I finally completed the 2420km version of the Transatlantic Way (TAW) in June 2025. I’m putting down some thoughts, just a couple of weeks later while my memory is still fresh. This is going to be quite a long blog and you mightn’t want to read it all – I’ll write a general paragraph about the TAW / WAW at the end and feel free to skip directly to that if you’re interested in taking this on yourself sometime. If you have the patience for a blow-by-blow account then read on.
As you’ll know from a previous entry, the TAW is a self-supported, ultra distance ride / race mostly along the Atlantic coast of Ireland. 2025 was the first time that the route was reversed from Cork to Derry – in theory this should mean more of a chance of a tailwind, but this is certainly not guaranteed. There are 2 main distances; the longer (Cuchulainn) is a whopping 2400km and the shorter (Setanta) a mere 1700km. This year, two 1000km options were also offered. I was determined that this would be the year when I would finally complete the 2400km as I’d ended up on the shorter course on 2 previous attempts.
Day 1 Cork to Adrigole 322km 4186m
Jon and I at the start
Thursday morning, a 5am start means that you have to travel to Cork the day before; accommodation was in UCC’s student block. I’d had dinner the night before with Jon Sims, he was doing one of the shorter routes. We started together but I didn’t really see him again after I stopped to remove my coat on one the steep climbs out of the city. There was an air of great excitement with nearly 100 riders setting off in the dark on a long adventure. Horrible climbs out of town, I remembered coming back to Cork from Kinsale along this route in 2022, a broken man. A light drizzle settled down to a generally foggy day, there really wasn’t much to see for most of the first day and the beautiful West Cork coastline and headland route wasn’t at its best. The day’s statistics give the details – day 1 had the most elevation, mostly short and punchy rolling roads but a couple of real killers at the end with the notorious Priest’s Leap going straight into the Caha Pass. Lunch was at the café in Mizen Head, the next proper refuelling stop was at a chipper in Glengarriff. Sheep’s Head peninsula was after Mizen Head, Ryan and Tobiaz were good company for a lot of that leg. I felt OK to keep moving after Bantry, which was where a lot of riders must have stopped for the night. For my first night out, I had booked a slot in a campsite in Adrigole for my lightweight tent, this worked out well although I only arrived after 10pm in the end – knowing that there’s a safe camping spot and a hot shower at the end makes a big difference to finishing in the dark. A friendly cat gave me an enthusiastic welcome.
Day 2 Adrigole to Glencar Valley 232km 2951m
I was awakened at 4am by something warm and soft lying next to me in the tent – my friendly cat had tracked me down. She was keen to come right in but I wasn’t so sure about her claws and my air mattress. Anyway, she made the early start easier. I’d nothing packed for breakfast apart from some remaining dried mango from Lidl. An out and back loop for the Beara Peninsula was first – I enjoyed this on as I hadn’t ridden this route before. The early morning sunshine helped. Breakfast meant coffee and pastries at one of the small shops in Eyeries with a few other riders to talk with, especially Mike from the lovely town of Schull. Back through Castletownbere and past my campsite in Adrigole, if I’d thought more carefully I would have left some of my luggage hidden somewhere to make the Beara loop easier. There’s nothing in the rules to say that you have to bring all your luggage for every kilometre of the ride but I don’t know if this is a bad thing to do in ultras.
The glorious Healy Pass into Co Kerry was next – this is the closest thing that Ireland has to an Alpine pass with hairpin bends, waterfalls and bridges. Epic cycling. However, the organiser had selected a route through Tuoist after the pass to get us down to Kenmare – these tiny roads were practically unrideable with knee-torturing climbs and pretty lethal descents with a loaded bike. This was one of a number of times when I questioned the wisdom of some of the roads chosen for the route. Another was the Priest’s Leap the previous night – it’s been on the route since 2022 but the road surface for the descent has badly deteriorated and I was worried about breaking my wheels because it was so rough. I used 35mm tyres and I wondered how riders on skinnier rubber managed.
