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Wild Atlantic Way In 1 Week : Day 1– Kinsale to Kenmare : WAWIn1Week

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Wild Atlantic Way In 1 Week : Day 1– Kinsale to Kenmare :

Update : 28/10/2016 : The YouTube video of Day 1 is now available for your viewing pleasure…Enjoy!

So this is Day 1 proper of my trip along the Wild Atlantic Way.  The route takes me from Kinsale to Kenmare and is approximately  287 miles.

Wild Atlantic Way Kinsale To Kenmare
Wild Atlantic Way Kinsale To Kenmare

As you can see from the map above there are 3 Signature Points in this section of the route, namely :

  1.  Old Head of Kinsale
  2.  Mizen Head
  3.  Dursey Island.

The Signature Points along the WAW are what have been deemed as the ‘unmissable’ along the route and to be fair they are unmissable, when you are here make sure you check them out!  On my trip I managed to stop at each of these points my only warning in relation to them is – they are busy.  You can go for many many miles and not see another soul, however as you approach these Signature Points everything else increases, so the traffic can get quite heavy at some points, annoyingly heavy and be aware no one in front of you seems to care or be aware of what is going on behind them.

Old Head of Kinsale :

Wild Atlantic Way : Old Head of Kinsale
Wild Atlantic Way : Old Head of Kinsale

The Old Head of Kinsale is a remarkably dramatic piece of Ireland, protruding more than 3km into the Atlantic Ocean. Located on the Southwest Coast in County Cork, it is famous for its world-class, 18-hole golf course. Nine holes play along the tops of the cliffs, but all 18 holes boast stunning views of the ocean. Long before it became a golfer’s paradise, Old Head was known for its lighthouse, established in the 17th century by Robert Reading. This is also the nearest land point to the site where the RMS Lusitania sank in 1915, after being hit by a German torpedo. Nearly 1,200 people perished in the incident. While Kinsale is a beautiful place to admire on land, it’s best seen from the sea. You can take in views of this port town and learn more about its history with a trip aboard ‘The Spirit of Kinsale’, which brings passengers across the harbour, past Charles Fort and right to the edge of the harbour where you will get a great view of the Old Head of Kinsale before returning to port passing James Fort on the way.

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#WAWIn1Week – Wild Atlantic Way In 1 Week – The Gear…

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So having just recently completed my trip of the West Coast of Ireland in 1 Week, along the longest Coastal Route in the World – The Wild Atlantic Way, taking in over 2,600km it is now time for me to put this trip into some sort of words, and more importantly share my photographs of this stunning area with the rest of world, and hopefully inspire a few more of you to take on this route.

The route itself is no secret, it is brilliantly signposted from start to finish and is easily completed without a sat nav, map of even the slightest clue about the geography of Ireland.  There are numerous towns and villages that you will pass through and the options from accommodation range from a bit of wild camping to official campsites, or gorgeous little family run B&Bs right through to Hotel Resorts and Spas.  Brilliant.  Initially I had planned on completing this trip with my only accommodation being at the side of the road where I stopped.  Just prior to my trip I decided on changing this due to the predicted weather, and the constant rain the Met Office told me I would be facing.  It turns out on this trip over the one week timescale the change to B&B style accommodation was a good one!

This first post though will cover the gear that I used on my trip, it will touch on my motorcycle, and the gear I used for the daily ride and how it held up with the weather of an Irish ‘Summer.’  Summer in this case needs the ‘ ‘ marks, as at the time of typing I think we are somewhere close to Day 60 of consecutive rain falling somewhere in the country (its a small country) and having just passed the coldest, wettest July since 2003.  On saying that as you will see over the up and coming #WAWIn1Week posts I was pretty lucky with the weather.  I did get a good, in fact severe soaking, twice – enough to test the gear to the absolute limits, but for most of the time I was only hitting passing showers, or trying to keep them in my mirrors!  With this route hugging the West Coast of Ireland and therefore the limits of the Atlantic Ocean it is subject to some pretty extreme weather conditions and one thing to remember if you are over and on the route what looks grim ahead may take a dramatic change around the next corner.  The weather is really that changeable and if you just look out over the ocean you will get a very good idea of what the jet stream is bringing across to you over the next couple of hours.

So here we go, the gear I used and how it coped with taking on the world’s longest dedicated coastal route, 2,600km and six days on the coast…

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