Hiking across Ireland

Spif1

Me and a couple of other Yanks plan on hiking across Ireland this summer fro Dublin to Connemara. We did a similar trip last summer on the John Muir Way in Scotland.
My question is, which would be the better route out of Dublin; The Grand Canal or the Royal Canal. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

You may be better asking on this forum https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=430

Maybe the mods can move this thread over there?

Spif1

Me and a couple of other Yanks plan on hiking across Ireland from Dublin to Connemara this summer.My question is which would be the better route out of Dublin, the Grand Canal or the Royal Canal?
Thanks in advance for your help.

The Helpful Engineer

That sounds like a great idea. You will get super fit.

I personally would do the Grand Canal out of Dublin, a railway is adjacent to the Royal canal for most of its length and I think it would stop you 'getting away from it all'. There is a thread here in boards about walking The Grand Canal Click here.

elperello

I would go the Grand.
When you get to Shannon Harbour you can divert to Banagher and cross the Shannon there. You will be in County Galway then.
A few miles on that road will bring you to the Hymany Way which is a nice walk on quiet roads and tracks.
This will bring you to Aughrim which is about 50km from Galway City.

http://www.bearatourism.com/Hymany/PDF/ClonfertLaurence_Frnt.pdf

Joeseph Balls

Roughly, at normal walking pace, how long would this take? 4-5 days?
Do you plan on camping on route or b&b?

Elvisjuice

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

Roughly, at normal walking pace, how long would this take? 4-5 days?
Do you plan on camping on route or b&b?

if you look at any of the info above its 6 +

The Helpful Engineer

The Helpful Engineer wrote: »

That sounds like a great idea...

Have to say, think it sounds pretty grim, like if someone were to say they were going to to the USA to hike across Wisconsin I'd think why not the Rockies, he Appalachians etc. etc.

Doctors room ghost

Spif1 wrote: »

Me and a couple of other Yanks plan on hiking across Ireland from Dublin to Connemara this summer.My question is which would be the better route out of Dublin, the Grand Canal or the Royal Canal?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Whatever is the quickest,reducing the likelihood of ye being mugged or set on by a drug ravaged junkie.country is full of them so have your wits about you.there is no good,useless scum all over the country with all day for laying around scheming so keep your eyes open and don’t be innocent

Halloween Jack

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Have to say, think it sounds pretty grim, like if someone were to say they were going to to the USA to hike across Wisconsin I'd think why not the Rockies, he Appalachians etc. etc.

I’m the same, I wouldn’t be hugely into walking for its own sake, rather because it’s the only way to know the mountains.

Spif1

Thanks for the replies. We did a similar trip last summer along the John Muir Way in Scotland. We will not be camping along the walk. We will stay in b&b's and hotels. We could walk 18-20 miles a day but wish to keep it to 10-12 miles a day. The distance we plan to go is 150 miles, so we plan on a 14 day walk.
It is just a good way to see a country.

kerry4sam

Thread moved to where it would be better suited.

Thanks,
kerry4sam

elperello

Great B&B in Shannon Harbour.
McIntyres Pub just 100 yards away.


http://www.theharbourmastershouse.ie/

Spif1

Thanks.

BarryD2

Spif1 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. We did a similar trip last summer along the John Muir Way in Scotland. We will not be camping along the walk. We will stay in b&b's and hotels. We could walk 18-20 miles a day but wish to keep it to 10-12 miles a day. The distance we plan to go is 150 miles, so we plan on a 14 day walk.
It is just a good way to see a country.

It is a good way to see the country and you'll certainly be off the beaten tourist track! Sometimes Ireland is likened to a saucer with hills around the rim and a low flat middle. So lots of bog and farmland rather than hills or coastal scenery. But on other hand, you'll meet more real Irish people

Spif1

We completed our walk along from Dublin to Cloughbrack which is about 12 km past Cong, County Mayo. It took us 13 days and we took the Royal Canal route out of Dublin as far as Mullingar. We were able to walk the Westmeath Greenway from Mullingar to Athone which I highly recommend.

Yes the roads past Athlone to Connemora are tricky. At times we were able to find low traffic country lanes and some briddle paths, but there was a lot of walking along some busy roads with small to no existant shoulders. There is talk on creating a greenway to Galway, but that is not going to happen in the near future. Be careful if you walk those roads and definitely wear a brightly colored vest or shirt. I must add that the oncoming drivers did take great care to pass us safely in most every case.
I wanted to add that when walking across Ireland, a lot of locals asked where we were heading and when we said Connemora, the usual reply was " Ye know there is a bus!"LOL

Tigerandahalf

Fair play to you, that is a nice walk you did. It will probably become more popular in time when the east west route is completed from Dublin to Galway. Ireland is seeing a big growth in walking and cycling trails, a lot of them based on the old canals or railway lines that the British built.

Did you plot a gps of your route or take notes on your daily routes?

What is the next plan having done Scotland and Ireland?

Spif1

Tigerandahalf,
Yes we did use a gps on the hike. We downloaded an app called "Ireland Offline" from the Apple App Store for $5.99. It was worth every penny. There were features that we learned after purchasing that would have been extremly helpful in plotting out our path such as accommodations . I used AirBnB and Booking.com to make all the overnight stays. If I had this app beforehand I could have found closser accommodations to the canal and greenway. There is nothing more discoraging than after a long day's walk to have to deviating miles off course to stay the night and re-walking it the next morning to get back on track. The app showed every road, lane and briddle paths in detail.
The purpose of our hike was mainly to raise awaremness for a genetic disease that took the life of my brother-in-law's daughter (my niece) last year (#CureMSD). There were several news media outlets that posted stories of our hike and the reason we were doing it. http://www.thejournal.ie/msd-walk-4152906-Jul2018/
I am turing 69 next month , my brother-in-law John turned 71 while hiking, and my grandson was 20 years old. This might be the last hike for both John and I. Our feet took quite a beating. Maybe a bicycle trip will be in our future, but my grandson has many years of hiking ahead of him, and maybe he will do this hike again with his grandson someday.