Anyway, a safe arrival to Kenmare and up to Moll’s Gap – there had been a recent gruesome murder case on a farm near the top with an ongoing investigation. Garda car parked outside and crime scene tape all around. An interesting route to the N71 past the Blackwater Tavern / crossroads with more climbing than expected for a descent to the main road to Sneem. Unfortunately, this busy N road has got too dangerous for cycling with ever increasing tourist numbers – hard to tell if the KY cars or the small rentals were more aggressive. Thankfully, it eased a bit after Sneem but the main roads of the Ring of Kerry really are no fun to cycle anymore. Into Waterville, with a pizza van stop for dinner before the town. Here was another decision point – either stop or press on into the remote wilderness of the Maguillicuddy Reeks, over the Ballaghasheen and Ballaghadreen Passes into the Black Valley / Gap of Dunloe. My big plan had always been to catch the Saturday evening ferry across the Shannon estuary into Co Clare so I was keen to get some distance in and camp out somewhere past the Gap of Dunloe. I climbed the lonely, narrow mountain roads and all seemed well until light rain hit after the Ballaghasheen Pass. After a short while, this turned into some of the heaviest rain I have ever seen – I found temporary shelter in the covered area at the back of a small school but with the rainwater soon covering the floor this wasn’t going to work. The wonderful Climber’s Inn wasn’t far away so I was soon getting warm and dry – never been so glad to get indoors. I overtook a couple of other riders the next day, who had somehow bivvied out in the wild, I can’t imagine what sort of night they had.
Dursey Island / cable car, Beara Peninsula
Day 3 Glencar Valley to Moynasta (Kerry to Clare) 297km, 2474m
Summary news for this day is that I made the evening ferry across the Shannon estuary – this was quite a boost to my morale as if I’d missed it the first Sunday sailing wasn’t until 0930h. That said, it probably wouldn’t have made that big a difference to my overall completion time and a decent night’s sleep in Kerry might have been a better idea. Anyway, I was a bit short on the previous day’s target so this meant a long slog. Kerry was lovely in the morning sunshine, not so much fun after the Circle K breakfast roll in Castlemaine with a long, straight and very busy N-road out to Dingle. Not recommended. For some reason, my iphone died after the garage stop – I remember dropping it and it landed on its corner but not a big drop. I asked 3 lads about my own age for help in Dingle and one of them had the bright idea of plugging it into his powerbank and it immediately sprang back to life. Very strange. Slea Head loop after Dingle, lovely but for an eejit in a rental Polo who insisted on driving against the main flow of traffic on the most scenic bit. Connor Pass after Dingle, the less interesting way up. Another fairly grim and long Kerry N-road to Tralee but at least it was mostly downhill / flat. I didn’t want to linger in Tralee and there was another slog-fest across fairly featureless North Kerry roads to the Tarbert ferry. This ferry is about 3 times the length of the Carlingford ferry and it even had a small shop on board. A few other riders to talk with but we all went our separate routes once ashore in Co Clare. I was able to reach Supervalu in Kilrush before closing time and stocked up for an evening meal and the next day’s breakfast. My luxury bivvy site was in my tent under a roof at the back of a school, it was dry and out of the wind but the school was close to a main road with a couple of houses opposite and I was oddly worried about being spotted and having the Gardai calling round to investigate. I didn’t sleep well that night.
Big day’s riding again today, through now familiar Co Clare roads into Co Galway. I resisted stopping at Monk’s in Ballyvaughan, this was a bad decision. Their fish chowder is famous, silly to miss it. The route takes a weird detour to checkpoint 1, which is located in a remote farmhouse in inland Co Galway – long story but it’s owned by the lovely Ann, who is a cousin of Adrian the route organiser. She gives a great welcome to every rider and it’s a real treat to stop for a break. Jon’s shorter route came to an end there, lucky man. Not an easy way to get there though, through a wind farm on the Slieve Aughtry mountains (no, I’d never heard of them in school either). The next section through rural back lanes after Loughrea was miserable as well, my Garmin route had some sort of glitch and I found myself riding in circles for a wasted 10-20km. Infuriating. I was thankful to reach Tesco in Headford before closing time and I had booked a cheap hostel bed in Cong – not exactly Ashford Castle but I was very glad of a bed and shower. This ride into Cong was where I came closest to either quitting or dropping down to the shorter Setanta route – getting lost along featureless lanes in Co Galway was about all I could take.
