Sunday bike

Only having a few hours this Sunday afternoon I decided to explore and ended up following the route of the disused Naas Tullow railway. Total distance 33.8 miles, average speed 13.3 mph. The OSI map viewer helpfully gives the railway route as a grey line and I have noted a few Points of Interest that I stopped at. In case you are interested in disused railways...

POI on OSI map

Zooming in on POI #1

An aerial view of POI #1 makes this part of the route look rather interesting and possibly navigable by foot however, when I got there, closer inspection shows it would be hard going!

POI #1 looking North

The next crossing was a granite bridge which, surprisingly, was in excellent condition.

POI #2

POI #2 and my trusty steed

What little remains of the bridge at POI #3

POI #4 at Colbinstown

The last crossing I found was an iron bridge near Colbinstown - a residence has been built over the track route on one side of this bridge and on the other is farmland with no visible trace of the railway route. And the railway was last in use within my lifetime so not very long ago.

The N81 from Merginstown Glen road

There is a sign to "Merginstown Glen" off the N81 near Donard. The name intrigued me so my return route took me via this road which runs along the top of the Carrigower river valley through which the N81 runs - you can see both just beyond the horses in my picture.

BTW the Naas -Tullow railway bridge over the Liffey in described in my previous post.

Newbridge ride

I wanted to check out new bicycles so I hitched a lift to Newbridge with Jon and Sarah and returned by bike (no I did not buy one yet). I took the opportunity to visit some haunts on the way back, but only had my hTC so the pictures are not very good quality. My hTC Desire did record the following track, however. The locations include some of those mentioned in my post Enchanted.

Track created by Oruxmaps, viewed in Google Earth

Location A: Rosetown Rath

Having mentioned this enchanted place in a previous post I thought I would check it out, so I climbed into the rath itself. It is probably private property but I figured the owner might not mind. There is a track leading into it which just ends abruptly (top photo) otherwise it is just covered in dense vegetation - not much to see.

Location B: Carnalways Cross

This is my son's 5-way (or 6-way) junction, see his comment.  The gate into the estate was open so I ventured a short way in to take the next picture. I could just see the big house but it is hard to locate in the picture.  And the next picture is the church.

Harristown House is just left of the trees

Location C: Railway bridge over Liffey

I've been meaning to check this one out for some while. On Google Earth it was clear that a bridge still exists but I was not ready for such a substantial stone bridge in such good repair! The line apparently ran from Naas to Tullow and the track was taken up 1962 - not so very long ago! So sad that the track has not been converted to a trail or, even better, a bicycle track.

Naas - Tullow railway crossing over Liffey

The apertures are at an angle - not 90 degrees

Room for a single track only

Smaller bridge just north of the river

Extract of 25" map courtesy OSI
(dated around the turn of the century)

Location D: Stoneybrook

Stoneybrook church

Inside the church

The setting - on a mound?

Stoneybrook cottage

Location E: By the Liffey

The road here runs along what is probably a terminal moraine - there was a sand pit on the left: when it was filled in they filled in this ruined cottage too. The river runs some fifty feet below on the right.

The river Liffey is below and out of sight

The covered cottage and my trusty steed

And so, home again and rather cold  - so a hot bath and a hot mug of tea.

Statistics: 

Bike computer

14.52 miles, 27mph max, 12.1 mph avg
1:12:15

Oruxmaps track
273m max height
16.3 miles (some was walking / running)
01:59 duration
9.8mph avg (moving)