The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Ireland: Southwestern Peninsulas 2018

July 8th to July 21st

Ride Coordinator: George Ellis
Report by: Greg Norman

The SW Ireland tour was led by BAC-ers George Ellis and Dianne Olson, supported by Tony Boyd with Iron Donkey Tours. Our group of 24 came from all over the US with one participant from Australia; congratulations Steve for winning the farthest traveled award!  Everyone landed in Ireland at Dublin, where many of us arrived several days early for sight seeing and tourism.  Dublin is a bustling tourist destination with fantastic pub crawl opportunities, Irish music, interesting history such as walking tours of the 1916 uprising, Trinity College tours, and the Guinness brew-house.  Several of us took one-day bus tours to nearby areas including Belfast in the separate country of Northern Ireland where we witnessed the cultural social-political-religious schism that has been going on for over 300 years.  Other visited sites include the Giants Causeway on the north coast, the Hills of Tara where ancient rulers reigned, and many stone monoliths.  Ireland was populated as far back as 9,000 years ago!

The first tour day, we all boarded a luxury coach in Dublin and traveled 4 hours to the Riverside Inn – Killarney, where 5 of us assembled our bikes and Tony fitted the rest of the group with rental bikes.  Killarney is a charming tourist town with lots of pubs, gift shops, and bike shops, many named “O’Sullivans”.  Our first ride was a loop through Molle’s Gap, the Gap of Dunloe, around the Lakes of Killarney and Killarney National Park.   The next morning we headed south on a beautiful ride to Gougane Barra, a remote picturesque guest house on a lake.   The route took us through remote one-lane country roads and forests with few vehicles.  On the ride, some of us met a group of women cyclists from Kenmare who were out for a four-day “Gals’ trip”; they were a chatty fun group to meet and Dianne got some pub recommendations for our upcoming stay in Kenmare.  Our dinner that night in Gougane Barra was 5-star with offerings of grass-fed sirloin, seafood, risotto, and desserts to die for (incredible brownies and ice cream), in a big dining room with large view-windows looking out over the lake.

Next day, we had a short ride to the seaside village of Bantry, with optional extensions to the Sheeps Head Peninsula or Glen Gariff Bay for a full day of riding.  On the Sheeps Head option, we encountered Goats Pass as expected, however the 14% climb on this optional loop, though short and sweet was a challenging surprise. Bantry was a 2-night stay in a superb modern hotel with fine food.  On the 2nd day in Bantry, many of us rode out to Mizen Head Peninsula, the end of which is the southern most point of Ireland, where there was a café serving cappuccinos and homemade desserts which we all enjoyed.  The best was yet to come, when we paid the 5 euros to take a 1-kiolmeter walk out to the lighthouse where the views were of magnificent mountains of granite closely nestled by the Wild Atlantic Ocean.  The peninsula is a prized vacation spot of the Irish, full of white sandy beaches where families frolic in protected waters of the many Bays on Mizen Head.

From Bantry, we cycled over Healy Pass to Kenmare for a 2-night stay.  The pass was a steady 5-6% grade with spectacular pasturelands and herds of fun people-social sheep.   After the descent from Healy Pass, some of us stopped at Helen’s Bar & Café in Lauragh, with picnic tables and boat docks looking out to a vast inlet off Kenmare Bay filled with mussel farms.  The open-faced crab sandwiches were tasty.

In Kenmare, we frequented the Bold Tady Quill Bar for happy hour and even dinner.  The small town was decked with blue, white and red banners in celebration of Bastille Day showing French allegiance, and a celebration in the town park, of course followed by a stop at Murphy’s Ice Cream Parlor.  A short walk from town is one of the largest stone circles showing habitation of the area 4,000 years ago in the Bonze Age.  The 2nd day’s ride was the optional Kenmare loop, the most challenging of the tour at 40 miles with 2 climbs, the second of which was Priests Leap, a steep 10-19% steady climb.  Three of our group did the first climb out-and-back, and another 3 did a complete Kenmare loop; others did shorter rides or took the day off.

From Kenmare on to Waterville, another quaint coastal village where we stayed at the Butler Arms Hotel, each room with views of the bay.  Charlie Chaplin took his family on vacations here and the board walk is affectionately named in his honor.  We had a fabulous group dinner at the hotel the first night and the 2nd night, small groups went off to the rest of the town’s restaurants.  Smugglers Inn had a fantastic fresh monkfish, while The Lobster had good barfood, and An Corcan vegetarian fare.  Ballagashhen Pass was now checked off our list.

On to Killorglin for a wonderful group dinner and a one-night stay.  The next morning, we posed with King Puck, a goat of famed folklore for our group photo.  From Killorglin, we cycled to Dingle Bay, the jewel of Ireland’s coastal villages.   This ride saw the most traffic, as vacationers filled the main route, however there were descent shoulders and courteous drivers.  Some of us took a brief detour off the main road to the south, encountering quiet one lane roads and bonus points for more hill climbing.  The 2nd day at Dingle Bay, we enjoyed a fantastic loop ride and many site-seeing opportunities such as beehive homes dating back 4,000 years and boat tours out to Skellig Islands.  An optional loop around Valentia Island should not be missed, and the lighthouse on the island is a must see, a short 2 km ride off the routesheet.

From Dingle, our farewell ride over O’Conor Pass, the highest in Ireland, and then down to Tralee, our departing hotel where we enjoyed a farewell dinner.  The next morning, 19 of us boarded a luxury coach back to the Dublin airport.  Five of the group continued their stay in Ireland with the next BAC trip Ireland – the West.

Our group became a family of friends quite quickly.  We celebrated with happy hour every night and all earned the 100% attendance award!  Our BAC leaders George and Dianne were the best, and Tony from Iron Donkey was over-the-top supportive and friendly.  Special thanks to John for setting up our google shared photo site.  It rained about 3 times, from a mist to a short warm shower lasting less than an hour.  Grand total for all 12 rides, which includes all of the optional 2nd day loop rides at stopovers of two nights was 500 miles and 30,000’ of climbing.  Taking the 2nd days off or doing shorter rides on the 2nd day reduces these totals quite a bit.