Day 5 Cong to Achill 349km 3127m
Brute of a day, nearly wiped me out. Very windy / gusty, occasionally a tailwind though, especially on the long stretch of coastline coming into Roundstone. Lovely Connemara, one of my favourite parts of Ireland – I had an idyllic childhood holiday on Gurteen Beach in the 1980s, it was one of those rare times where the sun didn’t stop shining for 2 weeks and life was wonderful. I still think that Dog’s Bay is the best beach in Ireland / the world (sorry Keem). All a bit grey and gloomy today though. I stopped for lunch at a busy café in Clifden, I thought I looked pretty rough in the bathroom mirror – unshaven, dirty and deep black, puffy bags under my red eyes. My shoes hadn’t dried from the Kerry drenching and they smelled particularly rank. Sky Road out of Clifden, then more coastal riding past some beautiful beaches followed by an inland section past a long lake in a glen, I can’t remember what it was called. This got me into Leenaun on the Killary fjord – there’s not much there but I got a nice toasted sandwich in the bar of the hotel. It’s a hotel I really want to come back to some time, Henry and Liz had good things to say about it as well – far better than some of the ghastly B+Bs or rip-off Air B’n’B glamping options.
There was another bit of unnecessary suffering after Leenaun for unfortunate long route riders – a 70km loop inland past Lough Mask. Not a single shop, pub, church or garage. Ute met me with some supplies and we had time for a good chat, she had a long wait with no tracking signal with no phone reception in Tourmakeady. A beast of a climb (Lally’s) afterwards and into Co Mayo via the Sheefry Pass. This is where I got hit by a storm, torrential rain and a howling wind, there was nothing else you could do but push on through Doolough Valley and down into Louisburgh. The lads in the filling station let me stay indoors for as long as possible with a cup of hot chocolate before they had to close up for the night, nothing else open in the village. The rain had eased off to a steady downpour at that stage so I motored on through Westport. I’d booked a B and B on Achill Island, a nice friendly place which I’d used in 2024, so I knew I had a warm bed for the night. It was going to be a late finish so I pushed on the 40km along the greenway and arrived like a drowned rat. There was no possible chance of completing the loop of Achill, that would have to wait until tomorrow.
Day 6 Achill to Belmullet 192km 1874m
The wheels were starting to fall off the wagon at this stage, fatigue was setting in. I was able to leave a couple of kg of luggage behind at my B + B to make an easier loop of the island. Keem beach was the main highlight but it’s a brute of a climb into it. No swim, no time sadly. Lunch from Sweeney’s Supervalu just before leaving Achill, including a punnet of grapes – I bought these several times, eating half of them and putting the remainder in my feed bag to eat on the road. You end up eating so much processed junk that you need to make a real effort to get some fresh fruit / veg. Actually, my nutrition worked out much better on this ride than previous goes, experience has obviously taught me something.
The ride from Achill up to Belmullet is long and boring. You pass through Bangor Erris, there’s no reason to hang around here. Belmullet itself doesn’t really seem worth the trip but it does have a tidal pool and this has to be a redeeming feature. I’ll have to go back to try it out. Again, long route riders have a 40km out and back ride to Blacksod lighthouse. I’d suggest you give it a miss myself, although there are some nice beaches off the main road if you had some time to linger. It wasn’t that late on the ride back to Belmullet but I suddenly started to feel sleepy and wobbly. I knew that the next 100km or so along the North Mayo coast was going to be long and lonely, with not many sheltered or even flat places to camp out for a long while and so I chickened out for a relatively early night at a (relatively) cheap hotel just out of Belmullet. A deep and dreamless sleep followed and I managed to get on the road shortly after 6am, missing my hotel breakfast.
