Rothar Routes

Cycle routes & pilgrim journeys in Ireland and Europe …..

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Wild Carlow

Water Pump at Tomduff Cross in the colours of Mt Leinster Rangers

Water Pump at Tomduff Cross in the colours of Mt Leinster Rangers

Ruins of Kiloughternane Church

Ruins of Kiloughternane Church

Mount Leinster on fire one fine summer's night

Mount Leinster on fire one fine summer’s night

Wild Carlow

This is not an established route but I aim to make it one!

I havent done all of this 135kms loop of County Carlow but I will in the summer.

This route has many outstanding features:

Route description.

Leave Carlow taking the Barrow towpath which you follow all the way to St Mullins.

This is obviously flat the whole way down but that’s no harm with what has to come later!

The Barrow Towpath is beautiful and differs from Canal walking as it is a follows the meanders of the River. It’s a gem of a mtb trail on a fine summer day. And there are significant places of historical and religious importance such as Leighlinbridge, Borris, Graiguenamanagh and the monastic site at St Mullins.

Leaving St Mullins talk a short road section before climbing up onto the ridge of the Blackstairs. This is a well known walking trail along the Carlow – Wexford border. Continue across the Scullogue Gap and rise up to the peak of Mount Leinster, the highest point in Carlow and Ireland’s fifth highest mountain.

Take the road down to the Nine Stones and follow it across to the t junction. You are now on the Sth Leinster waymarked Way. You will shortly go off road again and rejoin the trail which you follow to Kildavin. Take the road to Clonegal village and Huntingdon Castle.

Look for signs to the Wicklow Way, again on quiet roads. After about 6 kms you leave the road for a beautiful short section through wooded hillside on the famous Wicklow Way.

We leave the Wicklow Way to go to the ruins of Aghowle Church.

The area from the Blackstairs to here is where Columbanus is said to have been born.

After Aghowle we follow winding lanes to Ardattin and the bridge on the River Slaney at Agahde – a nice place for a picnic or a swim.

Time to head back to Carlow now and we again keep to the back roads and follow the route over by Kellistown Church ruins and into Carlow Town.

This has the potential to be a mega route with a little bit of mapping and signposting.

Carlow to Rosslare

Carlow to Rosslare

This is a really great route for cyclists who are going to the Continent or arriving from the Continent.

The N80 is a serious road to be cycling on as it is the principal link for the Ferry and routes north and west. Full of articulated lorries and quite dangerous as a result. Avoid it at all costs.

This route does just that and travels through some beautiful countryside. Once you turn off for Tinryland you avoid all Towns and all traffic until you come out at Ferrycarrig and back on the main Rosslare road for a relatively short distance to Rosslare.

The road from Fenagh on as far as Kiltealy is stunning on a fine day as you travel close to Mount Leinster and through the Scullogue Gap in the Blackstairs Mountains. Some great historical sites and a bit of climbing make this a favourite of mine.

Bikes for the Camino!

Picking up where I left off when I was talking about the bike clothing there is so much more   nonsense attached to cycling by a bike industry that caters in the main for the racing fraternity.

For those guys speed, weight of the bike, quality components, body fat and nutrition are all that matter. This has influenced what is on sale for the ordinary guy for whom this is all irrelevant.

Average Joe buys a bike usually with the aim of losing weight and looking like a pro rider. It never happens for the weekend warriors because exercise doesn’t lose weight; it’s our diet!

So after forking out a fortune on the gear and an ultra light racer one can only imagine the frustration for our Joe. There are so many ‘round’ cyclists on our roads – and I’m one of them!

My point is simply that owning the most advanced bike and the best of gear isn’t going to do anything for you except lighten your wallet!

That brings me onto bikes.

Any bike shop you go into is full of sleek shiny classy looking machines and you can’t help but think ‘that’s the bike for me’. But it isn’t!

There is no need to spend a king’s ransom on your bike.

Give careful consideration to what you want the bike for.

My advice is only buy a racer if you are a racer.

As this blog is directed at bike touring I think our considerations are different.

Are we off road, on road, self supported (carrying all our gear), short haul or long haul?

True tourers opt for bespoke touring bikes but again these are expensive and while absolutely perfect for touring one would want to be a hardcore tourer to justify the expense. Something like Koga bikes – I’ve met so many Dutch people on the Camino cycling them (but they’ve cycled down from Amsterdam, and are cycling home again!).

For the rest of us the choice comes down to either a mountain bike or a hybrid bike. Again the sky is the limit in terms of price.

It comes down to a couple of key requirements.

Reliability, comfort and strength are three key requirements. Don’t worry about speed, number of gears or looks too much – or fancy carbon fibre frames!

Front suspension is great off road but not essential (called a hardtail).

And It isn’t always necessary to buy a new bike – old ones that are properly maintained are perfectly up to a cycle like the Camino.

The best advice you can get is in your Local Bike Shop (LBS). By that I mean the local man who is passionate about bikes and about service. Someone you can trust to give you the best advice and a good service.

If you are spending €500+ make sure you get the correct frame size – too often we take what we see but for long distance cycling this is so important.

One small thing to check if you are buying a bike is that it can take panniers – not all frames take a pannier rack.

Going into a shop and seeing bikes with 21 gears, 24 gears, 27 gears etc confuses and we assume we must get the 27 gears. But in reality we don’t need anything like 27 gears so don’t be influenced unduly by that.

A mountain bike will be strongest and most suited to the trail, a hybrid will be quicker along tarmac but should handle most of the trail too. It’s a personal preference.

I’ll talk about looking after the bike in my next blog.