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About 8 of us are thinking of a long weekend riding in Wicklow Mountains, at the end of June, and hopefully ride some of the trails used in the EWS the month before.
Has anyone been there before, and if so, any hotel/B&B recommendations. Also, would a car/van be essential, as option to get a train down there, to save taking vehicles on the ferry.
Finally, any locals that do guided rides, to ensure we gat the most out of the trip.
Thanks in advance.
Djouce (the EWS location) will be pretty difficult to get to without a vehicle. I'm not sure theres much in the way of accomodation within riding distance. Id try [url= http://madmtb.com/forums/ ]http://madmtb.com/forums/[/url] to try and hook up a guided spin.
Briefly - biking.ie (builders of the EWS stuff) do guided rides/skills etc.
There are few offcials mtb trails but lots of "cheeky" trails, no such thing as bridleways over here. Depending on where you stay and finess would dictate if you need a car/van - but a car/van would make it a lot easier.
Check the Roundwood pubs for accomadation (there is a lovely campsite, the hostel in wicklow town is too far away).
I'm busy right now but will post later.
I'm in MAD and have done guided tours before, but it's not the norm.
Thanks Saccades, had chance for quick trawl on the net, and the Roundwood Inn looks quite good, and probably one of the closet places to Djouce. Look forward to hearing what else you can help with.
Don't spend a lot of time in Bray looking for this fancy restaurant run by a bloke called Heston. Apparantly there's another Bray in Berkshire. Don't ask me how I know this. 😳
Went to a three day wedding in Wicklow, a day of it was spent here http://www.jfp.ie
Pop me an email, I used to be a local.
I'm going to presume if you want to do the EWS trails in wicklow that your more enduro than xc.
Djouce probably has more than enough for 2 days (it's virtually robin seymours back garden, trail pixie extraordinary), then quite close is Carrick mtn (~20 mins by car at glenealy) which has held quite a few gravity enduro series races (has some savage trails), which would be another day easy. After that all the other local stuff is more peak district type routes around glendalouhg or xc type stuff unless you get to the dublin end of the wicklow mtns.
Are you coming from Scotland? via troon? or holyhead/dublin?
I'm sure biking.ie (Niall is ridiculously good) will guide you on Djouce (I would expect carrick too) as they are based at the other end of Djouce in Ballinstoe (official mtb trails - does have a sweet "thinking mans Ae. descent down the back but it's more xc really. I'm a xc mincer so pretty useless for leading gnarly dudes (and I don't know all the enduro routes tbf) you might be able to hook up with a Madster - email the club via the webpage.
I have known people cycle from Bray to Djouce - there is a "plum" of an ascent over a hill/mtn ridge to traverse though, 2nd gear job in the car and I wouldn't want to do it - I'd deffo bring cars to get around everywhere - it's relatively rural ireland. Would also mean you can stay in somewhere a bit livelier than roundwood. Bray would be good and not too far away.
I did the Irish Gravity in Carrick last year,great tracks.
Let me know if you want the GPX.
Not a B+B but a great camp site [url= http://www.rivervalleypark.ie/accommodation/accommodation-introduction ]here[/url]
You can hire a chalet as well.
I've stayed there a couple of times,can be busy in the summer,the owner has opened his own German beer brewery in the village [url= http://www.mickeyfinnspub.ie/wicklow-brewery ]hotel[/url] 😀
Thanks Saccades,
We are in the Isle of Man, and as the ferry is somewhat infrequent, and doesn't really run at suitable times for a weekend away, I had looked in to chartering a boat to take us Strangford lough, and getting train, or hiring van, to get down. Unfortunately, after speaking to the boat owner again, he can not guarantee that he could sale, with weather and tides, so might have to give it a miss, and head to Wales or Scotland again. Will keep the info in mind, incase local ferry improves sailing times, or if I can talk the family in to a week over there, and sneak a few cheeky rides in.
No worries - I didn't realise that ferries were so infrequent to and from the ireland to the isle of man. If you can convince them I'm happy to dig out details of trails etc for you.
I had ideally speculated about that end to end mtb thing at some point, I'd be the same as you though having to convince the family to come with me (it was hard enough to get them down to the ring of kerry.
The end 2 end is a good event, although the course has a lot of road sections in it, they are always up grading and adding new trails. Last year was perfect weather, a great atmosphere, and after a bit of committed training, I managed a top 100 result, in 3 hrs 33 mins, Surprised myself !!! There is also a 'Manx 100' in July, which is predominatly off-road, has a lot more climbing, and options of either 100 km, or 100 miles. A real challenge.