New cycling & walking route from Dublin to Galway under development

Back in 2013, I had a post up about an 110km Ultra in England that went from the East to West coast roughly following the route of Hadrian's Wall. I had posed the question if such a run was possible in Ireland from Dublin to Galway.

The Grand Canal goes from Dublin to the Shannon so it certainly seemed possible that a route might be viable.

Well it seems that this is exactly what is now happening and the 276km route is shown below...

Here are some of the features...

Features
◗ A purposeful recreational facility for use by both cyclists and walkers
◗ 91km of towpath along the Royal Canal Network
◗ 45km of disused railway line from Mullingar to Athlone
◗ 140km of new build Cycleway from Athlone to Galway with new bridges
 across the rivers Shannon and Suck
◗ Regular service facilities
◗ Scenic views of diverse landscape including coastline, boglands, woodlands and watercourses
◗ Towns and cities featured on the route include Dublin, Maynooth, Mullingar, Athlone,
 Ballinasloe, Loughrea and Galway

While some charity runs go from Malin to Mizen on pubic roads, this shorter option from coast to coast looks like a safer option and could be covered easily in a week if someone opted to do a marathon per day.

The pathway will of course be a great addition to any runners along the route or anyone visiting the region.

You can find out more about the National Galway to Dublin Cycleway in this PDF document.

The website for it is http://www.galwaytodublincycleway.ie/