Irish Ride 2011 - route ideas.

Further to the meeting we had at the Flowerpot I have been firming up ideas on routes/stopovers - without total success. The first 3 days seem OK. They are:

Day 1: Belfast via Lagan Valley and Loughshore Trail to Antrim - about 60 miles
Day 2: Antrim to Portglenone on R94 thence "overland" to Balleymoney and Bushmills (nearest town to Giants Causeway). This is also about 60 miles.  I have not checked but there is sure to be accomodation around here and Coleraine is a further 16 miles which may be a little too far allowing time to properly visit the Giants Causeway.
Day 3: Bushmills to Castlerock on R94 thence to Magilligan Point for the Ferry to Greencastle and down the west side of Lough Foyle (the Republic side) to Derry. This is another about 60 miles.

After there I am unable to make my mind up. We need to be in the vicinity of Knock Airport by the end of day 7. Being in Ireland, Knock Airport is not at Knock but nearer Charlestown but it is 30 miles south of Sligo on the N17 road. There is a late afternoon flight from Knock to East Mids so Sligo or Carrick-on-Shannon could be stopover points. Carrick to Knock is about 35 miles. Sligo is reachable comfortably in a day from Donegal which is itself within a day's ride of Derry so we have two days ; one cycling day and one non cycling day. As I have not cycled in Donegal my personal preference would be to take 2 or even 2 and a half days between Derry and Donegal; say a short hop to Strabane (20 miles) after a morning exploring Derry, stop there on day 4 then to somewhere like Dunglow for day 5 overnight and finally via Killybegs to Donegal for day 6. Both these latter 2 days would be in the 45 to 50 miles range.
There are Youth Hostels (An Oige) at both Donegal and Sligo, and "Paddy's Palace" Hostels in Belfast and Derry. I do not know of accomodation possibilites in the other potential overnight stops.

Comments welcome!

UPDATED 20th February

This is my latest suggestion for the second half of the tour, from Londonderry onwards. The route has been determined in part by the lack of accomodation (other than hostels) for a group of 5 or 6 of us without resorting to splitting up each night or paying a large sum at a hotel.

Day 4. Londonderry to Buncrana - 15 miles - on the east shore of Lough Swilly. We are now in the Republic. Cross Lough Swilly on the ferry to Rathmullan and then cycle the 20 or so miles to the Tra-na-Rosan Irish YHA Hostel on the Rosguill peninsula near Downies. Overnight stop.

Day 5 Tra-na-Rosan to Errigal Hostel. The most direct route is about 27 miles, while going more coastward via Dunfanaghy still makes it less than 35.

Day 6 Errigal to Donegal via Dunglow and Glenties. Total 43 miles

Day 7 Donegal to Sligo via the North West Cycle Trail - around 40 miles.

This would mean we were in Sligo by Monday night, 30th May and homeward bound on the 31st. One or two comments suggest this may be a day too long and, if so, we could cut out the Tra-na-Rosan stop and go direct Londonderry to Errigal on day 4 and so arrive in Sligo on day 6 (29th ). This would make day 4 distance around about 50 miles if we went the direct route. I have to say that I would prefer not to miss this trip to N Donegal but will be guided by the majority. 

I attach the link to An Oige, the Irish YH organisation for you to view the hostels at Tra-n-Rosan, Errigal, Donegal City and Sligo.

http://www.anoige.ie/

What do you think?