THE DONEGAL CYCLE ROUTE

I have just completed five days cycle touring in Donegal. Living in the UK there are a handful of cycle challenges that people seem attracted to. Many of these involve challenging yourself into how many miles that you can do in a day over a long distance. In Ireland, the big challenge is Malin to Mizen which is 427 miles and sometimes known as Top to Toe. Malin Head is in Donegal and is Ireland's most northerly point

What attracts me to cycling in Ireland is its unhurried nature and lure of outstanding scenery. The people are warm and motorists frequently give friendly waves. The very name given to Ireland's iconic "Wild Atlantic Way" asks the question what is wild? Is it the weather, a rugged coastline, the scenery or some other wildness? Here therefore is the challenge as it is to find out the wildness and what more dramatic way than to do it by bike?

Donegal offers choices for cycle touring. There is the Wild Atlantic Way, a route for motorists and Eurovelo 1, a route for cycle tourists. The WAW as it is known is well signed and visits all of Donegal's special coastal places. EV1 is also well signed and takes cyclists away from main roads, except in a few unavoidable places.

I found that Donegal provides lots of those wonderful remote wild places that I enjoy seeing but also the journey needs to be planned carefully because some roads in the south of the county are busy with traffic and I thought that the wildness is gradually being diminished. My favourite part was Fanad, the remote north. It has magnificent wildness both in its coastline and fine rugged inland scenery. It has many beaches ideal for wild swimming and unspoilt landscapes so much liked by wildlife. I heard only my second ever corncrake in Dunfanaghy The first was on Mull several years ago and both were real privilege. I thought that EV1 is a good route and there is plenty of dramatic scenery but it does not go through the far north. I felt that my tour needed a mixture of EV1 and the WAW to gain the most benefit. My photos show scenes found on EV1

My daily distances varied from 32 to 52 miles per day and daily elevational gain was roughly 2,500ft. More photos and daily routes can be seen here