Viable CX /gravel trails

Taxuser1

what are considered the best trails for CX and gravel bikes in Dublin and/or county or incorporating North Wicklow and SW Kildare - i'm kind of on the border and could do without crashing again by hitting stumps.

a148pro

That's a good question

Grand canal has green bits once you get past Clondalkin until you get to hazel hatch. I've found the woods around Prince William's Seat and Djouce Woods very good. Cruagh, Tibradden and Massey, Chrone are all cycleable but its hard to get a long spin in them, though you could combine them to make something longer.

I've been working on those and the Wicklow way in and around them but haven't gotten further south yet.

My problem with gravel is its hard to get a long route. If you search for a thread called irish gravel compendium or mini weevil you will find some routes that people have posted, a user called Alek out up some very long routes that looked really interesting with a great youtube video showing the terrain but I haven't gotten to try them yet. I'd like to be able to take the raw data of the GPS and break it into shorter bits to do in whichever direction I want but haven't learned how to do that yet.

smacl

There's a reasonably active gravel cycling group on Facebook here, https://www.facebook.com/groups/IrishGravelCycling/ but I haven't seen much local to Dublin that I didn't already know about. As a148pro pointed out, the difficulty is getting length where you need to patch gravel and road together to get a longer route. Start of the Wicklow way here coming out here is a nice segment to add to a spin. You can easily add bits of Tibradden, Cruagh and Masseys to this but these have become very busy with walkers at the weekends and I'd usually only include them on midweek lunchtime spins. Once you get as far as Roundwood a loop of the reservoirs is very attractive and easy going and also worth adding to any spin. Possibly a bit too far from your specified range, but there's also lots of tracks around Trooperstown worth exploring. Same area, one on my to do list is the lough Dan Inchavore trail, starting here up to Military road coming out here.

JMcL

Taxuser1 wrote: »

what are considered the best trails for CX and gravel bikes in Dublin and/or county or incorporating North Wicklow and SW Kildare - i'm kind of on the border and could do without crashing again by hitting stumps.

Have a look at https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=105747354 - lot of info in there

a148pro

smacl wrote: »

There's a reasonably active gravel cycling group on Facebook here, https://www.facebook.com/groups/IrishGravelCycling/ /quote]

So THIS is where all the gravel chat is, I'm not on facebook. Just flicking through there looks like a wealth of information.

Is there a way of joining facebook without it automatically seeking out everyone you know and you being bombarded with their ****e? Basically can you create an identity or go anonymous. Barely scraped onto one twitter subscription without it linking me to anyone in my phone book.

a148pro

Op David Flanagan has a reasonably long route in the forests above glendalough, haven't tried it yet but hope to at some point. Could be combined with that off road back up towards military road.

Also was up wicklow gap today and there are loads of options in forests either side of the descent towards blessington. bits of St kevin's way might be doable, an intriguing track off the top near the reservoir stuff, though not sure how far it goes. Then more stuff off the side of that magical road from blessington lake over to manor kilbride, and again either side of the road that leads up past the firing range over to botharnabreena balinscorney.

I've found an app called komoot very good. You can plot a route on your laptop and send it to your phone, it'll then read you directions. Alternatively just get out and explore and use the app to see if stuff is a dead end or not. It's actually fun if you don't have great expectations.

I've been meaning to refine some routes into gps files and post them on that other thread but haven't gotten round to it. Winter will give me more opportunities.

wanderer 22

Alek created this route - https://www.strava.com/activities/1859015415 - plenty of great trails within that

nilhg

Someone on that FB group posted this

https://gravelmap.com/

Not very much in southern Ireland on it, I've thrown up a few bits local to me here, maybe a few others might feel like adding in a few bits and pieces, it could be a useful resource.

cletus

Your obviously very local to me too nilhg

I've nothing else I could add, I don't think, but can routes be imported from Strava? If so, it mightn't be a big deal to add some of the other suggestions from both this thread and the gravel compendium one

*Edit* popped in a short segment that nilhg hadn't covered, easy enough, and there's an import option too

Whatwicklow

West Wicklow = gravel 😊

cletus

Whatwicklow wrote: »

West Wicklow = gravel 😊

Feel free to log your favourite routes...

cletus

I tried to uplaod some of the routes from the gravel compendium thread, but it requires the GPX or TCX file to do it, so it would probably be easier for the creators of the route to do it

I exported one route from Strava, "Hard Gravel Loop" by one of the posters here, but it attributes the route to me. Its a fairly simple process though, especially if people have a a Strava account

a148pro

Am I right in thinking there is literally one route for the whole of Dublin and Wicklow otherwise, or am I missing something?

cletus

a148pro wrote: »

Am I right in thinking there is literally one route for the whole of Dublin and Wicklow otherwise, or am I missing something?

