was just day-dreaming in the office, imagining a trip that would hit the 4 extreme mainland points of ireland when wikipedia decided to tell me that Mizen head wasn't the furthest south. I was just curious as to whether it would bother you, personally I'd probably hit both in order to appease the pedantic part of me, they are very close.

thebouldwhacker

Ted Striker wrote: »

thebouldwhacker -> afraid we arent a large/semi large group at all. Just the two of us so private buses arent really an option. I would be hoping we get somewhere close by a public service bus and even cycle the rest.

sorry, I thought ye were.. anyway what I ment was Harrintons are a local bus compainy, they either service that area or will be able to give you the number of the bus compainy which do...

KStaford

hi folks and sorry to revisit an ageing thread, I am thinking of doing this route solo sometime soon. I was wondering how the hostels work? Do they have food or do you bring your own? If you bring your own, what do you bring? I mean I can't envisage carrying stuff around on the bike such as spuds, or bacon and sausages for breakfast etc.

What's the norm?

Ted Striker

Don't know a whole lot about hostels but think most have self catering kitchens rather than restaurants. You wouldn't have to carry much food with you though as most are located in towns or villages anyways where you could eat - unless your on a really tight budget.

We are planning to B+B it rather than use hostels.