Dublin - Kilkenny route advice

Gerry

Hi, myself and some work colleagues are cycling from dublin city to Kilkenny city Friday for the work christmas party, we've a few options for routes.
All fit enough for it, the choice is more or less between more peace or more climbing it seems, wondering about road surfaces as well though.

1) Firhouse -> Blessington and onwards on the n81 to Hollywood, then Dunlavin,
CastleDermot -> Carlow, Kilkenny

This is what Komoot recommends, there are some sharp climbs after firhouse and after carlow, but if the weather is ok and the roads are ok we may well go for that.

2) same but Tallaght -> Blessington on the N81

3) google option says n7 to naas, and then kilcullen and n78 to kilkenny. I know the road from naas onwards well so that part sounds ok.. but N7 sounds like a disaster.

Combination - 1 as far as Dunlavin, then Ballitore/Burtown -> Athy, and onwards on the n78

Any advice would be awesome
Thanks

GiantRosa

Gerry wrote: »

Hi, myself and some work colleagues are cycling from dublin city to Kilkenny city Friday for the work christmas party, we've a few options for routes.
All fit enough for it, the choice is more or less between more peace or more climbing it seems, wondering about road surfaces as well though.

1) Firhouse -> Blessington and onwards on the n81 to Hollywood, then Dunlavin,
CastleDermot -> Carlow, Kilkenny

I would suggest this route is best.
I presume you've Friday off and cycling out of rush hour(s)?!
N81 is fine to cycle on outside rush hour, big volume of traffic use it. You can continue down to Baltinglass, Castledermot, CW town and KK.
Or get onto the R448 at Cookstown from Hollywood (N81)....ample hard shoulder for safety down to CW (R448)and onto KK (R448/ R712)

Gerry

GiantRosa wrote: »

Gerry wrote: »

Hi, myself and some work colleagues are cycling from dublin city to Kilkenny city Friday for the work christmas party, we've a few options for routes.
All fit enough for it, the choice is more or less between more peace or more climbing it seems, wondering about road surfaces as well though.

1) Firhouse -> Blessington and onwards on the n81 to Hollywood, then Dunlavin,
CastleDermot -> Carlow, Kilkenny

I would suggest this route is best.
I presume you've Friday off and cycling out of rush hour(s)?!
N81 is fine to cycle on outside rush hour, big volume of traffic use it. You can continue down to Baltinglass, Castledermot, CW town and KK.
Or get onto the R448 at Cookstown from Hollywood (N81)....ample hard shoulder for safety down to CW (R448)and onto KK (R448/ R712)

Yep starting at 10am, thanks

nilhg

If you wanted to take a quieter road version of the above

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/31552889

Saggart, Kilteel, Ballymore Eustace, Dunlavin, Grangecon, Castledermot, Carlow, KK.

Most of the climbing in the first third

LCD

Did this cycle recently & went via Maynooth, Naas, Kilcullen, Castlecomer. Naas to Kilcullen is an extremely boring road, long & straight with a couple of drags.

Had a coffee & scone in Kilcullen, though pull out of Kilcullen then after that is a handy run in.

Gerry

Thanks again. Yep quieter roads are a priority. nilhg that route looks really nice.
Had found https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin//showthread.php?p=110552477 and was considering the more northerly route via stradbally..
LCD I'm living in maynooth and am familiar with the kilcullen route alright.. looking to avoid that.

loyatemu

This?


upload pic

JMcL

Gerry wrote: »

1) Firhouse -> Blessington and onwards on the n81 to Hollywood, then Dunlavin,
CastleDermot -> Carlow, Kilkenny

This is what Komoot recommends, there are some sharp climbs after firhouse and after carlow, but if the weather is ok and the roads are ok we may well go for that.