There's one route uploaded. I did it this morning. All it would take is people to import whatever routes they have from Strava

a148pro

This renewed lockdown and likely Garda presence at the Gap if not before will probably force me onto the fireroads anyway so I'll try and add to it in due course. There's a great spin around Prince William's seat then down to the river and along Wicklow Way to Chrone, up the right side of Chrone and across to Powerscourt viewing point then on to Djouce woods. Just have to refine it into a handy GPX.

I'd love to do a few of Aleks suggestions if I can break them into doable bits. 100k with a lot of climbing is enough for me. He seemed to like at least twice that!

a148pro

cletus wrote: »

There's one route uploaded. I did it this morning. All it would take is people to import whatever routes they have from Strava

Actually I see yours now and its basically the route I had in mind, only I'd go up Kilmashogue, over to 3 rock and then down into the Gap and Glencullen, rather than doing that by road. Then maybe keep going at Powerscourt, into Djouce woods, up to Ballinastoe as much off road as possible, around and over the shoulder to the Wicklow Way, down into Laragh and back up the off road route to the military road. Haven't done that second bit yet but would be a worthy excursion, prob 100k return with about 2k of climbing. I'll have to get it done.

I also see someone's just posted a long route down in Clonmel and Northern Ireland is peppered with stuff, good to see.

Taxuser1

a148pro wrote: »

Actually I see yours now and its basically the route I had in mind, only I'd go up Kilmashogue, over to 3 rock and then down into the Gap and Glencullen, rather than doing that by road. Then maybe keep going at Powerscourt, into Djouce woods, up to Ballinastoe as much off road as possible, around and over the shoulder to the Wicklow Way, down into Laragh and back up the off road route to the military road. Haven't done that second bit yet but would be a worthy excursion, prob 100k return with about 2k of climbing. I'll have to get it done.

I also see someone's just posted a long route down in Clonmel and Northern Ireland is peppered with stuff, good to see.

Sounds class. If you do it please share the file.

cletus

a148pro wrote: »

Actually I see yours now and its basically the route I had in mind, only I'd go up Kilmashogue, over to 3 rock and then down into the Gap and Glencullen, rather than doing that by road. Then maybe keep going at Powerscourt, into Djouce woods, up to Ballinastoe as much off road as possible, around and over the shoulder to the Wicklow Way, down into Laragh and back up the off road route to the military road. Haven't done that second bit yet but would be a worthy excursion, prob 100k return with about 2k of climbing. I'll have to get it done.

I also see someone's just posted a long route down in Clonmel and Northern Ireland is peppered with stuff, good to see.

That's not actually my route, I just exported the gpx file from Strava that another user posted in the gravel thread, mostly just to see how hard it would be to populate that map

Macy0161

Really not sure we should be suggesting getting around (soon to be legal) travel restrictions by following off road routes to avoid checkpoints!

cletus

Im not sure that's what was being suggested

Orro

I bought a gravel bike a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it, Im from Blessington and ive found loads of fire/forestry roads in the hills around lakes and there seems to be more in Hollywood, near Donard in Glen of Imaal and along the Wicklow Gap towards Glendalough. There is also Saggart Woods near tallaght and then a bit further a field is the Curragh in Kildare all which I'm yet to check out.

Open google maps on satellite view and look for for wooded trail etc and then use street view to check for entries either private or coilte type black and yellow barriers. I'm ignoring the farmer gates and hitting the forestry/fire roads. Seems to be loads about and you can usually find routes with 50/50 road vs off road (depending where you live of course)

Anyone else on here from out this way?

Macy0161

cletus wrote: »

Im not sure that's what was being suggested

OP is Dublin, looking for Wicklow and Kildare trails, and...

This renewed lockdown and likely Garda presence at the Gap if not before will probably force me onto the fireroads anyway so I'll try and add to it in due course

magicbastarder

mod note to all - if (and i emphasise the 'if') you are violating county lockdowns, that's on you, but please don't talk about it on here.

i haven't read back up the thread, so this is just general advice rather than a warning to anyone.

