Suggestions for family cycling routes in Ireland

Oldlegs

Looking at doing a family 'staycation' in Ireland this year. Idea would be to base ourselves (camping preferably) in one location and head out on the bikes each day. We have 2 kids 13 & 9, so the cycling needs to be geared (no pun intended ) to them. If/when the is crap, we would just don the rain gear and head to the hills hiking. ("No such thing a bad weather, just the wrong clothes").

Mayo Greenway and Glengarriff national park have both been suggested on a different thread, but that thread was more of a moan/defense of the Mayo Greenway, and rather than getting sucked into the various arguments going on there, I thought I would start a new thread.

Tx.

reilig

Oldlegs wrote: »

Looking at doing a family 'staycation' in Ireland this year. Idea would be to base ourselves (camping preferably) in one location and head out on the bikes each day. We have 2 kids 13 & 9, so the cycling needs to be geared (no pun intended ) to them. If/when the is crap, we would just don the rain gear and head to the hills hiking. ("No such thing a bad weather, just the wrong clothes").

Mayo Greenway and Glengarriff national park have both been suggested on a different thread, but that thread was more of a moan/defense of the Mayo Greenway, and rather than getting sucked into the various arguments going on there, I thought I would start a new thread.

Tx.

I like the thought of the Mayo Greenway.

But here's an off the wall place that your post brought into my mind.

http://www.loughkey.ie/

It has a good camping and caravan park onsite. It also has a shop and restaurant onsite. Its in a large park with loads of things to do onsite - treetop walks, bodaberg, adventure kingdom etc. Its full of walking trails. It has a fabulous lake for fishing or you can hire a boat very cheaply and row out to the island where there is a castle. That's just the park itself.

Arm yourself with a map and you have so much choice of places that you can go to from here.

Boyle town is very close - in fact a quiet road runs from Lough Key park right to teh centre of the town and its ideal for cycling. It has shops and restaurants and it is quite ideallic during the summer. It has a Museum called King house which is free to visit.

On the other side (8km) is Carrick on Shannon. A booming town in the summer time. Loads of shops and restaurants. A lovely town to visit, especially by the waterside.

On the other side of Lough key, you have the curlieu mountains - an adventure in itself. Cycle up to the iconic metal horse or explore the curlieu drive which consists of quiet roads from Boyle town.

Use your maps to find your way to Ballyfarnon village which has the beautiful Kilronan Castle Hotel or to Keadue which was recently Ireland's tidiest town.

if you are feeling really adventureous, visit the arigna mines which are located on the mountain above keadue. you could spend a whole day in this place exploring the disused mines and seeing how they mined the coal!! the cycle up the windmill hills to get to Arigna is glorious!

There's loads more to do around there. These are just the things that come to my mind. The roads are quite good for cycling around there. The N4 between carrick on shannon has a very wide hard shoulder. the other places are all accessible by by-roads which have good surfaces and the locals are well used to cyclists.

Zen0

Killarney is worth considering. There is really good cycling in Mucross for the whole family, particularly from Mucross House down towards the Meeting of the Waters. It is supposed to be one way, which would force you into a circular route with a busy road on it. I have always ignored the one way thing (being very courteous to oncoming travellers - mostly walkers), but I have only done this in winter so there was little traffic on it and it didn't seem to be a problem. The one way signage is is only obvious if you enter at the wrong end, not if you turn around. Somebody in here may be able to say if it is more of a problem in summer.

Killarney also has the Knockrere Demesne which is also off road and stretches from the playground opposite the Cathedral out in the Fossa direction and down towards Ross Castle. Killarney County Council are building a new cycle path out that way parallel to the Fossa road. Not sure how far it will extend.

Finally, Killarney has stuff like cinemas and swimming pools if the weather just gets too much .

smacl

When we were cycling in Glengarrif, we were staying in Adrigole on the Beara peninsula. Much less busy than Kerry and still lots to do for outdoor types. Adrigole is a bay with a sailing school, so you can rent canoes for a day of something different, and the hiking is great all over the beara. Most of the terrain is steep enough, so can be challenging for the younger ones; they'd want bikes rather than 15kg BSOs.

If I was going back to Mayo, I'd probably look at the small roads around lough Cara and lough Mask. Cara is pretty sheltered with shallow water and loads of Islands, great craic to hire a boat and go Island hopping after a mornings spin. Used to be a small boat hire place opposite Moore hall on Cara where you could also get rods. Some nice beaches on Mask as well, in around Maam trasna, could be a good camping spot, though I like a mattress at the end of my day. Again, minimal traffic, and a part of the country that tourists often miss.

Heading down to Doolin for easter, which is also very bike friendly, but uphill in any direction to get out of the village and busier than the other two options. Again some nice quiet L-roads. A favourite spin of the kids is the Khyber pass, half way between Fanore and Ballyvaughan. We usually go down with a bunch of family and friends, all the kids, so there's loads of kids to keep each other entertained on the lazy days. Also some lovely boozers in Doolin that are super child friendly after a busy day out.

ROK ON

Glengarif is lovely but there is fu*k all there. It is a ghost town even at the of the summer most weekends. I wouldnt bring a few eenage kids there, they would go nuts.

Killarney maybe worth an option.

Lahinch is great. Very close to the Burren for cycling or hill walking. But there is surfing and the beach. A choice of places for food/drink/shopping etc. Yes Glengariff is nicer, but with kids I would choose lahinch or somehwere like it.