Cycling routes near Fota Island

mr spuckler

I'm down Fota direction next month and curious as to whether anyone has cycled much around there? am bringing the road bike and hoping to do around 70-80km, preferably with some hills if any are to be found! thanks.

hans aus dtschl

Depends what you want: short steep hills are in abundance locally. There's parallel ridges around 100m high running east-west and Fota is right between the two. You've a choice of maybe a hundred or so different climbs there, and most are segments on Strava. Usually Cat4 at most.

Northwest between Mallow and Fermoy are the Nagles, it's a 25km spin but you'll find 350m-400m high hills there and lots of good road surfaces. Plenty longer Cat3 climbs there. Best route is to Carrigtwohill train station and on to Leamlara, Watergrasshill, Glenville and on up the Nagles that way.

The main road at Fota itself is a very busy one by the way.

Plastik

Get the ferry from Cobh to Monkstown and head for Crosshaven, Myrtleville, Minane Bridge, Roberts Cove, Kinsale.

Windsor Hill is very close to Fota and is probably the sharpest you'll find in East Cork.

hesker

Either of the above is good but preference for the Kinsale route.

Look up the route that the Tour de South Coast used back in May I think.

Bring a packed lunch and stop either at The Blue Horizon (slight diversion up a hill) at Garristown or at The Old Head. Both have great views.

ford2600

If you are looking for 80km or so and want route to be as traffic free and enjoyable as possible heading to Kinsale or Crosshaven wouldn't be the best use of time.

The road from Fota to ferry and ferry to Carriagline/Crosshaven is busy enough and very busy at commuting hour.


I lived in Crosshaven for years and know roads around there Robert's Cove/Novohal/Minane etc very well but you'd want to extend it beyond 80km to get the best out of it.


If your start point is hotel then something like this would be nice
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28280594
The bit of N25 from 71km to 73km isn't pleasant and can be avoided by heading into town centre and rejoin route at 73.2km


You might not want to be to fond of smooth tarmac though...


If you like very narrow lanes then you are within distance of east Cork and Cloyne/Ballymacoda etc
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=107047318&postcount=4

Plastik

ford2600 wrote: »

You might not want to be to fond of smooth tarmac though...

Jaysus, understatement of the thread with that route!