Day 7 Belmullet to Ballintra (Mayo / Sligo / Leitrim / Donegal) 284km 2803m
4 counties today, wow. Despite my good nights’ rest I felt slow and sluggish that morning I really hadn’t noticed the extra weight of luggage on the bike for the first few days but now it felt like a hand pulling me back on any climb. I was also having to stop to pee every few minutes so I eventually worked out that I’d developed a UTI. I’ve had a few of these before so I’d brought along an antibiotic – sitting on a bike saddle for hours on end, dehydration and only occasional washes of your bib shorts all don’t help. The first town I came to was Ballycastle, it’s a decent spot and I had a nice breakfast at Mary’s bakery with a good chat with the lady herself. Highly recommended. On through Killala – the next section was my own contribution to the TAW route with a partial greenway to Ballina via Belleek woods past the concrete yacht in the Moy estuary. Ballina is a nice town, if we were ever to move to the West of Ireland, this is where I’d want to live. I didn’t stop at all though, pressing on to another Centra feed in Inniscrone. More grapes I think. Kept moving, eventually through busy Sligo traffic and another horrible, pointless loop into the glens of Leitrim. All very nice for a half-day cycle and nothing else but this is a really bad diversion on an ultra. You need to buy plenty of supplies if you’re doing this toward the end of the day, it’s a good 70km where you won’t be near even a garage. Sligo finished off with the Gleniff horseshoe loop, now in the dark. The rout missed Yeats’ grave, which was a pity. Through Kinlough, there’s not much there but nothing was open anyway. A big national school looked hopeful for a camping spot but too many CCTV cameras for comfort. I pressed on into Donegal, my Dad’s favourite town of Ballyshannon gets shabbier by the year. Getting dark and late by now and the roads around Rossnowlagh are a bit spooky at night so I went 1km past the route to camp down at the back of a school in Ballintra. Nicely hidden, I slept well.
Day 7 Ballintra to Dungiven 245km 3382m
Summer in the windfarms
A bit of an explanation – there was a diversion out of most of Donegal on the TAW this year. If you arrived in Donegal town by midnight on Tuesday you could carry on the usual route through the county. However, there was a car rally on toward the end of the week so the tyre-burners would be out in even greater numbers than usual, never mind the actual rally drivers. Day 7 for me was Thursday morning so I was well past the Donegal option. This meant a short-ish loop from Donegal town to Ardara, big climb that one. Then back over the Glengesh Pass – a heavy gang of road workers there, but no problem to go through with good wishes from them all. Over through Kilcar and into Killybegs, lots of climbing. I spotted a school of dolphins / porpoises in the sea after Kilcar and I stopped a French family who were coming toward me to have a look. They were very happy to see les dauphines. Back to my favourite Circle K in Laghey for lunch and then the diversion properly started. By this stage of the ride the weather had changed to full summer, temperatures well into the 20s. The diversion went through the Sperrin mountains and it was pretty miserable, truth be told. It was obvious that the whole section had been done on Ride with GPS and that the organiser had never actually ridden it. There was almost nowhere to stop for supplies after Castlederg and climb after climb past fields and wind farms. You were either crawling uphill or flying down, keeping an eye out for speeding tractors at peak silage time. I spent a bit of time with John, he was riding Setanta on a 1980s 10 speed racer and his luggage was disintegrating by the day. He finished well in spite of all the difficulties and he was very good company. The only town on this section was Dungiven and I found a Booking.com cabin at a reasonable price. I’d had enough for the day. The sign on the cabin said it all, it was very green inside. I’m not sure about any magic but I slept well – too well, because I missed my 0530h alarm by a full hour.
Another scorching hot day. I’d nabbed a large packet of dubious crisps called Space Raiders from the Green Room that previous occupants had left behind and I had a couple of those everlasting pain au chocolate rolls for breakfast. Not exactly the full nutritional requirements of a long-distance cyclist but better than nothing. That was just as well because it was a very, very long ride through the endless Sperrin mountains and Antrim glens until I finally hit the second Ballycastle for a proper refuel. A small matter of climbing the dreaded Torr Head first though, I’d done this several times so I knew how to pace it.
Ballycastle on to the lovely Causeway coast, it was hard to be in a bad mood in such glorious weather. My pace was dropping though and I could really feel the weight of the bike. I’d thought long and hard about what kit to bring – tent, merino leggings for camping at night, wet / cold weather gear – even full gloves, buff, hat etc. I used everything I brought and I couldn’t have managed the earlier days and nights out without it all, but everything had to be carried unless I dumped stuff or posted things home en route. A vicious climb out of Downhill and into the final 50km stretch. Julie was driving up to Derry to meet me and I didn’t want to be late, she had a couple of hours to wait in the end though. This last section was slow, slow, slow and my spirits sank at the sight of further windfarms. I could even see Derry to my right and the route sickeningly pulled me off up a hill with a road sign saying “scenic route”. These are always bad news in Ireland, prepare for a busy, badly surfaced road that goes uphill to nowhere. Near disaster struck about 20km to go when a sheet of plastic baling wrap at the side of the road inserted itself into my wheel – it wrapped in between the disc and the hub bringing the bike to a complete halt. A frustrating half hour spent, this was really my only mechanical as I hadn’t even had a puncture up to this point. I’m glad to say that I was probably better prepared with tools than on previous years – I needed the knife and small pliers that I’d brought for this one. Another lesson learned.
