Planning to Cycle around the Irish Sea
Introduction
This post has been created for my local cycling club, the Oakley Pedalers Cycling Club. Feel free to read and contact me even if you’re not a member, and if you live near Basingstoke, why not join the club?
The Epic Cycle Ride
Do you want to try an epic cycle ride which takes in Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Wales and England in one week?
At the end of 2015 I was asked to plan this epic route and the client expects to run it from next year. However, because I drafted the route and have all the details I wonder if we could get a group of Oakley Pedalers to try it for themselves, either this year or early next?
What’s the route to Cycle Around the Irish Sea?
The original route is laid out below. Starting in Dumfries, the key points are Stranraer, ferry to Belfast, Dublin, Carlow via the Wicklow mountains, Wexford, Carmarthen, Brecon then across England to London.
We’ve got no particular reason to go to London, so if anyone is interested here are a couple of changes we could do to fit 7 days and make it work better for us:
- Start in Oakley (possibly on a Friday) with the first overnight just North of Bristol. Thereafter the reverse of the original route. This allows some the appeal of starting from home, whilst others could join after a simple journey the following day
- Keep the original start in Dumfries but make the final 2 days N of Carmarthen – N of Bristol, then Bristol – Oakley
Either option gives us the chance to do this in 7 days and cover some 950km / 10,000m climb. If we started on a Friday then Dumfries could be preceded / followed by a day cycling in the Lake District.
What’s the cost?
The commercial one is proposed at £1,495, fully supported including decent hotels.
I know we can do our own budget but comfortable version using a couple of hostels and some willing volunteers, but I need to know if anyone is interested before I do more work on it.
What’s the catch?
Nothing really. I’m really excited by the route and impatient to actually travel it before it’s due next August. If any of you are intrigued then let me know. If I get more than half a dozen replies we’ll get together and thrash something out, either for this year or next.
What now?
Have a glance at the routes below, have a look at the descriptions of each day (sorry, rough notes) then contact me if you’re interested.
