A Book Review

To say that we're using Towpath Tours by John Dunne as a guide for these trips is to undersell it. It was actually the inspiration to get out and just do it.

I travelled the majority of the canal by narrowboat on a couple of occasions nearly twenty years ago, and while even then the canal was easily navigable by boat, it was obvious that the towpaths were not. Bramble choked and sporadically pocked with bogholes of indeterminate depth after decades of neglect, any cyclist would have had a hard time of it.

I was therefore delighted and intrigued when I stumbled across Towpath Tours and read that, for the most part, the whole canal could be traversed by bike. In addition to the Grand Canal, coverage is also provided for the Royal Canal, the River Barrow, the Boyne Navigation, The Shannon-Erne Waterway, the River Lagan, and the Newry Canal. That's a lot of cycling.

Mr Dunne's inclusion of local history, geography and legend saves this book from becoming a dry instruction manual, and it's a good read in its own right. The problem, if any, is that some of the instructions, and particularly the maps, could be more detailed. Careful and repeated reading of the text is required to ascertain the crossing points from bank-to-bank, and better maps (including an indication of the route to travel) would have remedied this problem. In any event, you wouldn't want to undertake the trip without additional maps, and the Discovery Series 1:50,000 maps from the Ordnance Survey of Ireland are readily available in outdoor shops and even in larger newsagents. For the Grand Canal you'll need sheets (heading in a westerly direction) 50, 49, 48. The last 10K of the canal skims inconveniently across the corner of sheet 47 before straggling onto to sheet 53, but it's not worth buying these two unless you're a real perfectionist.

As Waldorf mentioned, the book is sadly out of print, so if you can get a copy at a reasonable price, snap it up. As for what a reasonable price might be, just remember that you could get quite literally years of enjoyment out of it.

Racked with Shame

The Grand Canal. OK, it's not the tour. There are no HC climbs (fortunately). In fact it's nearly flat. Our daily progress will be in tens rather than hundreds of kilometres. No broom wagon will forcibly remove us from the course if we start to flag. If the notion struck you, you could drive from its eastern most end in Dublin, to the most westerly point, Shannon Harbour, where it meets the River Shannon, in a couple of hours.

However the notion to suddenly drive to Shannon Harbour is not likely to strike anyone. Unless you actually lived there, (and that's statistically very unlikely as it's a very small place) the only reason you might be interested in Shannon Harbour will be intimately bound up with the canal and that's a good thing - the best way to cross the Irish midlands is by bike or by boat which allow an appreciation of the subtle beauty and quietness of the place: you just lose so much of this stuck inside a car.

Bearing all of the above points in mind, I'm comfortable with the idea of a rear carrier. Really. The carrier has however elicited derogatory comments from Waldorf, my towpath companion.

The offending item is pictured above. The next step is to invest in panniers, which will allow me to get rid of the rucksack - it's damn hard to appreciate subtle beauty when your back is a soggy mess. Other items potentially offensive to speed freaks, but which add to utility and which are visible in the picture are my kickstand, suspension seatpost, mudguards, and the "dork disc" between the sprockets and spokes.

Waldorf's bike

I have a very old mountain bike that I bought in a warehouse type shop called Price Club in California when I was 21 years of age. That's 17 years ago and it shows (on both me and the bike). I use this to ride to work sometimes and it works out fine. Need to get a better saddle though, this one is staring to go flat on me. Other than that its fine. I have knobbly tyres which I normally use for mucky stuff (like cycling along the canals), but I am often not bothered to change from the commuter tyres that are normally on there. The bike weighs a lot, but on the plus side it is built like a tank, so it rarely breaks. Might be in need of replacement some time soon though. All I need is a catastrophic failure of some sort :-)

Our guide for the journey

We are using John Dunne's Towpath Tours as our guide on these canal cycles. Excellent little book. Out of print now. There are some pricey ones on Amazon, but I got one in a remainered books place in Inchacore. Its called Warnock books. The site I was using to buy book was Abebooks and their listing said there was only 1 left (I got one, so that might be it). Worth a try though. The book has heaps of nice rides in it.

Sallins to Lowtown

Very nice spin today. Got on the road at 9:10. Still not bad for a Sunday morning. Couple of pints of home brew last night, so head a bit ropey. It tastes nice, but seems to contain bits of rusty nail.
Drove to Robertstown Co. Kildare. Was here when I was very small at a canal tour. Think I was about 5 or 6 then. 38 now. Have not been back since. Nice little place. Lovely morning. Plenty of sunshine and some chance or rain.
Dropped one of the cars there and put both bikes on the rack on the other car. Drove to Sallins. That's the housekeeping over.
In Sallins we parked beside the canal on the North bank at Sallins bridge. Cycled to the Leinster Aqueduct. Very nice. Liffey flows underneath at this point. The canal is very narrow. There is a pumping station below the aqueduct which is pumping water from the Liffey up into the canal to top it up. This picture is the Liffey viewed from the top of the aqueduct. In the bottom right of the picture you can just see the pumping station.