Taxuser1

Macy0161 wrote: »

OP is Dublin, looking for Wicklow and Kildare trails, and...

if i sneeze i land over the border in either Kildare and/or Wicklow depending on wind direction. couldnt' be closer to either and if i go offroad in the general saggart woods area i might accidentally find myself breaking county restriction rules.

i'd love to know more of the routes around the saggart/brittas/blessington areas for when we head out of restrictions.

nilhg

Orro wrote: »

I bought a gravel bike a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it, Im from Blessington and ive found loads of fire/forestry roads in the hills around lakes and there seems to be more in Hollywood, near Donard in Glen of Imaal and along the Wicklow Gap towards Glendalough. There is also Saggart Woods near tallaght and then a bit further a field is the Curragh in Kildare all which I'm yet to check out.

Open google maps on satellite view and look for for wooded trail etc and then use street view to check for entries either private or coilte type black and yellow barriers. I'm ignoring the farmer gates and hitting the forestry/fire roads. Seems to be loads about and you can usually find routes with 50/50 road vs off road (depending where you live of course)

Anyone else on here from out this way?

I'm in Kildare, and have been eyeing up those roads in the manner you suggest, even have a few routes done up on strava, but due to time pressures haven't made it up there yet so I'm not 100%sure they are as accessible as the look on google maps. Maybe you could have a look and let us know if they work? I'm going to be confined to Kildare for the foreseeable future, won't get up myself.

https://www.strava.com/routes/2746823503449289164

https://www.strava.com/routes/2731651138325824140

Curragh is wel worth a spin around for anyone who can make it

The

Macy0161

The frustrating thing is so many dead ends on the fireroads. I hit one when under 1km of trail would create a loop - it maybe viable on mtb, was getting too narly (for me) on a gravel bike.

I don't think "gravel" is on the radar at all, in Wicklow at least. They'd rather go for nonsense "greenways" in and out of Kilcoole that'll cost millions when a few hundred thousand would produce long routes or gravel/ tarmac loops.

Taxuser1

i've seen blogs to suggest a lot of the wicklow way on the dublin side can be ridden, possibly even over to enniskerry? or is a mountain bike needed?

Orro

Let's not over react here. I think we're all sensible enough to obey guidelines but we won't be in lockdown forever and I don't see the problem in sharing routes to explore when the time comes. Might give us all some routes to plan for when the restrictions are lifted.

Orro

nilhg wrote: »

I'm in Kildare, and have been eyeing up those roads in the manner you suggest, even have a few routes done up on strava, but due to time pressures haven't made it up there yet so I'm not 100%sure they are as accessible as the look on google maps. Maybe you could have a look and let us know if they work? I'm going to be confined to Kildare for the foreseeable future, won't get up myself.

https://www.strava.com/routes/2746823503449289164

https://www.strava.com/routes/2731651138325824140

Curragh is wel worth a spin around for anyone who can make it

The

Hi John, I've done all those routes and they're great imo, the views of the lakes at sorrel hill are fairly epic

I'm yet to loop the back of sorrell hill out onto the Gap road. Which would link up your route nicely. You may spot a little dirt road where 5he forest ends and there is a little singketrack diagonal down to the right and leads on to the Gap road. I've heard it's very do able.

Hope I'm explaining that well

Orro

Sorrell hill area

Maybe go for a spin when the restrictions are lifted?

a148pro

Taxuser1 wrote: »

i've seen blogs to suggest a lot of the wicklow way on the dublin side can be ridden, possibly even over to enniskerry? or is a mountain bike needed?

Parts are and parts you have to carry. I'm working on an off road route that involves little to no carrying but broadly follows the wicklow way and joins it whenever possible. Will post when I eventually get it done, have done about the first third so far may attack djouce woods to laragh tomorrow.

a148pro

Macy0161 wrote: »

The frustrating thing is so many dead ends on the fireroads. I hit one when under 1km of trail would create a loop - it maybe viable on mtb, was getting too narly (for me) on a gravel bike.

I don't think "gravel" is on the radar at all, in Wicklow at least. They'd rather go for nonsense "greenways" in and out of Kilcoole that'll cost millions when a few hundred thousand would produce long routes or gravel/ tarmac loops.

I agree with this sentiment however the reality is in terms of public use greenways are much more popular and worth the investment. I can count on one hand the times i've seem someone else on a gravel bike. I still think it could be done and will be at some point, coillte are showing reasonable progress in their orientation towards enjoyment of forests.

Macy0161

a148pro wrote: »

I agree with this sentiment however the reality is in terms of public use greenways are much more popular and worth the investment. I can count on one hand the times i've seem someone else on a gravel bike. I still think it could be done and will be at some point, coillte are showing reasonable progress in their orientation towards enjoyment of forests.

