Non-Official, Offline Motorway Services in Ireland

Amtmann

This thread is for non-NRA, offline Motorway Service Areas. Post photos, opening hours, directions and general impressions of the service stations below.

Amtmann

Motorway: M8
Junction: 14
County: Cork
Operator: Amber
Facilities: Fuel, Restaurant, Deli, Off-licence, WC, WiFi, ATM
Opening Hours: 24/7







An excellent place to stop on the M8, this service area opened in August 2010 and is located 1.6 km from junction 14 on the outskirts of Fermoy. The deli serves excellent food, and there is plenty of seating. A hatch service is offered between the hours of 23:00 and 07:00. Fuel is generally cheaper than many other service stations in the area. This is currently the best service station on the M8 corridor in my opinion.

Chris_5339762

How good is the signposting from the motorway?

-Corkie-

Are they recent pics Furet. That diesel is very cheap...:)

Amtmann

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

How good is the signposting from the motorway?

Some ads hanging from a few overbridges, that's it, plus a few small brown signs affixed to the NRA signage at the junction 14 roundabouts.

-Corkie- wrote: »

Are they recent pics Furet. That diesel is very cheap...:)

About a week old.

nordydan

M1: 200m east of J5, direction Balbriggan.
Applegreen service station, shop, cafeteria.
Fuel open 24/7

Bluetonic

nordydan wrote: »

M1: 200m east of J5, direction Balbriggan.
Applegreen service station, shop, cafeteria.
Fuel open 24/7

http://applegreen.ie/locations/balbrigganM1

Facilities on-site

Coffee (Barista)
Coffee (Self-service)
Car wash (Attended)
Car wash (Brush)
Car wash (Jet)
Deli
Café
Smoothie bar
Grill n Fill
Off licence (Wine)
ATM
Public telephone
National Lottery
Toilets
Disabled facilities
Sitting area (in/out)
Parking
Truck Stop
Blue petrol

KevR

Kilmartin's Athlone (750 metres from J8 of the N/M6):

Texaco (Fuel)
Centra (Shop)
Deli (Sandwiches, Coffee, Smoothies...etc.)
ATM
Pay Phone
McDonalds
Subway
Dominos Pizza
Car Wash (Jet and Brush)
Air Station
Vacuum Cleaner
Mat Cleaner
Post Box
Off Licence
National Lottery
Parking


They don't say on their website that Texaco/Centra are open 24hrs but I have seen signs at Kilmartin's saying that they are. Given that they don't have opening times advertised on their website, you would think that it is 24 hrs. Dominos and Subway are not open 24hrs; not sure about McDonalds but I would have my doubts.

Amtmann

Midway Food Court: http://www.midwaym7.com/

This has numerous food outlets and ample parking. It is NOT open 24/7 and it currently does NOT have fuel services, though a Topaz station will open on the site in the near future.

whyulittle

Kilmartin's operates a through a hatch overnight. ATM is outdoors so available 24 hours.

L1011

I have a domain name and a part-written site intending to do this on, if someone would give me an occasional smack around the head it'd probably have been up by last Christmas...

Mylow

-Corkie- wrote: »

Are they recent pics Furet. That diesel is very cheap...:)

Yes, I got diesel there last Wednesday.

marmurr1916

Any chance we could convince the NRA to signpost these?

Signposts could be put up either at the sole expense of the businesses or jointly by NRA and the businesses.

There must be one or two decent sized sign posts from the re-designated HQDC sections lying about the place, ready to be recycled.

I don't see why these services, all within 1km of motorway exits, shouldn't be made known to motorway drivers.

L1011

The M8 has vague signage at both ends which is referring to Urlingford (Kavanaghs/Applegreen), the south end of Cashel (Mother Hubbards and Tesco for fuel) and Mitchelstown (cluster of stations there) at both ends of it, but nothing more specific beyond that.... that appears to be all we're likely to get on other roads.

Bluetonic

Both of these are 24hours and are on the route if avoiding the M1 Drogheda toll.

1.3km from J7 off the M1 on the N1 to Drogheda (on the south bound side of the road)

http://applegreen.ie/locations/gormanston

2.7km from J7 off the M1 on the N1 to Drogheda (on the north bound side of the road)

http://applegreen.ie/locations/julianstown

Both have the same services on site

Facilities on-site

Coffee (Barista)
Coffee (Self-service)
Car wash (Attended)
Car wash (Brush)
Car wash (Jet)
Deli
Café
Smoothie bar
Grill n Fill
Off licence (Wine)
ATM
Public telephone
National Lottery
Toilets
Disabled facilities
Sitting area (in/out)
Parking
Truck Stop
Blue petrol

L1011

Anyone else notice a partially prepped field beside the M7 in Moneygall with "Instant Sale: Site For Motorway Service Area" on it?

The junction there is in no way good enough for any extra traffic an MSA would generate...

Stinicker

I must concur with Furet on the J14 service station off the M8. I took a welcome break there last night around 10.30 after driving down in the torrential rain from the All-Ireland hurling, I was low on fuel and remembered your post here! I was so fatigued after awaking at 6am having gone to bed at 1am the night before.