We continued on the towpath to Lowtown. All of the canal is passable. We had some very heavy rain recently, but the paths were not bogged down.

Naas to Lowtown

Tomorrow morning we are going to drive to Naas and then cycle to Lowtown, back to Naas by road on the bikes and then drive home. Weather forecast is brutal as far as I know, but we're not made of sugar. My bike on the other hand might as well be. Going on road tyres cos I'm not arsed changing to knobblys. Hope the downpours of the last few days don't leave me regretting that. Otherwise the bike is in its usual state of being near to death, covered in rotted grease and muck and generally a merged heap of rust and steelish stuff. I am a bike slob, but it has served me well so far. The day will come shortly when it will not. Kinda hoping for bike disintegration close to home so I have the excuse to buy a new MTB. Got a nice road bike a couple of years ago, so hard to justify getting rid of 'the gate'.

Drimnagh to Hazelhatch

I cycle to work in the city centre some days. I decided this would be a good opportunity to do the Drimnagh to Hazelhatch section of the canal. I left the knobbly tyres on my bike and went to work. When the day was done and another happy computer program customer purred contentedly at their new purchase (it doesn't really work like than, but anyway) I put on my cycling gear and headed out toward Heuston Station. Took a left at Islandbridge and cycled through Kilmainham. the traffic in here was pretty heavy. Not pleasant stuff. Made it to the Luas bridge at Suir Road, Drimnagh.
The banks of the canal make a big change to the road part of this trip. They are grassy and quiet. It was a beautiful sunny evening and there were some people out enjoying the canal. Most of it has been restored at this point and the canal itself is in great condition. The paths are still a work in progress at some parts, but more of that to come. I made my way along the left bank past some people who were swimming in one of the locks. The path up ahead appeared to be blocked with one of those big concrete barriers. The first block of many. I wondered if I should just go ahead. Usually those blocks are just for cars and a bike can squeeze on. There was a couple of dodgy looking blokes with an alsation up ahead, so I decided to cross over anyway.
Crossing a lock with an ancient bike in your left hand is not easy. The water was lovely and clear in the sun, but this just let me see how deep it was. I could imagine dropping it and watching it sink. No harm done and I can swim anyway, so I would be off home...but how? Cycling shorts walk through Drimnagh and Kilmainham. Lovely.
Once on the other side the towpath got much more uneven. It was grassy and very nice to cycle on, but would be slop in wet weather. Luckily I had picked one of the best days of the summer to do this leg.
I passed by the dodgy looking blokes with the aller and they waved. Maybe not so dodgy afterall.
I continued on the right bank for some time. It was very quiet and there were very few people around. Nobody else except the aller boys at that point. Came to a wall over the canal. Towpath was blocked (glad I didn't have a horse) and there was nasty metal grid stuff up to block people form getting to/from(?) the canal. I backtracked a bit and went through some bushes at the side of the canal. Across some waste ground to a gap in the wall. I passed another bloke in a tracksuit. He was just out for a walk. I was being a wuss.
Had to lift the bike up through the gap in the fence and the climb up after it. I was on the Kylemore road. The opposite side of the bridge where I had hoped to climb down was barracaded even more then the exit side. I could see down to the canal bank and there was a new towpath being constructed. Maybe this was part of the reason for blocking access. Anyway it was evening time and there was no work going on, so what the heck. No entry possible from here. Headed around the corner into the industrial estate (Kylemore/JFK/Bluebell).
Asked a man in a car how to get back to the canal and he provided directions. I got back to the side of the canal at Killeen road. There was a lot of machinery around and a locked caravan gate. Again I thought this is not for me and went along the side of the gate. There was plenty of room, so I thought this must be ok.
The tow path here was all fresh tarmac. Brand new. Probably laid that day. At most that week. The canal banks are going to be great when they are finished. But a lack of basic infrastructure never stopped me before! I made my way along this perfect path until it ran out. Then I was cycling on hardcore. No people around at all now. Coming into Clondalkin - Nangor road area. I cycled along the side of the Park West industrial estate with its big sculpture - all on the opposite side of the canal.
Finally I made it to a gate. Locked. The edge of the gate was out over the canal which looked pretty mean at this point. The gates themselves were locked and I did not see the gap under neath at this point (I was not looking for it).
Turned around and started to cycle back to find a way off the bank onto the road to skip this bit and then continue. I realised that I had gone a long way along this bank since the caravan gate and did not think there were any other exits. It would be a long cycle after a days work.
I stopped and took a look back at the gate. I remembered the gap - see I had seen it. And decided to give it a try. I crawled through the dirt after my bike and was on the Lucan Newlands Road at the 9th lock. I think.
More next time...