Cycling the grand canal

Cycle out of Allenwood, towards Kilmeague/Allen, at the first canal bridge take the allenwood side bank and head back to Lowtown, from there cross the bridge and head south.

Or go up to the Travellers rest pub and head south from there

The stretch from Ponsonby Bridge to Devonshire Bridge (at Killleen Golf Club) has been completed with a fine grit surface.

The bridge span is in place but there's a bit of work to raise the grade to the level of the bridge deck.

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There's a yard down there that Irish Rali use to store equipment. No activity on the towpath itself, unfortunately.

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Almost finished, just about 1km of the tow-path and the bridge access left to complete.

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They might put tarmac on the 1km section to the railway bridge but the rest is grade-level with the telecoms access covers, so I think those surfaces are going to remain unbound.

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Ummeras bridge and McCartneys lock

So, out for a spin this morning from Rathangan to Vicarstown.

First update, the kissing gates on the aqueduct in Monasterevin are finally being removed. You can see the left bank here is clear, still on the right bank

Secondly, the contested piece of the Greenway running along side a section of road south of Monasterevin, and running under the motorway bridge seems to have started in earnest.

Looks like you get complementary telephone poles in the middle of the path...

Hazelhatch to Lucan still wet and muddy

sallins towards kill gaa club is tarmacadam for about 2km at least. i turned back at this distance. i couldnt see when it turns into grit. suppose it doesnt matter, alot better than the bumpy grass track that was barely rideable.

tks for confirming hazelhatch to adamstown. hopefully they will put down tarmac/grit on this part of the route soon. they will have to if its all thats in the way of proudly announcing that they have the cycle route from dublin to kildare. suppose the Green party have a year to push this through.

Thats a good point on digby bridge route, but I find naas to digby bridge as you showed on the map a bit hazardous due to cars speeding and the hidden bends they come out of. i dont blame the cars, its narrow and they want to get through this road as quick before they meet an oncoming car.

I decided to take advantage of the the good forecast for today and did the loop from the city to Ardclough on the Grand, and back through Celbridge and leixlip via the Royal today. The forecast turned out to be wrong with heavy mist throughout the trip making conditions fairly miserable.

The stretch from the 12th lock to Hazelhatch was really wet and muddy and I found it difficult to maintain enough speed to blast through the muck and eventually lost momentum and went down, otherwise the Grand was fine.

The return journey on the Royal was uneventful until I got to The Deepsinking with the middle and end section so bad they were dangerous.The middle and highest section, which has the heaviest concentration of exposed tree roots and rock, was lethal as the path was covered with leaves making it difficult to pick your way through the hazzards, the path seems to have become very narrow and was very slippery. I eventually lost my nerve and walked the worst part of the mid section. I remounted for the last section and very nearly got caught out by one of the three drainage channels on the canal side, these seem to have encroached further into the pathway, with one taking up at least half the width of the already narrow path.

Im a big fan of the Deepsinking and have cycled it dozens of times, and fallen (not into the canal!) several time so Im not a complete coward, but it was so dangerous today, and for the first time ever, I didnt enjoy it. I think there may be a need to post warning signs on the Deepsinking as sadly it seems to have become 'an accident waiting to happen'.

Despite the miserable weather, and poor cycling conditions, any trip on the canal is better than one just about anywhere else.

I was speaking to lads from Waterways Ireland about a year ago.

They were saying that there was huge objections to the Greenway continuing down through Carlow, but what the protesters weren't aware of was that remedial work was needed at various point (just like above), and they'd need to lay a hardcore path to get machinery down to it regardless of the greenway

Pullagh to Shannon Harbour: Has anyone been along this section recently (2023-24) ?

What's the surface like - walk, mtb, slow road bike, unsuitable ?

@roadtoad Still very much a work in progress, this was at the Belmont double lock last week. The sort of car park that was there before is being moved down nearer to Shannon Harbour. The surface is laid down but you might be blocked by works traffic parked up for the weekend.

Making plans for the mornin spin….I’d a spin from Ardclough to Sallins last year on a Gravel bike, just wondering if you can go beyond Sallins!? Rather do a decent out and back than cycle from there to Kilcock / Royal Canal as the road is lethal. Little enough if any info available online!