I gave 5 hours driving down last night due to the traffic on the M7 and I missed the M7/M8 turnoff as I was stuck in the overtaking lane while trying to get around the spray from a convoy of lorries and the Kilkenny/Tipp plebs following the lights of the lorry at 75km/h, when realised my mistake it was too late and had to come down through Rathdowney and rejoin the M8 at J4 again outside Johnstown, some value I had for my €1.80 :pac:

Services are not just about Fuel but simply driver safety, I was able to get a cup of coffee, refuel the car (Petrol is still the same price Furet!) and sit down and take a badly needed rest from driving. The area is immaculate expecially the toilets and the staff seems to be all Irish and very friendly. A good business and at 1.6km drive is only a minute or two from the Motorway.

Chris_5339762

Yeah the traffic was brutal coming out of Dublin last night. I was going in so I was ok but it was jammed from the M7/9 split all the way back to J4 on the Naas Road. And the jam for Newlands went all the way back to the horizon on the M50 coming southbound, I couldnt see the end of it from the bridge at the Red Cow.

And I used that service station too to buy petol and it did the job nicely. Slightly odd to get into and out of due to where they put the concrete, but it was good.

They've put some signs up on the M8 northbound for "24hr service station". Not sure if they're official, but they are in the right shade of brown.

Amtmann

It's a god-send alright, but I've noticed that actually, despite the advertising, there are no showers and there is no ATM on the premises. I used it yesterday myself and do so regularly.

wellbutty

Great thread Furet, in the absence of the NRA acknowledging these, any chance of making this thread a sticky as it's really useful info to have at hand before hitting the roads

thetonynator

There are signs on the N7 dual carriageway that say

''No on-line services ahead, offline services at:

and then give the various distances for the different motorways.

Kind of helpful for people who dont know the road.

Jayuu

thetonynator wrote: »

There are signs on the N7 dual carriageway that say

''No on-line services ahead, offline services at:

and then give the various distances for the different motorways.

Kind of helpful for people who dont know the road.

It is a pity that they put distances as opposed junction numbers on these signs.
Something like "M9 services at Junctions 3, 7, 9" or wherever they are would be much more helpful and easier for people to understand and remember.

munchkin_utd

aigh

but are the services
-at the junction,
-near the junction,
-somewhere way offline that happened to be humped about being by-passed and got some brown amenities signs put up,
-or better still, the far side altogether of somewhere bypassed .
-or the reality : impossible to find as the amenities signs only exist on the motorways and arent followed up the whole way to the destination

currently NOTHING is clearly signed along the entire length of the interurbans except the confusing sign at the beginning of the M7

The few truely convienient and quality service stations and rest stops along the main interurbans should be signed properly clearly and consistently.
And also locally the entire way from motorway to the services themselves.

(and the brown yokes should be taken down with only true tourist amenities like the hill of cashel appearing on a brown sign!)

Chris_5339762

THe Fermoy one is signed on the bridges, there is a sign on the motorway saying "24hr service station" and it is signed on the roundabout as well. Its then 1.5km to the service station.

Not perfect, but better than nothing.

csd

Has anyone seen any more of these go up anywhere?

This one is just before the last services on the D3 section of the N7 near Kill. There's one other one I know of at the start of the M8.



The sign in the background is an Irish translation.

Rovi

Junction numbers would be helpful...

Carawaystick

Bluetonic wrote: »

I don't agree as the same setup exists there so how could it be any better? The queues less? It's just as busy and perhaps it's busier due to it's smaller size.

The placement of the tills is simple business management to be honest. Why on earth would you want customers away from your produce?

Considering the taxpayers paid (waay over the odds) for the construction of these service areas, I would consider the public service aspect of the design to be of importance.

Most fuel stations on french autoroutes either have a kiosk on the forecourt to pay or a til inside the door. and they're wholly private sector operations.



One other point I think is a good idea is the short exit slip from the mainline and a long entrance slip.
Too often, we see short (or very short) onslips onto main roads and very long diverging lanes.

I wondered about the roundabout on entering the service area, but thinking now it's a pretty effective traffic calming device to get people to switch to low speed driving by almost stopping them ad changing the mindset.
Maybe it's just incompetence though - form an organisation that provide a crashed computer to prevent people paying them money for the westlink toll.

L1011

Rovi wrote: »

Junction numbers would be helpful...

Junction numbers would be seen as identifying specific operators and cause ructions.

The ones on the M8 are so vague in distance that the middle spacing one heading south refers to somewhere a few km south of Cashel near absolutely nothing, for instance. The other two are Urlingford and Mitchelstown IIRC

From that list there, the M9 ones are probably Crookstown and Castledermot for the first two... some drive to Limerick I'm going to be bored enough to figure which junction / service station each one refers to :pac:

Amtmann

It seems there's been some activity at M8 junction 8 for the McDonalds/Topaz development.

The planning link is here: http://www.southtippcoco.ie/eplan41/FileRefDetails.aspx?file_number=09734&LASiteID=0

And a rudimentary drawing is below:


Signage concept here:


Latest now is that it will open in spring.

marmurr1916

€1.02.9 per litre of unleaded? Not sure if that'll be on the sign when it actually opens...

veryangryman

24 hour garage just off the N6 Exit 12. The Grove

Follow sign for town centre up to Junciton with Water Tower. Turn right - station 100m up the road

Reasonably priced fuel and a good alternative if youve been a plank and missed Kilmartins (happens to the best of us )