The Road to Ballina

It’s a tranquil start to the day, with not a car on the road for the first eight miles and the only sounds coming from the skylarks.  We are heading due east and expecting strong tailwinds all day but, disappointingly, it takes a while to build up, so we make our way up a long climb under our own steam.  The view from the top is grand and, in the distance, we can see Slieve League in West Donegal.  It’s quite unusual for it not to be hidden by rain cloud.

At the top of the next short rise, we stop at a viewpoint next to the Ceide [cagey] Fields Visitor Centre.  We later discover that we should have been more attentive at this point, when David finally completes his research over coffee in Ballycastle (home of the fort).  It turns out that the visitor centre is there to display the most extensive Neolithic remains in the world.  If only we’d gone inside, it might have been the highlight of the day.

At some point on our way to Ballycastle we have left Erris and crossed over into the barony of Tirawley.  There was nothing to mark the boundary and, judging from what we have seen so far, this 385 sq mile area also consists mostly of mountainous blanket bog.  But we have a lot of fun with the local ladies of Ballycastle who give us a guided tour of their lovely community gardens.

As instructed by the ladies, we then make a beeline for Downpatrick head where there was an impressive sea stack, and lots of warnings about the perils of the cliffs and blowholes.  One of these is enormous and was used as a hiding place by the rebels in 1798; 25 of them perished when the tide came in and took them.  We seem to be following tragedy and rebellion all round this coast, and I could do with some good news - but I have started to worry about driving to Belfast docks on Saturday night.  Anyway, it’s a delightful spot and, back on the bikes, we enjoy quiet rolling countryside all the way up the Moy estuary to Ballina.  Killala has a cute harbour and the Belleek Wood Greenway is a great way to finish.  

Ballina has been thoroughly researched overnight, and nothing of interest has been discovered other than that it was the birthplace of former Irish president Mary Robinson; and that Jack Charlton had a holiday home here.  But the sun is out and, in these rare circumstances, it has a very pleasant riverside right next to our hotel…

Sligo