Commute Co. Wicklow to Dundrum

thegreatiam

I never really realized how close some of the places in wicklow were to the dundrum area of dublin until recently, so when my girlfriend got a job in cherrywood we decided it was time to look into commuting it seriously.

Currently we are in d12, so on the luas she is looking at a 2 hour each way.

We have looked briefly at some towns near the Dublin border but how realistic is the journey everyday?

What are the roads like at night/winter during rush hour?

On google maps the journey to a place like annamoe or roundwood reads as 30-35 minutes, is this accurate most of the time.

Ive driven as far as enniskerry and it was easily manageable. Seemed like it would be a pleasant commute. But it was on good Friday afternoon.

What are these roads like during commuter hours?

Is it feasible to live in or near wicklow town and work in s.east dublin city?

We are renting for now so would rent be comprable to dublin? more or less? Ive seen some on daft.ie for 800-900 for 2 bedroom houses far down past wicklow town, is that too far to commute during rush hour?

coylemj

thegreatiam wrote: »

On google maps the journey to a place like annamoe or roundwood reads as 30-35 minutes, is this accurate most of the time.

Ive driven as far as enniskerry and it was easily manageable. Seemed like it would be a pleasant commute. But it was on good Friday afternoon.

What are these roads like during commuter hours?

Try it next week when the schools are back, that's the only way to find out for sure. Good Friday is no indicator, you might as well have gone out this morning at 3 a.m.

The N11 is pretty busy in the mornings inbound and the reverse in the evening, you're going to have to do it for real to see what it's like.

Cookie_Monster

Getting into Dundrum from the M50 will be a disaster every morning, Cherrywood can be pretty bad too but much shorter.

Wile E. Coyote

N11 commute is no where near as bad as it was a few years ago. It tends to slow down around the Bray south exit but keeps moving.

Anywhere near Roundwood or up the mountains and there is a good chance you'll be stuck with snow and ice at some point during the winter. Try stick to Greystones/Kilcoole/Kilpedder type areas for commuting but even as far down as Rathnew and you'll get to Sandyford in about 30 mins. Obviously Cherrywood a few mins quicker and Dundrum a few mins longer.

Victor

thegreatiam wrote: »

Currently we are in d12, so on the luas she is looking at a 2 hour each way.

Bike + Luas or Bus + Luas should be much quicker than that, especially using the 17, 18 or 83.

Why not live somewhere between the two workplaces?

Note that quite a few roads in the Bray/Enniskerry area were closed over the last two weeks.

Note that nights out become very expensive if you want to use taxis. There is however the 84n http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Your-Journey1/Timetables/All-Timetables/84n-Revised-Times1/ and Finnegans have a bus to Bray.

thegreatiam

coylemj wrote: »

Try it next week when the schools are back, that's the only way to find out for sure. Good Friday is no indicator, you might as well have gone out this morning at 3 a.m.

sadly, not possible as I am working, unless I get up at 6am to get to wicklow and wait for rush hour to start.

Good friday wasnt to test rush hour, just to see the area. I though I'd ask here to find out someone who has done it to see how long it takes them.

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

Anywhere near Roundwood or up the mountains and there is a good chance you'll be stuck with snow and ice at some point during the winter. Try stick to Greystones/Kilcoole/Kilpedder type areas for commuting but even as far down as Rathnew and you'll get to Sandyford in about 30 mins. Obviously Cherrywood a few mins quicker and Dundrum a few mins longer.

Thanks, this is the info i need. Is it common for the roads to be closed in bad weather. We are really interest in roundwood but if the roads are unreliable we will go elsewhere. Ashford/rathnew are next on the list tho.

Victor wrote: »

Bike + Luas or Bus + Luas should be much quicker than that, especially using the 17, 18 or 83.

Not really what Im asking, but she wont bike, preferring to walk through town.

Victor wrote: »

Why not live somewhere between the two workplaces?

Between dundrum and cherrywood? we are looking, but the rent gos further the more south you go. Stepaside shankill are on our list and would be ideal, but you can get a whole house for the price of a 1 bed apt in wicklow. If we can brave the roads it seems like a wiser decision.

Victor wrote: »

Note that quite a few roads in the Bray/Enniskerry area were closed over the last two weeks.

Note that nights out become very expensive if you want to use taxis. There is however the 84n http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Your-Journey1/Timetables/All-Timetables/84n-Revised-Times1/ and Finnegans have a bus to Bray.

Thanks, do you know if these roads being closed makes it impossible to commute, or just more difficult. How likely is it that you would be cut off completely? this winter seemed mild, quite worrying that roads would be closed in such a mild winter.

The bus I did not know about it will be very useful, thanks.

markpb

The roads that Victor mentioned were closed completely for most of a day last week because of flooding.

From experience with working with people around there, they seem to be the ones most likely to go AWOL when there's any kind of ice, snow or heavy rain. If your employer is flexible (like mine is), you'll be fine otherwise I'd give it a miss.

Also (and I suspect you'll dismiss this as irrelevant like you did sone other posts), the reason the prices are lower is because there's no Luas or Aircoach, you'll be reliant on your car and on battling traffic jams into Dundrun/Sandyford/Cherrywood, a taxi home from a night out will be much more expensive and even though the commute journey times are mostly fast, you'll be using a lot more petrol/diesel and putting a lot more wear and tear on your car.

Fratton Fred

The Enniskerry to Dundrum commute is 30 minutes on a normal day. The problem with Dundrum is parking, you either pay €4 per day or park on a street and walk.