I suppose my thinking would be they would essentially be "greenways", in the sense they'd be open to walkers too. Particularly in the mountains, fire roads are a lot more accessible to more people than open mountains.

cletus

It would be great if people would upload whatever gravel routes or segments they have to the gravelmap website.

It's as easy as exporting it from Strava, then importing it to gravelmap

cletus

nilhg wrote: »

https://www.strava.com/routes/2746823503449289164

https://www.strava.com/routes/2731651138325824140

Curragh is wel worth a spin around for anyone who can make it

THos two routes look interesting, and they are the right side of the Wicklow mountains for me.

I grew up close enough to the Curragh, and have used the roads for running, but never cycled around it. Have you specific roads or routes that you use, or is it just generally cycling out and about on it

nilhg

Orro wrote: »

Hi John, I've done all those routes and they're great imo, the views of the lakes at sorrel hill are fairly epic

I'm yet to loop the back of sorrell hill out onto the Gap road. Which would link up your route nicely. You may spot a little dirt road where 5he forest ends and there is a little singketrack diagonal down to the right and leads on to the Gap road. I've heard it's very do able.

Hope I'm explaining that well

I think I'm understanding you, looks like you'd come out here,

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.1411362,-6.461443,3a,69y,308.19h,80.38t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shYexQjPC7MmXFLUeki3ilQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Yeah, once the restrictions ease, I'd be up for a boardsie West Wicklow gravel spin

nilhg

cletus wrote: »

THos two routes look interesting, and they are the right side of the Wicklow mountains for me.

I grew up close enough to the Curragh, and have used the roads for running, but never cycled around it. Have you specific roads or routes that you use, or is it just generally cycling out and about on it

I haven't got up there as much as I'd like because mostly I'm out in the mornings early and that's the time you'll only be a nuisance to the horsey folk but have a look at these

https://www.strava.com/activities/3978832669

https://www.strava.com/activities/3905890667

https://www.strava.com/activities/3739816960

In general on the western side there's loads of car tracks the horse trainers make driving out to see the horses work, on the eastern side there's army, MTB and scrambler tracks that work well for CX/gravel bikes.

Satellite view on Google maps or especially heattmap view on Strava's route builder show them up well.

Orro

nilhg wrote: »

I think I'm understanding you, looks like you'd come out here,

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.1411362,-6.461443,3a,69y,308.19h,80.38t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shYexQjPC7MmXFLUeki3ilQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Yeah, once the restrictions ease, I'd be up for a boardsie West Wicklow gravel spin

Yep that's it. Nice bit of off off road in your routes. I'll check that section out in the next week or so and yeah a group gravel ride would be good craic once things calm down.

Large bottle small glass

This thread is like the last one, mainly lads looking to have routes handed to them and not putting anything up themselves.

It has never been easier, there are loads of websites to plot on, apps for your phone or use your garmin.

It's not remotely technical or difficult.

I've done it in plenty places I'm not local to without too much trouble.

You'll make mistakes, get lost, heaven forbid reach a dead end. But you will discover, have some adventure and maybe some fun.

Rant over, where's that door to slam again

cletus

I put up what I had local to me, plus added other routes that people had linked on Strava.

I've no problem mapping out cycles for myself, but the issue is with the idea of dead ends, getting lost, figure a new way to go etc. My family life doesn't allow me the luxury, so when I get out for a spin, I try to maximise it.

The previous thread was called the Gravel Compendium. In order for that to be the case, people need to share their routes. It seems that the gravelmap website is the ideal place to do that, as it contains all those routes and segments in the one spot.

I'm not sure why anyone with a route that worked out wouldn't want to share it, but that's just me.

I'm happy to do the job of uploading routes from Strava if people want to share them, but they'll all be attributed to me, and there might be sections of road that people want to remove.

Closes door gently behind

a148pro

You're both right.

I've enjoyed exploring, but it requires a commitment of time which many of us don't have. And it can be frustrating at times. Part of the attraction of getting on a bike is just going, and not being stymied by dead ends worried about where you're going to end up, are you trespassing and will you be back in time for the other crap in your life.

I will continue to enjoy exploring. And I want to share my knowledge. The only reason I know most places up there is someone else putting me on to them.

Orro

Large bottle small glass wrote: »

This thread is like the last one, mainly lads looking to have routes handed to them and not putting anything up themselves.

