Bettystown to Rush was the final leg of the 1st period days of my Irish Coast Cycle – including the trip back to Dublin center I clocked up another 70km. However cycling Rush to the city centre directly is so unpleasant and dangerous in terms of the video and route map I’ve put in an alternate if longer route where you stay on the coast to reach the coastal cycle path.
The long stretch of flat Meath beaches is now quite built up with almost continuous housing but the coast has marshes & cliffs as you reach north Dublin so there’s also a long rural stretch & many harbours.
I’d not planned this leg in advance so I hit mapping issues as I had to fall back on Google cycling directions which are not very smart & love to send you down busy roads with multilane roundabouts. Aware of that I tried initially to plot my own way but then got caught by a dead end created by the gate at Gormanstown army base closing off what I thought was a through road. The route map provided at the end I created afterwards to avoid these issues as far as possible.
10 days on I was tiring rapidly so I just stopped for photos at Balbriggan & failed to motivate myself to swim at Loughshinny where Google tried to send me up a unsurfaced private lane way. Loughshinny Harbour is a popular camper van stop.
Then onto Skerries & Rush before growing exhaustion defeated me and I turned for home without making it to Donabate. I’ll get there as a day trip from Dublin at some point. (Which I did so it features in the video)
The bad route – The Google maps cycle out of Rush starts off ok on back lanes but once you head for Swords & back to the city centre its not for the faint hearted as it’s fast moving dual carriageway with multiple 2-3 lane roundabouts where you need to take the 3rd exit. It would probably be a good exercise to make every road planner & politician in the country cycle this although I suspect you might end up with fatalities due to panic leading to indecision at those roundabouts or heart attacks shortly after getting through them. With some taking the wrong exit in their panic & so ending up on the motorway – I have a Bluetooth earbud in my left ear on such occasions so I can hear Google maps tell me ‘at the roundabout take the 3rd exit’ and I’ve still got it wrong in unfamiliar settings with heavy fast traffic, most recently in Malta.
Basically your only hope is confident and aggressive taking of the outer lane at speed near the approach so your in a position to get to the exit you need. It’s awful & cuts off the coast or a cycle commute to Dublin for cyclists who have any sanity.
I had a look at the suggested cycle.travel route on my return & it sends you on what look like backroads above Swords and the airport to enter the city where I had exited a few days earlier via St Margaret’s. This is quite a detour & I’ve yet to test it but probably a lot more survivable. There badly needs to be safe continuous cycling exit routes out of the city, particularly to the north Dublin coast.
The better route – My recommended route created since is mapped at the link below stays close to and on the coast – worthwhile in itself as there are more beautiful beaches, the rugged cliff walks at Howth and the man made island and marsh at Bull island to pass through. And much of this is on segregated cycleway.
This day on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ebiketouringlife/?img_index=1 (and check previous entries for posts from the recommended route).
My recommended route map https://cycle.travel/map/journey/503425