Cycle touring routes in Ireland - Cycling in Ireland

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• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
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• Further Reading

All the forces that have shaped Ireland have left their marks on the rocks, the soils and also the people who cling to this place at the far northwest corner of Europe. Ireland’s history is not an uncommon one for a small country: the ebb and flow of peoples, the rise and fall of influence from powerful neighbours, the eventual realisation of a cultural and national identity – this could be the story of many European nations. 

But what makes Ireland unique is just how much of that history remains present as part of the land and the people. There are valleys here where it seems that the ice melted only yesterday and, after all, conflict and loss score marks on men’s hearts that endure longer than the marks scored by glaciers on rock. In this curious land, the 13th-century Norman castle at Carrickfergus seems as much a part of living history as the Nationalist murals in Derry’s Bogside, while the music in a County Clare pub links back to the same traditions as the carved Celtic High Cross at Monasterboice.

Cycling in Ireland is not to pass through the country, but to become part of it.

Geology

Three of Ireland’s biggest tourist attractions highlight the variety of landscape produced by the island’s complex geology. The hexagonally jointed basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway were formed 60 million years ago by the cooling of volcanic lava. Along the Clare Coast the 200m Cliffs of Mohr are formed of Namurian slates and sandstones about 320 million years old, while it is only a short way to the rock pavements of the Aran Islands, and the neighbouring Burren formed from slightly older Carboniferous limestone.
Other parts of Ireland too owe their beauty to geological foundations. The bays and peninsulas of Kerry and Cork were shaped into their east–west alignment by folding some 270 million years ago (known as Armorican folding), while in the north and west the mountains follow the northwest-to-southeast trend of the far older Caledonian stage of mountain building, some 500 million years ago.

On the east coast, Ireland’s highest mountains outside County Kerry – the Mountains of Mourne and the Wicklow Mountains – are both granite intrusions, but they date from completely different periods. The Mourne Mountains overlooking Newcastle, like the Antrim Plateau to the north, represent igneous activity from the opening up of the North Atlantic, while the Caledonian trend of the rocks of the Wicklows, on Dublin’s doorstep, reveal their older origins.

During the last ice age much of what is now Ireland was covered by ice, and the landscape retains some of the finest glacial scenery in Europe. Doo Lough Glen in County Mayo and the Poisoned Glen in County Donegal are glacial valleys of the highest order. As well as these erosional forms, the features deposited by the ice are equally impressive, and two glacial landforms, the esker and the drumlin, take their English names from Irish words. Drumlins are low, whale-backed hills deposited under the ice, while eskers are long sinuous ridges believed to result from water flowing under the ice. Both these landforms have had an impact on the geography of modern Ireland. The boundaries of the kingdom of Ulster are marked by a once impenetrable drumlin belt some 50.0km wide stretching from Strangford Lough to Donegal Bay. In the heart of Ireland, with its bogs and floods, the Esker Road (Esker Riada) at one time offered the only passable east–west route from Dublin to Galway. The monastic settlement of Clonmacnoise is situated where the road crossed the Shannon, and the N6 main road still closely follows this ancient route to the west.

Wildlife and Flowers

The development boom of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy has increased the pressures on Ireland’s wild places, but as any trip around the island by bike will show, Ireland remains predominantly rural. The human population has, after all, still has not recovered to the levels before the Great Famine of 1845–49.

Ireland’s plant and animal populations are typical for a northwest European country. The main points of interest are some absences – Ireland has a slightly impoverished flora and fauna compared to mainland Europe and Britain – and a handful of unexpected species. Of the absences on the animal side, most notable are the snakes which, according to legend, St Patrick banished from Ireland in the fifth century. The less romantic explanation for this, and the slightly diminished species counts, is that, as the glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age, some plants and animals did not have time to re-colonise Ireland before sea levels rose and cut off land bridges to Britain and Europe.

The few unexpected residents mostly fall into the category of Lusitanian species – which are more commonly found in northern Spain and Portugal and are absent from Britain. There is no conclusive explanation for these disjunct populations. The most visible Lusitanian species to the casual observer is the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) of West Cork, Kerry and Sligo, which produces spiky bright-red fruits from September to December. A similar curiosity in the animal kingdom is the spotted Kerry slug, which is found in only three sites in Ireland – including the Killarney National Park – although it also occurs on the Iberian peninsula.

The importance of Ireland as a bird habitat can also not be overstated. The long coastline and position at the northwest corner of the Eurasian land mass attract countless seabirds. Rathlin Island is Northern Ireland’s largest seabird colony, with puffins, razorbills, guillemots, kittiwakes and fulmars on view. The birdlife of Little Skellig Island off the Kerry coast is similarly impressive. Away from the coasts, traditional farming practices survived longer than in many other parts of Europe, leaving Ireland as one of the few places in Europe where the rasping call of the corncrake (Crex crex) can still be heard (the Shannon Callows and Inishbofin have populations).

Three areas deserve special mention for their combination of stunning landscapes and biological importance. On an island where much of the attention goes to the coastal mountains, it is right that the Shannon Callows get first mention. This section of Ireland’s longest river, between Lough Ree and Lough Derg, is one of the last largely unmodified flood plains in Europe. Each winter, and in some summers, the river rises to form an inland sea of up to 100,000 hectares. With the natural fertiliser of silt and wading birds, the meadows of the callows have been spared the touch of agricultural chemicals. To look down on the shining Shannon from the sixth-century abbey of Clonmacnoise is to witness a scene that has changed little since the monks’ day.

The second area worthy of special attention is the limestone pavement of the Burren and the nearby Aran Islands. While aficionados of wildflowers will rave about the rare, calcium-loving species found here, the overall appeal is as much sensual as scientific. Just sitting, or better still lying down, among the sweet grasses of the Burren and watching the white, yellow and blue flowers dance in the Atlantic wind as they peep from fissures in the limestone is a pleasure all to itself.

Third on this short list are the woodlands and lakes of Killarney. These are by far the largest native woodlands in Ireland, covering some 1200 hectares of lakeside and valley. The oak and yew woodlands here are of international importance, while the juxtaposition of glacial valley, lakes and woods produces a landscape unique in Ireland. Wild red deer still live on the mountain slopes, and can be seen feeding by the lakes. The area is also, for Ireland, very accessible, being the site of Ireland’s first national park (established 1932), with a good cycleway through some of the prettiest parts of the national park.