Which is the less horrible side of Sally Gap to climb

Cookie_Monster

My preferred weekend route this weekend will involve Sally gap twice, from separate directions.

Likely to be coming down from the northern part (glencree) and descend either to Laragh or Blessington, over Wicklow Gap and back up to come down the eastern side to Roundwood area.

Have only ever descended the West and South side, so which do you reckon will be the nicer ascent?
I'm thinking down to Laragh, back up from Blessington is the way to go, not bothered which side of the Wicklow gap I go up, find both grand. Not that it matters so much at the end of the day, but I'll throw it out there for a vote

This basically

niceonetom

There are four ways up to Sally Gap.

Cookie_Monster

niceonetom wrote: »

There are four ways up to Sally Gap.

read the post and you'll see I've covered that

doozerie

I find the climb from Laragh easier but the climb from Blessington more scenic (well, parts of it anyway). So for me it depends on how I'm feeling on the day - if I am tired enough that I expect to just be looking down at my slowly turning front hub all the way up then the route up from Blessington loses its appeal.

nomadic

I like the climb up from the Roundwood side. The view of Lugalla and the lake is spectacular. The climb up from Laragh is a bit boring once you pass the waterfall.

manwithaplan

I like the Laragh side, particularly early in the morning. There are usually loads of deer and stuff to look at. It's not that difficult either. The last kick up from the bridge on the Blessington side is probably slightly harder but it's short enough and there's nothing very scary before it.

Having said that, the Wicklow Gap is more of a challenge from the Laragh side so I would probably descend into Laragh, up the Wicklow Gap, right through Valleymount and the lakes and up the Gap from the Blessington side.

TinyExplosions

Laragh is easier, unless there's a headwind, then it's just a soul destroying bastard of a climb. From Roundwood is grand also though

Pherekydes

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

read the post and you'll see I've covered that

Tom's posting history suggests that he's telling you to htfu and do Sally from each side. :pac:

daragh_

If you go from Roundwood you get to do that short steep bit between the two carparks, which is fun.

I like going up from Laragh because I get to annoy those two big dogs that are stuck behind a fence in a house about halfway to the Waterfall. One day they will escape and I'll do an record breaking sprint. Or die horribly.

smacl

There are four ways up to Sally Gap.

If you're talking about climbs to get you there, there's quite a few more. I can think of nine off hand. I'd usually come up either via cruagh wood(1), or powerscourt waterfall(2). You could also go from stocking lane(3) or glencree(4), all of these take you to the military road and up via lough bray.

I reckon the steepest approach is to come off the Bohernabreena road, head for Cunard / Dodder source, and come up to the military road via Grassamucky Brakes(5). There's a few other ways up from here, but I haven't tried them yet.

Another option from Laragh, rather than Glenmacnass(6) is to take the small l-road on your left just after leaving Laragh, which is takes you the bottom of lough Dan, up behind the back of Roundwood, and on up to the sally gap via Lough Tay(7). Lots of hills and a close second to Grassamucky.

You've also got the main road from Kilbride and up (8), and can go via the Kilbride rifle range (9) though the road was seriously pot holed last time I did this one.

CramCycle

There are no horrible ways to climb Sally Gap.

Lumen

CramCycle wrote: »

There are no horrible ways to climb Sally Gap.

On foot, in road cleats, in the snow, wearing a mankini.

NDC

Hey there. Can anyone please give me specific info about the climb from Rathfarnham to Sally Gap? I've cycled up Stocking Lane/Kilakee Road etc., I've gone about a kilometre past the entrance to the Hellfire Club. Can anyone please tell me, if I continue, how far is it to the carpark/viewing point place? Also, from there, how far is the climb towards Sally Gap? As you can tell, I'm a relatively novice cyclist. My aim is to cycle over the Sally gap, down into Laragh and on to Glendalough. I've been cycling from Clontarf to that point past the hellfire, and back to Clontarf, in 2.5 hours. I'd like to do the Glendalough run in the next week or so but I'm really not sure how difficult it is past there. Don't want to do anything silly, you know yourself....Can anyone help me out? Thanks for reading!!

TinyExplosions

NDC wrote: »

Hey there. Can anyone please give me specific info about the climb from Rathfarnham to Sally Gap? I've cycled up Stocking Lane/Kilakee Road etc., I've gone about a kilometre past the entrance to the Hellfire Club. Can anyone please tell me, if I continue, how far is it to the carpark/viewing point place? Also, from there, how far is the climb towards Sally Gap? As you can tell, I'm a relatively novice cyclist. My aim is to cycle over the Sally gap, down into Laragh and on to Glendalough. I've been cycling from Clontarf to that point past the hellfire, and back to Clontarf, in 2.5 hours. I'd like to do the Glendalough run in the next week or so but I'm really not sure how difficult it is past there. Don't want to do anything silly, you know yourself....Can anyone help me out? Thanks for reading!!

Past the hellfire club, it's about 1.5k to the viewing point, and from there another 14k or so to the Sally Gap crossroads. The time it takes is entirely dependent on you, but I'd say a couple of hours would get you up there

doozerie

@NDC, Googlemaps is a quick and easy way to figure out the distance. This map shows the section from the carpark to Sallygap (13.5km, it claims), you can either put in your own start and end points from scratch to check other stretches of road or else drag the markers on that map to move them. You can use Google StreetView to actually view the road itself if you want to see what it really looks like.

Someone has put up a map of a lot of the route you are talking about here and that shows the profile/gradient of the road too.

Hmmzis

Not sure how far it is from the Hellfire pub to the car park. But from the map it doesn't look too far out. A different way would be to go up Edmondstown road and at the end of it you'll arrive directly at that same car park. After that the climbing isn't that bad and it levels out quite quickly and then you just start descending. The first climb out of Rathfarnham might be about 8km but I haven't checked that on the odo tbh. You also get quite a few breathing spaces in between.

NDC

Thanks, everyone. Wanted to be sure I could safely continue on, looks as though I can. Appreciate it. If you see me on an orange Trek, wave hello! Thanks again....