I finally made it to the Peace Bridge in Derry at 8 days and 14 hours. Hardly a record, even for my advanced age but I’m still delighted with myself for having completed such an arduous event. It was a real adventure.
If you’re still reading this and awake then you have been very patient indeed. Thank you for everyone’s support and interest and encouraging messages, I would have quit if it hadn’t been for your help. Thanks especially to Julie for putting up with me and letting me disappear from family duties at exam time to do this sort of daft adventure.
I think I’m done with the TAW for now, time for something new.
EPILOGUE!
Riding the Wild Atlantic Way
This section might be of interest if you’re planning to ride all or part of the WAW. You can either ride this as part of an event, TAW has become the main one usually in June. A quick look at the route will show significant detours from the official WAW though, as I’ve described. Audax Ireland run the WAWA every few years and this is more of a coastal route with some sleeping options in the community halls / GAA clubs that they use as checkpoints. I haven’t heard of other organised rides. Hundreds of cyclists take the DIY approach every year, from all over the world. Henry and Liz are the experts for this approach with their long trip last year. So, what do you need to do this?
To ride the full WAW, you’ll need lots of time – 100km / day would take about 3 weeks. You’ll need deep pockets – accommodation is scarce and expensive along the West of Ireland. Camping is the cheapest option and there are quite a few campsites with good facilities for touring cyclists but that means more weight with all the kit. I was surprised at the number of hostels available, if you don’t mind a bunk bed in a crowded room. You’ll probably end up getting food from Circle K garages, these are mostly excellent but pricey. There aren’t too many supermarkets on the route, apart from the bigger towns like Kenmare.
Part of the problem with the WAW is that it’s not really a contiguous route – there are long connecting sections that you wouldn’t really choose to ride. Galway is a particular problem and hard to avoid. There’s no direct train line to avoid these bits either. The best option I heard of from another TAW rider was island-hopping from Doolin in Clare, coming back to land in Connemara.
If you only had a week or 10 days I would forget about trying to do the whole WAW and just concentrate on a smaller section; eg train to Cork, ride West Cork and Kerry with the train back to Dublin from Tralee. Come back and do Donegal another time.
Weather – I’d imagine that most would opt for summer months with our lovely long hours of daylight, but the Atlantic coast weather can be atrocious. Wind is the biggest issue, we can cover up with decent rain gear but there’s no kit that will help with a headwind and it can be incredibly demoralising when you feel that you’re making very little progress. The South-North route should increase the chance of a tailwind in theory but with a wiggly route on exposed headlands you can get hit no matter which direction the wind is blowing.
My big regret from my ride was passing so many wonderful beaches and swimming spots. When you’re on a race of such a vast distance there’s always a feeling of pressure and a fear of losing progress. The McLaughlins had the right approach for their trip, definitely the way to do it.
Bike – I’d go for wider tyres for comfort, mudguards for the rain and slurry and nice low gearing for the hills. Gravel bikes are perfect. I haven’t changed the set-up of my bike much over the 3 TAW attempts – the big change I made this year was to add a Redshift suspension stem. This made a big difference to comfort and reduced hand numbness from road vibrations. I used tri-bars in 2022 but I took them off after that, I found that I didn’t use them very much and they’re heavy things that take up a lot of limited handlebar space. That said, I’m in a minority as most TAW riders used them – they allow a change in posture on long rides, which is more important than their aerodynamic benefit. Tyres – S-Works Mondo 35s are my new favourites; easy to set up tubeless, fast, comfortable and very reliable – not a single puncture despite using the same set in 2024 and 2025.
Best Circle Ks / Apple Greens on the WAW
- Laghey (Keyes)
- Strandhill
- Buncrana
- Kenmare
- Killybegs
- Ardara (Apple Green)
- Tralee
Tim Lewis July 2025