Cork city has got its act together with cycleways in recent years so the first 10km of this were almost entirely off road on surfaces often running alongside the Lee. The route included Lee Fields and then the regional park at Ballincollig which runs through the ruined buildings of what was a huge gunpowder manufacturing facility under British occupation On that topic there are a LOT of roadside memorials to the anti colonial struggle, I had not any pre planned but spotted and stopped at 6 or 7 along the route which I talk about in the video including the Tan War ambush sites at Dripsey & Kilmicheal and the spot at Deshure where the Whiteboy raids of 1822 took place and where 5 of them were publicly hanged.

Exiting the Ballincollig regional park I crossed to the north side of the Lee and continued through Dripsey before crossing again to the south side near Coachford - on the return I stayed north.

Theres almost 30km of cycling on very rural back roads some with such little traffic that they have the green Mohawk down the centre. When I got to the village of Kilmicheal I realised I was only 3km from the ambush site so added it a diversion up to it,.

The hills here are very steep but not that high so it’s some good fun cycling to Inchigeelagh where I once again crossed to the north side of the Lee. In the return I stayed on the south side which is a much more convoluted and hilly route along very quiet roads

On the north side your on the regional road heading to Bantry which is pretty but even on a bank holiday Saturday has quite a lot of traffic and is narrow and twisty enough that I regularly pulled in to allow motor vehicles to pass safely.

This brings you into an gaelteact with Béal Átha and Ghaorthaidh as the main settlement where you once more cross the Lee for the last time to climb to where a side road splits off to Gougane Barra - this is a constant slow climb to the turn off where it becomes a lot steeper. If you follow the road into the forest park ( cycle around the toll barrier) you’ll see the Lee as a tiny stream you can jump across

Instagram photos from this day 

Vlog YouTube with full Timelapse road view and historical/geographical/mythology narration