Rothar Routes

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

Posts tagged ‘Carlow cycle routes’

Summer Cycling 2

Carlow – Leighlinbridge Loop

Hang this man!!

Sir Richard Butler

And we all think our bosses are the worst in the world! Poor Phil Kennedy worked as a farm steward for Sir Richard Butler of Garryhunden, the part of the county we visit on this route. He was a member of the United Irishmen during 1798. Sir Richard gave him a letter to deliver to authorities in Carlow. When it was opened, it read ‘hang this man’ and the poor man was executed.

I love these gems of local history that I pick up on cycling the backroads of Carlow and beyond. Well done to Carlow Tourism on erecting fantastic storyboards at heritage sites across the county. This one is at Clonmelsh graveyard, where many of the Butler family are buried. One of their ancestors went on to become a signatory of the American Constitution and the creator of the daft Electoral College systems used in American elections!

  • Disney ancestral graves
  • Ancient cross Rath Melsigi, where St Willibrord was educated
  • Ancestral graves of the Butler family

This is a lovely flat 30kms loop that takes the quiet Blackbog road out of Carlow Town and out to Milford. Just before Morrisseys Quarry, take a right onto a bóitrín which brings you down by the two graveyards. Continue on and you meet the back road to Bagenalstown. Stay on this road as far as the Harrow Cross and turn right for historic Leighlinbridge, one of the prettiest villages on the River Barrow. I love stopping here at the memorial garden where a lot of Carlovians are remembered. Among them the famous scientist and Alpine mountaineer, John Tyndall, Nurse Margaret Kehoe, Orchard, Leighlinbridge, who was shot on Easter Monday during the Easter Rising in 1916 as she carried out her duties. She must surely be related to Captain Myles Kehoe who fought and died at the Battle of the Little Big Horn with General Custer and the 7th Cavalry.

The Black Castle and the Valerian Bridge, Leighlinbridge. The first toll bridge in Ireland!

There’s lots more to see in the Memorial garden, well worth a stop and a nice place to snack. We took the Barrow Track back to Milford.

The grassy pathway is just perfect for cycling, provided Waterways Ireland remember to cut it…..

We crossed over The Barrow at Milford and returned home along the back road to Carlow Town an in along the Green Road.

Summer Cycling Series

Route: Sleaty Lower Killeshin River Barrow

Whether we like it or not Covid restrictions are with us in the medium term and we need to adapt or we will all crack up! With the long summer evenings now is the best time of the year to really get to know your own locality.

I’m going to post up some my favourite local routes using Carlow Town as the starting and end point for my evening routes. The routes will follow the local road network and mostly avoid regional and main roads.

We had a terrific easy 24kms cycle this evening on traffic free roads all within 5kms of Carlow Town Centre!

I’m a firm believer that the local road network is not promoted enough for safe cycling; there should be some investment in good signage and in identifying loops that can be connected up to provide an extensive safe network of dedicated shared cycle routes – it could be done at a fraction of the cost of developing greenways!

A River Runs Through It

Just so good to be able to get back down south along the Barrow Track and surrounding area. With the stretch in the evenings it’s important to take advantage of any opportunity after being locked up for so long.

Not wanting to reopen the whole Blueway Debate but look at how pretty the natural path is on the Barrow.. hope to see the old railway line developed as a greenway and an imaginative use of current infrastructure to bridge the gap to Carlow.

Massrock at Clashganny Woods in the golden evening sunlight..

Stay in Your County!!

Hard to capture it all!

I struggle with the logic of travel within your own county given the disparity in sizes between the smallest and the largest but at least it gives us a little more freedom! Today after months of 5kms restrictions today was the first day to seek out new horizons and to get out into the south!

What a joyful 30kms cycle in the Deep south of Ceatharlach! We really have a beautiful little county and we don’t even know it too well ourselves.

Has to be Pat Hickeys house!

If you want to spend an afternoon or a day away from crowds, in splendid isolation, look no further than Rathanna as your base. I always approach it coming from Killoughternane side and the view that hits you as you round the bend at Tomduff matches anything in Ireland. It compares favourably with the views across to the Three Sisters from Slea Head in my books. Its a patchwork of 40 shades of green underneath the heathered slopes of The Blackstairs Mountain Range.

Moove over Mary!

Its always nice to know the local place names; each county has its own unique landscape and the descriptions are often in the place names. Irish place names are so poetic – Ballyglisheen, Rathgeran, Slievedurda, Rosdellig, Rathanna, Ballymurphy, Knockymulgurry, Knock, Gowlin…

Knockroe in the background

Traffic free narrow lanes make this route a smashing cycle route with a nice bit of climbs along the way to keep you honest… nothing major but a few nice pulls. And did I mention the scenery? Ah my God…

Traffic free laneways – just keep an eye out for the farm animals!

Or the hurlers? Down every by road are the famed Rangers and St Mullins camán wielders, territories marked out by red and black or green and white flags.. there must be great banter here around County Final time…

The more I cycle the more convinced I am that instead of investing millions in greenways, we should concentrate instead on creating dedicated cycle routes using the extensive local road network that links our isolated villages and parishes. It would cost an awful lot less and would not entail further damage to our biodiversity or result in the creation of more hard surfaces than we need.

Not a drop of milk in any of them…
Roads full of promise
And the Lamb did follow her!
Gowlin

Video link https://youtu.be/T4wmF1syKJQ

2020 Hike & Bike

The strangest of years in living memory saw us rediscover our own country in 2020. Fear, worry, stress, anxiety were all our bedfellows as we wondered where the invisible enemy would strike next. Travel was restricted, social contacts likewise and to get away from it all we sought out the quiet places.

We escaped into nature. It’s amazing how much the most popular trails have deteriorated during lockdown as people took to the outdoors for exercise, fresh air and their sanity. Luckily we have lots of green spaces on this beautiful island of ours.

As soon as lockdown was lifted I found myself heading away almost every evening to somewhere new.

I’ve covered over 1500 kilometres since March on my bike. All of it on quiet country roads or off road along the Barrow Way, the Grand Canal, the Royal Canal and a myriad of cycle trails. Counties cycled in this year were Carlow, Laois, Kildare, Wexford, Kilkenny, Offaly, Westmeath, Longford, Meath, Galway, Roscommon, Clare, Tipperary, Cavan, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Armagh and Down, 18 counties in total! All beautiful and all equipped with that network of rural roads that are safe and a joy to cycle on. I’ve donned hiking boots to visit Máméan in Connemara, the Devils Bit, Slievenamon, the Blackstairs, Ballycumber and Askamore to name but a few.

I’ve made a short video above of some of the sights we saw in our travels. Many thanks for following my blog during 2020 and I hope it brought you some enjoyment.

Happy New Year to all!