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Published: June 15th 2023
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After a good night's rest near Beagh Castle despite being right under the flight path of jets taking off from Shannon Airport just across the estuary, I set off towards Loop head. On the way I was hoping to visit the Flying Boat Museum in Foynes.
After a couple of kilometres on lovely quiet back roads, I crossed the N69 to Askeaton for a look around. It's a very pretty little village with an old Abbey that got dissolved (a euphamism for destroyed) in the 16th century and the ruins of an old castle that was destroyed in the Cromwellian wars.
After breakfast in Askeaton I had to go rejoin the N69 to do battle with the HGVs heading to the port at Foynes. Fortunately for me there was a hard shoulder of varying widths so it wasn't too bad.
With anticipation I counted down the kilometres to Foynes until I arrived outside the museum. The huge triple tail fins of a flying boat were poking out towards the road. I had no idea they were such massive planes. However that was exciting as it got. The museum was closed. I asked the guy pulling weeds along the
Iverus Cafe and Beragh Castle.
Delicious food and very friendly. Two years ago all these buildings were completely derelict. frontage of the building if it was a real plane on display. He said it was a replica, but actual size.
There wasn't so much HGV traffic after Foynes and it wasn't far to Tarbert where I crossed the Shannon Estuary on the ferry.
Ferries are like little pinch points where so many travellers journeys come together for a brief period before spreading in all directions again. Waiting for the ferry I got chatting to a Welsh cyclist who was doing a Mizen to Malin cycle with added bits and pieces to visit relatives. He said he was flying out of City of Derry Airport on Friday. He'll have to cover well over 100 miles per day to make that. His bike, with minimal bike packing gear, no camping gear etc, must have weighed no more than 10 or 11 kg. He thought it was heavy because he had so much stuff! With only one medium sized bike packing saddle bag there wouldn't even be enough room to carry my food!
On disembarking in Killimer, I talked briefly with a young French couple on a fine BMW touring motorbike. They were doing the wild Atlantic Way (at
a slower pace than the Welsh cyclist). They had done a bit of cycle touring before and wished me luck.
In Kilrush I stocked up on enough food for three days as I wasn't sure if there would be a shop near the campsite. Green Acres campsite is about 25 km short of Loop Head so I thought it would be a handy place to stay two nights and have a full day to explore the roads to the Head and back. It's a lovely spacious campsite right on the shore. I liked it even more as a pair of choughs flew by.
So today was the big day Loop Head day. It was pretty dull when I set off and the weather forecast was for heavy showers. I took my time cycling the little country roads and arrived by the lighthouse around midday. Dull, but quite warm. The lighthouse was closed so I wandered down to the head itself.
This is it, that is undoubtedly the Atlantic ahead of me. I'm not sure where the Shannon Estuary officially ends, but it can't be any further than here. Then I started wondering how much, if any, of
the water I saw bubbling out and flowing south at the Shannon Pot actually makes it this far. I started to imagine all the different things that could happen to the water before it got here. But that just made me thirsty.
Fittingly, as I had my lunch at Loop Head the ILV Granuaille, the Irish Lighthouse's vessel, sailed slowly northwards around the head as if admiring the lighthouse above it.
There is a large flat topped sea-stack a few metres off Loop Head. It's known locally as Diarmuid and Grainne's Bed (I think a lot of places in Ireland have this association). After lunch I sat on the cliffs near the western end of it and watched the auks bobbing on the sea below and listened to the magnified sound of kittewakes echoing along the narrow gap between the stack and Loop Head. There wee hundreds of guillemots with a few puffins and razorbills scattered amongst them. No cetaceans put in an appearance.
As I was pushing my bike along the path of short cushioning thrift back towards the road, a Dutch couple noticed my binoculars and asked if I could tell them what the birds
nesting on the stack were. We were only about 20m or so from razorbills nesting near the top of the stack, guillemots lower down and fulmars along the wider ledges. In return I learned the Dutch names for them. A razorbill is alk in Dutch and guillemot is zeekoet.
Having completed my Shannon Cycle I enjoyed a very lazy cycle back to the campsite. My last little discovery of the trip was that the post office in Carrigaholt is also a bookshop. A bookshop with a difference. All the books are free! There must have been several thousand books, mostly fiction. The owner said he loves to see people leaving with an armful of books. I left with one to squeeze into my panniers.
I have no doubt that some day there will be a fully signposted Shannon Cycle route from source to sea. I imagine it will prove very popular too, being relatively flat and passing through so many historic places. This time I mostly cycle along the eastern shore. Maybe I'll do it again along the western shore. I'm sure it's every bit as interesting.
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