Royal canal cycling Dublin to Mullingar seeking the ghost Eurovelo2 route to Galway

The Royal Canal runs from Dublin to the Shannon and you can now cycle along its banks for more of its length on the Royal Canal Way. In fact Maynooth to the Shannon is continuous and soon that will extend to Lexlip.

However nearer Dublin there is the section starting at Castleknock called the Deep Sinking which is unsafe to cycle and looks very unlikely to be improved for years to come. So for this video I show you the nicest and safest route to reach the section of the canal at Comfrey from whiere you can cycle the bank safely and once the Lexlip to Maynooth section is finished too can do that all the way to the Shannon (for now you have to divert onto the Maynooth road as shown in this video).

In this video I cycle from the Phoenix Park, through the Strawberry beds on the Lower Lucan Road and then up Tinkers Hill to Comfrey. This mostly a very pleasant cycle with fine views of the Liffey. We then stay on the Royal Canal Way all the way to Mullingar where I stop and camp.west.

On day 2 (the next video) I will set off from that camp and make my way down the recently opened Old Rail Trail which runs 43km to Athlone. This will eventually be the route of Eurovelo 2 which links European capitals and is intended to start/finish in Galway. From Athlone to Galway a greenway is in the early planning stage so I used Cycle.Travel to plot me a route favouring quiet backroads to give a safe but scenic rout

I set off from the Phoenix Park at 15.30 and reached my #wildcamp spot about 5km on the other side of Mullingar at 21.30 after stopping for a meal and a pint at Furey’s about 45km along route.

The track is a mixture of very quiet roads shared with very occasional cars and soft small gravel track which is easy to cycle on although narrow tyre bikes may struggle on the softest parts. For most of the route there are cafes or pub/restaurants at intervals of less than 10km and you pass through towns and villages regularly.

Although on day 2 I’m turning off the canal it continues to the Shannon and I cycled the entire length in 2018 - there’s a good surface all the way to the Shannon.

My instagram post for this day https://www.instagram.com/p/C9fae_xNy...

Route on Cycle Travel https://cycle.travel/map/journey/613190
(note cycle travel is not currently recognising that Comrey to Lexlip is cycleable so just stay on the canal when it tries to send you into Leslie. Once the Lexlip to Maynooth section opens I'll edit this route to switch from the Maynooth road to the Royal Canal Greenway, this should happen around the start of 2025)

Related video showing the canal before the Deep Sinking, Cycling the Royal Canal from Fairview to Castleknock in Dublin    • Cycling the Royal Canal from Drumcondra to...  

Cycling the Grand & Royal canals from Dublin to Mullingar via the western shore of Lough Ennell - this shows the Maynooth the Lexlip section before upgrading work began
   • Cycling the Grand & Royal canals from Dubl...