Return to the Emerald Isle
I’m just back from another motorcycle road trip – this time it was a return to the Emerald Isle.
After recently making my first motorcycle trip to Ireland (at the back end of May/early June) it was an easy decision to head back just a few weeks later. Having decided to return to Ireland, I wrote a few words about why I was going back in an earlier blog post and then got on with booking what I needed to book.
Same but different
Although I travelled to Ireland via the Stena Line ferry from Holyhead to Dublin (same as last time) and made by return via Dublin/Holyhead (same as last time) and stayed in the wonderful Carriglea B&B in Listowel (same as last time) and had a very good pint of Guinness in a fascinating pub called Mike the Pies (same as last time) … it really was a different trip.
More miles, more places, more coastline
This trip to Ireland involved me covering more miles (approx’ 1,600), traveling to more places and seeing more coastline that on my previous trip. I also travelled in Northern Ireland on my bike for the first time, previous visits there had only ever involved short trips (to Belfast) in a work capacity.
Roughly – my route for this trip saw me initially travelling to an overnight stay in the county town of Clonmel in County Tipperary before heading to stay overnight in Dingle.
After Dingle it was onto Listowel in County Kerry, then Mulranny in County Mayo before heading to Coolaney in County Sligo for a couple of nights. After leaving Coolaney, the last night of my trip was spent in Larne in County Antrim (Northern Ireland).
And I can tell you now, that one of my very firm recommendations from this trip – whether you drive a car, ride a bike or just like beautiful coastlines is that you really do need to add the Coastal Causeway Route that stretches from Belfast to Derry to your ‘to do’ list. It’s beyond stunning and I’ll cover that in more detail in Part 4 of this Return to the Emerald Isle blog post.
I stayed in some very decent accommodation along the way and as I write this blog I’ll be adding two of the places I stayed at to my recommended places to stay blog – making a total of three recommended places in this Return to the Emerald Isles Blog.
Overnight in Anglesey
Given the fairly extreme UK temperatures, I decided I would ride to Anglesey on the Monday before taking the 09:00 am ferry to Ireland on the following morning.
The Anglesey ferry port in Holyhead is just about 120 miles or so for me to ride directly there from my home in Manchester, but on this occasion I decided I would travel the day before and I booked into a B&B in the small village of Moelfe on the north east coast of the island. Staying here left me with an easy and routine 24 mile ride to the Port of Holyhead after coffee and toast on Tuesday morning.
Staying in Moelfe also meant I arrived at the ferry port for my 09:00 ferry, clean tidy and refreshed. The heat the prevous day had reached around 38c, which I was fine with, but it can leave you a little warm and unkempt and that wasn’t how I wanted to start my day.
Onto Clonmel
Travel on Tuesday was routine a short ride to the port, great service from Stena Line, a super smooth crossing to Dublin and then easy riding to Clonmel via some pleasent roads and places.
The route to Clonmel took in the towns and villages of Kilmatead, Kilcullen, Athy and Kilkenny. My accommodation in Clonmel had good secure parking for my bike and was close to the town centre, which in turn meant it was easy for me to find somewhere to grab a decent pint of Guiness and a bite to eat before returning to my accommodation for an early night and sleepng like the proverbial log!
The story in these blogs is told as much through pictures as through words and in this post there are two sets of pictures. The first from Monday and the second from Tuesday. Monday’s pictures are below, scroll down for Tuesdays pictures.
Picture gallery – Monday
Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that can be scrolled or clicked through. Don’t forget for more pictures scroll down to the second set of pictures – Picture Gallery – Tuesday
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Picture gallery – Tuesday
Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that can be scrolled or clicked through – some here from Anglesey, the ferry crossing and then in Clonmel. You can read Part 2 by clciking this link
I love these pics. Some very colourful places ther.