Day 1

Saturday January 28th. - 95 Miles, Dublin to Wexford - Total so far 95 miles

Out on the road by 7.30am and up into the Wicklow mountains from my apartment in Dublin. The official start of the Around Ireland tour my route is actually taken directly from an excellent cycling book from Lonely Planet called Cycling Ireland. I will often quote for you extract from the guide that best sum up the cycling.

This memorable day has a big early climb, a remote traverse of high ground and decent via a waterfall (not literally) to Laragh and a side trip to Glendalough, the monastic site in the heart of the mountains. Escaping the city clutches involves hard pedalling up the skirts of the mountains. As the gradient steepens the buildings give way to woodland, the air freshens and a sense of freedom returns. The 15.5km ascent starts at the turn-off for the Sally Gap on the R115 and finishes just below the summit of Powerscourt Mountain near the top of the Wicklow Mountains. The big climb done, the next 9km is a spectacular cruise along the desolate Military road (built in 1798) surrounded by blanket bog and bare summits. Glacial valleys fall away sharply to the east at Glencree and from the Sally Gap crossroads to Loughs Tay abd Dan. On the swooping descent to Laragh the road drops into the wooded head of the valley of Glenmacnass beside the spectacular cascade. This is a good place for a more sheltered breather after the high moorland plataeu. Pretty Laragh (Laithreach) nestles between the mountains at the point where the Glenmacnass, Glendasan and Avonmore rivers converge on their way to the sea..

The climb was tough but my legs were nice and fresh, the only disappointment was when I stopped to take a photo of dawn rising over Dublin to find that my camera didn’t have a memory stick in it so no chance of taking any photos for the day.

It’s a truly glorious start to the ride though as the Wicklow Mountains are such a joy to cycle over. Normally all you encounter are walkers, fellow cyclists and free roaming sheep and deer. Today was no exception and I stopped a couple of times to study deer as they moved slowly over the bog grazing, The mountains are truly wild and you are often reminded of just how hard life was in Ireland when you see the great swathes of peat that has been dug and transported down to Dublin. At one time up to 5,000 people would be working up on the mountains in the Winter to cut the fuel for Dublin all getting paid a pittance. At Laragh I did in fact take a break (though my plan for a cup of tea went out the window as the cafe I normally use is closed until March). However I did get a chance to chat to a fellow cyclist who was somewhat surprised to see how little clothing I was wearing. When I mentioned that I had done a lot of my cycling in Sweden he commented that he had been there only the last weekend, It transpired we both travelled to Stockholm on the same plane and both got caught in the same traffic jam on the E4. Whats the chances? Maybe I really should start buying Lotto tickets.


From Laragh via Rathdrum and the Vale of Avoca (Avoca village is the setting for the BBC's Ballykissangel) to Arlow.

This is where I had my lunch (Tescos did a very nice jacket potato and was quick to serve) and took a breather after an excellent start to the day. It had taken me a little over 4.5 hours so far but the hardest part of the day was behind me.
The road from Arklow to Wexford follows the coast road virtually all the way. Go left for Clogga Strand 3km south of Arklow and carry on the same direction through Courtdown Harbour, Kilmuckridge, Blackwater and Curracloe, going left on the R741 at about 63km for the bridge over Wexford Harbour into Wexford.


The afternoon ride was very pleasant through gently undulating countryside with the sea as a constant background.


Going past the Omaha restaurant gave away the fact that this is where the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan was shot and where they re-enacted the landings at Omaha beach Normandy. Having walked over the beaches in Normandy I could see why they chose the area as it is very underdeveloped.

By the way I have no idea who the lady in the photo is as I found this on the Internet.


Arriving at Wexford I tried to book into a large hotel in the center of the town but they were full so they directed me to a hotel on the outskirts. A nice long soak in the bath, a bite to eat in the restaurant and then I surfed the TV for awhile (how can people spend their lives watching this crap) before drifting off to sleep.

Thus ended by first day.