Another option is Luas park and ride in Carrickmines or if you are early enough Cherrywood.

thegreatiam

markpb wrote: »

Also (and I suspect you'll dismiss this as irrelevant like you did sone other posts),

If im dismissing them as irrelevant its not to cause offense its because I dont need to know other options of getting the luas or bus from d12 to d14. I have that info. I need the commute times or pertinent info for commutes to wicklow county. Nor do i need other options regarding places to live within dublin city. although suggestions of south county dublin would be received gratefully.

the reason the prices are lower is because there's no Luas or Aircoach, you'll be reliant on your car and on battling traffic jams into Dundrun/Sandyford/Cherrywood, a taxi home from a night out will be much more expensive and even though the commute journey times are mostly fast, you'll be using a lot more petrol/diesel and putting a lot more wear and tear on your car.

Im already battling traffic in dundrum and have parking. But the aircoach info is worth considering.
That lack of public transport is going to matter at some stage and murphy's law dictates it will be at the worst time possible.
Nights out in dublin wouldnt be massive concern. maybe a few times a year at most. I'm thinking of hotel for those days anyway.

Petrol costs will have to be factored in, 25 miles or so to blessington is 100 miles a day for both of us.

Realistically the furthest i think i would want to be is greystones/bray distance.

Thanks for the tips tho.

schemingbohemia

Why not Loughlinstown or Ballybrack? Your girlfriend could walk to Cherrywood and you could too and hop on a Luas there. Not sure of prices but it does have a decent public transport links plus the 7N for nitelink.

What is your rental price limit?

thegreatiam

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Why not Loughlinstown or Ballybrack? Your girlfriend could walk to Cherrywood and you could too and hop on a Luas there. Not sure of prices but it does have a decent public transport links plus the 7N for nitelink.

What is your rental price limit?

Aye those are on our list of dublin places.

We're looking at wicklow as well seemingly as you get more bang for your buck. I'm viewing a 4 bedroom in the country this weekend going for 850, and it looks extremely nice. without a little luck you'd barely get a reasonable 1 bed for that price in Dublin

Wile E. Coyote

thegreatiam wrote: »

Thanks, this is the info i need. Is it common for the roads to be closed in bad weather. We are really interest in roundwood but if the roads are unreliable we will go elsewhere. Ashford/rathnew are next on the list tho.

Roundwood is a lovely area so I wouldn't rule it out purely because the roads might be impassible with snow/ice 1-2 days a year. As long as you're prepared and know what to expect you should be fine. One or two roads around Enniskerry were closed over the past week or two but that was down to a small landslide caused by the flooding that we had two weeks ago. Again, it's not a regular thing and is something that could happen on any road anytime. Other routes were still open so you wouldn't have been house bound.

Good luck with the search. Once you're within a couple minutes drive of the N11 you should be fine. Just make sure to give yourself an extra few minutes in the morning for those weird days where all the traffic seems to slow for no apparent reason.

Fratton Fred

thegreatiam wrote: »

Aye those are on our list of dublin places.

We're looking at wicklow as well seemingly as you get more bang for your buck. I'm viewing a 4 bedroom in the country this weekend going for 850, and it looks extremely nice. without a little luck you'd barely get a reasonable 1 bed for that price in Dublin

The three most important things to remember when buying or renting a home are, in no particular order, location, location, location.

Macy0161

thegreatiam wrote: »

Thanks, this is the info i need. Is it common for the roads to be closed in bad weather. We are really interest in roundwood but if the roads are unreliable we will go elsewhere. Ashford/rathnew are next on the list tho.

The main r755 was passable all this winter unless you were pretty unlucky. It was blocked for a while one morning when a bus got stuck in the snow coming up the Long Hill, but I don't think it was for too long (I was past it so only going on 2nd Hand Reports). And I think another morning people got caught out by a snow shower, but again it didn't realy last (again I was travelling through the start of the snow, but family leaving half an hour later were delayed).

Even if they are bad, they're pretty good these days at clearing them, so you may be late, rather than not get in at all. Bray Town Council have been a bit lax this winter on clearing the bit they're responsible though tbh.

Take out 2010, and in the last 10 years I've been up here there hasn't been anything that bad - a day or two a winter at most, with several winters with nothing. You learn to follow the forecasts and be prepared to run if snow is forecast (the real fun/ stress is trying to get home, rather than getting in, in my experience).

In 2010, I got off the mountains a few days only to hit a gridlocked N11 and end up turning back. I was working in Tallaght at the time, and as many of the problems were around Tallaght, and on the M50 around Dundrum, as much as actually getting on or off the mountains to be honest. Obviously there's no guarantees you won't be affected, but in general if the main road is blocked for a significant time, then off the mountains is going to be bad too.

If you were still considering it though, I would bare it in mind when looking at houses. While the main road may be passable, a lot of people who get snowed in are stuck down lanes, and they can't get to the road, so it can be quite localised.

Coming from Roundwood and Laragh, you also tend to miss the worse of the N11 northbound in the mornings - Glen of the Downs to Bray can be pretty bad. However, the likes of Ashford and Rathnew do have the pay off of regular Public Transport from Dublin with Bus Éireann (not to be under estimated if you like a few pints/ gigs or whatever in Dublin in the evening). St Kevins bus to Roundwood and Laragh leaves Dublin at 6pm, and that's your lot, so you're into lifts or (expensive) taxi's from Kilmac/ Newtown/ Bray/ Greystones or whereever or staying in town.

thegreatiam

Took another trip to Wicklow on sunday. Ironically one road was closed for snow ;-)
had a good look at a few areas, some of those roads were great fun in my 01 skoda.
but that far south is now out of the question, even with 100% great roads time/petrol price has made us look closer. Still looking in s.Dublin and Wicklow tho, but will find a place closer to Greystones/Bray than Wicklow town. Unless we find a dirt cheap castle down in Roundwood.