It has never been easier, there are loads of websites to plot on, apps for your phone or use your garmin.

It's not remotely technical or difficult.

I've done it in plenty places I'm not local to without too much trouble.

You'll make mistakes, get lost, heaven forbid reach a dead end. But you will discover, have some adventure and maybe some fun.

Rant over, where's that door to slam again

Ah yeah, but nice to chat to like minded people tho. Especially like me if you're new to cycling off road. Seems to be getting more popular but my circle are all still road bike only, so it's nice to see I'm not alone in preferring the quieter/more adventure side of cycling.

Whatwicklow

West Wicklow is my stomping ground, here are a few loops we routinely do.

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/2g5SMopYmab

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/Wh5aiLrYmab

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

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/36I87vHYmab

Plenty more out the Wicklow gap and out the the Glen of immal..

nilhg

Personally I'm slow to upload segments to the gravelmap that I haven't ridden myself, wouldn't want to be sending someone else astray.

Just wondering whether folk consider the non tarmac parts of greenways to be gravel, for example most of the Royal Canal greenway is done with quarry dust, with some segments tarmac public road.

cletus

Thanks for that. Would you be happy to put those routes on the gravelmap website?

Taxuser1

Large bottle small glass wrote: »

This thread is like the last one, mainly lads looking to have routes handed to them and not putting anything up themselves.

It has never been easier, there are loads of websites to plot on, apps for your phone or use your garmin.

It's not remotely technical or difficult.

I've done it in plenty places I'm not local to without too much trouble.

You'll make mistakes, get lost, heaven forbid reach a dead end. But you will discover, have some adventure and maybe some fun.

Rant over, where's that door to slam again

I don’t think there’s anyone here looking for that. I’m completely new to off road and like previous posters, would be time limited. I only wanted to know if there were CX bike/gravel routes in an area that’s new to me as a roadie mostly. More experienced posters kindly shared some, I’ve got exactly what I asked for so thanks to all.

a148pro

Whatwicklow wrote: »

West Wicklow is my stomping ground, here are a few loops we routinely do.

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/2g5SMopYmab

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/Wh5aiLrYmab

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

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/36I87vHYmab

Plenty more out the Wicklow gap and out the the Glen of immal..

These look great, thanks.

I also love the way people on Boards talk about West Wicklow, it kind of sounds like something from Deliverance. The rest of us go to Enniskerry, or Laragh or the polished Glendalough, but the Wesht is where its at!

Taxuser1

Whatwicklow wrote: »

West Wicklow is my stomping ground, here are a few loops we routinely do.

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/2g5SMopYmab

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/Wh5aiLrYmab

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

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/36I87vHYmab

Plenty more out the Wicklow gap and out the the Glen of immal..

All of these are fantastic. Incorporating some road training pre and post gravel as well for a very decent ride (after restrictions ease). Thank you

woody1

Large bottle small glass wrote: »

This thread is like the last one, mainly lads looking to have routes handed to them and not putting anything up themselves.

It has never been easier, there are loads of websites to plot on, apps for your phone or use your garmin.

It's not remotely technical or difficult.

I've done it in plenty places I'm not local to without too much trouble.

You'll make mistakes, get lost, heaven forbid reach a dead end. But you will discover, have some adventure and maybe some fun.

Rant over, where's that door to slam again

just added 2 to that map, well 2 versions of the same thing in mayo, was going to add the extreme 100 but theres a lot of road on it , about 60 / 40 id say so i left it off

ofthelord

That GravelMap website looks great - hopefully more routes are added in my area for me to check out and explore.

I've added a few of the shorter routes that I would do when I park up at the woods and stick to the offroad sections. I didn't add in too many routes though as mostly I'd start/finish at the house and be on the road for a while to get to/from the gravel sections.
Not sure if routes like the below would be suited to adding as these are a mix of road/offroad sections?
https://www.strava.com/activities/4077973844
https://www.strava.com/activities/4016232802

cletus

ofthelord wrote: »

That GravelMap website looks great - hopefully more routes are added in my area for me to check out and explore.

I've added a few of the shorter routes that I would do when I park up at the woods and stick to the offroad sections. I didn't add in too many routes though as mostly I'd start/finish at the house and be on the road for a while to get to/from the gravel sections.
Not sure if routes like the below would be suited to adding as these are a mix of road/offroad sections?
https://www.strava.com/activities/4077973844
https://www.strava.com/activities/4016232802

It's easy enough to select just the gravel segments on gravelmap. You just tap where it starts and tap where it ends