Ireland 2026 - Day 2: Wexford to Kerry
Our first proper day in Ireland was to be mostly travelling down to Kerry, through sunshine and rain.
We got packed up in County Wexford and headed off down to County Kerry, via Cork. Initially the plan was to ride along the coast via Skibbereen although the weather was windy and heavy showers were hitting us from time to time so it ended up being a lot slower progress that we expected. In fact at one point we needed to quickly take shelter in a filling station to avoid huge hailstones! So we headed for Bantry where we’d pick up the coastal route around the Ring of Beara and up over the Healy Pass. I’d ridden the Healy Pass before and it’s absolutely incredible so I was very excited to get to that section of the ride. Our campsite was just over the other side of the pass so it’d be only 30 minutes or so over the top when we got there.
Before that we had a lot of faster roads to travel although lots were still very picturesque and pleasant to ride down. There were a few motorway miles but that was fine really and the group did a really great job of sticking together. Two of us had Cardo helmet comms so as I was on the front and the other rider Diana was on the rear we could keep in touch and make sure everybody was ok and that we didn’t need to stop etc.
Although during the day the sky would periodically open and dump huge amounts of water on us, so a lot of it was pretty soggy. It was fine though, we all had decent waterproofs, although it definitely was wet! We stopped off at a service station to get some food and shelter from the rain (before the sun came out again) and I got a pasta salad and a peanut bar. I shared some of my pasta salad with a local crow who was limping and I felt sorry for. The crow ate some of the pasta, then picked up the entire peanut bar and flew off with it, landing on a roof to consume the goods! I didn’t mind really though but I was left wondering if the bird did indeed actually have a limp or it was just part of a clever ruse to relieve me of my peanut bar.
We continued down towards Bantry which is a beautiful town in West Cork, nestled at the head of Bantry Bay; a deep-water gulf extending for 30 km (19 miles) to the west. The Beara Peninsula, where we were headed, is to the north and the Sheep’s Head peninsula to the south. We picked up the coastal route with a plan to stop in An Gleann Garbh/Glengarriff because I remembered how beautiful it was last time and wanted to show the girls, and grab a photo. Also it’s almost at the start of the Healy Pass so a good chance to stop and also get the cameras ready for the ride over the pass.
We found a local who was out walking her dog with her dad and had a lovely chat with them and she got a couple of photos for us. I was particularly excited to then ride the Healy Pass but then Diana noticed that Google Maps was reporting that the pass was closed! I checked online and Facebook told me it was for “motorsports filming” and should be open again now, so we decided to try anyway. It was getting late in the day after a long ride too so we were keen to get to the campsite which was only around 35 minutes away.
We got to the bottom of the Healy Pass and was met by a bloke in high-vis and a ROAD CLOSED sign and he informed us that there was no way of getting over because “there’s a 20 tonne digger up there”. So, very sadly, we had to re-route. Although we got to ride the Beara Ring, which I’d not ridden before, but I was disapointed not to ride the Healy Pass again this time. Also it added an hour and a half onto our ride which meant we were arriving at our campsite pretty late in the evening. Also during the ride we dealt with a loose horse, oil over the road, and more rain! So it was an adventure!
But we eventually got to the site, got our tents set up, had showers, food, and eventually headed to bed. The campsite owner Mary was very kind and provided us with some fresh milk for our tea and we bought a stack of shower tokens from her. The campsite is Creveen Lodge which I’ve stayed at before and I really like it. The site itself is very simple and rustic but also very quiet and beautiful.
Tomorrow would be a full day riding the Ring of Kerry and we were really excited!
Stage Distance: 360 km (223 miles)
Overall Distance: 746 km (464 miles)
Prev: Ireland 2026 - Day 1
Next: coming soon