Can't comment on the first part as far as Carlow, but sharp climbs past Carlow should be easily avoided. I imagine Komoot is going as the crow flies in which case there's a fearsome enough looking ridge to the SW of Carlow, but taking a route such as the one nilhg suggests should avoid that and not be much longer. The old N10 (think it's the R448 now) would probably be another possibility. I go between Waterford and KK fairly regularly on the ex N9 and it's got the advantage of a very good surface, with light traffic as unless it's local they'll use the M9

Gerry

loyatemu: that would be the ultimate route alright. Not quite feeling it considering the return is the next morning

JMcL: Yep thats whats happened. Will be avoiding that by taking a different route out of Carlow if we go by Carlow..
Cheers

nilhg

Gerry wrote: »

Thanks again. Yep quieter roads are a priority. nilhg that route looks really nice.
Had found https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin//showthread.php?p=110552477 and was considering the more northerly route via stradbally..
LCD I'm living in maynooth and am familiar with the kilcullen route alright.. looking to avoid that.

An alternative to the route I did above from Strad on would be Windy Gap, Luggacurren, Wolfhill, The Swan, Castlecomer and on to KK, some of my favorite roads there, lumpy enough but quiet and peaceful. So many good choices

Enjoy the spin, and the night in KK

monkeyslayer

I've done the first option several times, the n81 is a good fast rolling direct route and if you've the wind on your back you'll fly that ever slight decline all the way to carlow... the traffic, large trucks in particular, can be pretty intense tho, probably moreso on weekdays. Its windy tight and has a three digit speed limit for a lot of the way. Definitely worth considering if you're in a group.

brocbrocach

There's good options via backroads that'll get you out of the pale. cycle.travel was recommended to me here before and found it great for quiet roads although it can take you up hills and around the houses a bit.
Here's Lucan to Kilkenny for eg.
https://cycle.travel/map?from=lucan&to=Kilkenny&fromLL=&toLL=52.6510216,-7.2484948

Gerry

We ended up going with a hybrid of the suggestions for the way down.
Headwind was the theme.. Some poxy hill near rathcoole which resembles athgoe combined with the wind knocked the stuffing out of me. The matches were burned by half way. We had a nice stop in stradbally, we were counting down the kilometers to that. More or less south after that but with a decent lump of a climb by lugnacurren.. cramps had set in for me by then and just had to pedal through them. Last time I had them on a road bike was a really steep part of the wicklow 200.
Anyway we motored on well after that and it was mostly downhill to kilkenny.

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/7GBnzPpKe2

For the return I chose a more convention route, but I didnt put enough time into it. Komoot sent us parallel and then onto the n78. The parallel portion was 10k of boreens with an absolutely crazy 600ft descent on the end of it. N78 after that which I've driven many times and a tailwind allowed us to make good progress but it comes with a lot of traffic and it gradually narrows as you go north.

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/KZTRNQjKe2

jrar

Gerry wrote: »

Headwind was the theme.. Some poxy hill near rathcoole which resembles athgoe combined with the wind knocked the stuffing out of me.

That would be Windmill Hill - a nasty little bastid if you're not ready for it !

Other than that, good route chosen on the way down - nice quiet route parallel to N7 and across south of Naas. Suspect your return trip was more "boring" being spent on the N78 which can be busy and slightly hairy in spots

Gerry

jrar wrote: »

That would be Windmill Hill - a nasty little bastid if you're not ready for it !

Other than that, good route chosen on the way down - nice quiet route parallel to N7 and across south of Naas. Suspect your return trip was more "boring" being spent on the N78 which can be busy and slightly hairy in spots

Yep, wasnt ready for it. I'd happily recommend that route down, it's a hybrid of a few suggestions but with komoot keeping us off the main roads. N78 back was as expected yep, I've driven it many times and it has quite a bit of traffic and seems to narrow slightly. Around kilcullen is particularly unpleasant. For a dublin bound return I'd suggest a more southerly route. For maynooth, I still need to work that out as I will be heading down that way again. Need to figure out a different way from athy onwards.

Probably head across to kildare town and if feeling fresh via hill of Allen kilmeague prosperous.
Or even better skip athy and go clogh the swan wolf hill lugaccuren stradbally vicarstown and over to kildare town