4th Sep 2026 - Cork County Council has just announced details of a new Walk/Cycle route connecting the town of Carrigaline to the port of Ringaskiddy. An approximate map of the route is shown above in green.
A lot of the proposed route runs alongside the new M28 motorway which is currently under construction. This means that a lot of the new walk/cycle route is already under development and it's not running through a lot of private property.
Some key points...
1) Distance - The total distance of the route is about 5kms.
2) Heron's Wood - The western section will be a branch off the greenway which is due for development in Heron's Wood (The section already built is in yellow above). This is part of the Greenway which will go to Cork City via Monkstown and Passage West. The red dot on the map shows the road crossing.
3) Fernhill - The next section will go through the old Fernhill gold course and come out on An Bothar Siochain road (Cogan's Lane). This road was used in the past for the Carrigaline 5-mile road race but it will become a cul-de-sac once the M28 is built.
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| Route through the old Fernhill golf course |
4) Shanbally - To the south of Shanbally, there is a road crossing (red dot on map).
After crossing here, the route continues east for about 200m before turning left and through a tunnel under the M28. From here, it runs alongside a new roundabout and continues east but this time on the northern side of the M28. This unbroken section is about 1.6kms in length.
5) Barnhely - There will be another junction crossing on the road that goes from Coolmore Cross to the port of Rungaskiddy. On the eastern side, there will be a new spur down to the port with the main route continuing east to the south of new road.
Strava... A lot of people record their exercise activities on the Strava App, especially cyclists and runners. Let's have a look at the 'heat map' for the last week.
Walking...Walking is by far the most popular exercise, dwarfing both running and cycling. Even though the vast majority of walkers don't record their exercises on Strava, enough do so we can get a rough idea of the popular walking routes.
The problem with a lot of the roads around Carrigaline is that they are rat runs during the day for cars. It's actually the same with a lot of built areas. There are islands of exercise activity in towns and villages and they end once the footpaths stop.
At the moment, there is no safe walking route from Carrigaline to Ringaskiddy so the new route will make a huge difference.
Running... Again, there is a distinct lack of runners using the roads between Ringaskiddy and Carrigaline. It's not hard to imagine that sometime in the future, people will be running from Carrigaline on the new route to the park in Haulbowline and back again.
There are a number of road races in this area as well such as the Carrigaline 5m, the 25km Great Railway Run and some Cork BHAA races. Will they start using parts of the new walk/cycle route?
Cycling... Cyclists cover a lot more distance than the runners and walkers so the map shows a lot more activity. The main benefits of the new route here are that it's safer for cyclists and it will take some cyclists off the other busy roads so motorists benefit.
Active Travel Route... While the new route will obviously be used for exercise, it's also likely to be a busy active travel route. The simple fact is that Carrigaline is a major population centre with over 18,000 people and Ringaskiddy is a major industrial area with many people working there.
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| Total number of trips from Carrigaline as per the 2022 Census |
Considering the distance from Carrigaline to Ringskiddy, it's not hard to imagine say someone in the future on say an e-Bike doing 20kph covering the distance in about 20-25 minutes and actually be faster than travelling to work by car at peak hours.
More Info... You can find a full report and drawings HERE
You can follow the link there and submit your own thoughts on the project. If you're in favour of this project then leave a message of support.
