What's the most sustainably accessible place to live outside a major urban centre?

AngryLips

Having just come from the 'Most miserable and grim towns and villages in Ireland' thread, I'm just wondering if there's a C&T version of this question we can ask/answer. What is the most accessible village or small town (or rural area) in the country? Does such a place exists? Somewhere with low cost of living and in a rural setting (so outside the GDA) but one that's accessible to a big urban centre with decent supermarkets or shopping ...accessible either by public transport or greenway/good cycle infrastructure. I'm wondering, is Newport in Mayo such a place, given that it's close to Westport that also has good connections to Dublin? Does New Ross fit the bill with its proximity to Waterford and new greenway? Where can you live freely without needing a car that also isn't a big city?

strandroad

Interesting thread. New Ross has major trouble with air pollution but does it matter?

sweet_trip

Kilmeaden.

10 minute drive to waterford
bus service.
greenway cycle into the city.

I dont live there so maybe I'm wrong but its the first village that came to mind.


edit: Just checked and its probably a good hour cycle so maybe not.

whisky_galore

A greenway outside of a city or town setting is hardly a piece of infrastructure. It's a leisure facility.

magicbastarder

if it's used by commuting workers, it's also infrastructure. it's not an either/or.

AngryLips

whisky_galore wrote: »

A greenway outside of a city or town setting is hardly a piece of infrastructure. It's a leisure facility.

Okay but imagine for a minute that it was a piece of infrastructure ...does anywhere come to mind?

DumbBrunette

Newport and Westport are both lovely and both on the Greenway, but well over an hour's drive on very crap roads to the nearest city (Galway). Castlebar is much closer and has an excellent range of shops, but I wouldn't quite call it a large urban centre.

Turlough about 6km outside Castlebar is a pretty village with a full off-road Greenway into Castlebar. It has the N5 nearby so very accessible and obviously Castlebar has a train service to Dublin.

Claremorris may also be an option - it's a nice town with a Tesco and Aldi, train to Dublin and good road with (relatively) frequent buses to Galway. No Greenway there though.

AngryLips wrote: »

Having just come from the 'Most miserable and grim towns and villages in Ireland' thread, I'm just wondering if there's a C&T version of this question we can ask/answer. What is the most accessible village or small town (or rural area) in the country? Does such a place exists? Somewhere with low cost of living and in a rural setting (so outside the GDA) but one that's accessible to a big urban centre with decent supermarkets or shopping ...accessible either by public transport or greenway/good cycle infrastructure. I'm wondering, is Newport in Mayo such a place, given that it's close to Westport that also has good connections to Dublin? Does New Ross fit the bill with its proximity to Waterford and new greenway? Where can you live freely without needing a car that also isn't a big city?

AngryLips

DumbBrunette wrote: »

Turlough about 6km outside Castlebar is a pretty village with a full off-road Greenway into Castlebar. It has the N5 nearby so very accessible and obviously Castlebar has a train service to Dublin.

I didn't even know there was a greenway into castlebar - is it mostly for locals or does it get good tourist traffic?


I suppose with the new government and the ring-fencing of spending on cycle infrastructure this list will become bigger over time. For example, Mogeely just outside Midleton will fit the bill once the Youghal greenway is completed.