We recently wrote a piece for The Irish Times about five of our favourite cycles in Ireland. While we were revisiting those routes to write about them, we made a short video diary of each spin. This is the first of them from a moderate looped cycle around the most northerly point of Ireland, Malin Head. We hope you enjoy it, we certainly did.
If you would like to follow the route yourself, the directions are below. We’ve also included a snippet of the accompanying article we wrote. Bonus points for anyone who can spot the bit they edited out of the article that got printed.
If you use a map or route app and you’d like a .gpx map of the route we followed, let us know in the comments below and I can send it on to you.
Hold her steady and keep it between the ditches!
Directions:
Park at Culdaff Beach. Through Culdaff Village, turn right for Glengad. After Portaleen Pier, turn left at a Y junction signposted 15km to Malin Head.
Turn right at the junction at Mullins Shop at Bree Lower, signposted for Malin Beg.
1.85km later, take a short, steep detour down to explore the Wee House of Malin in a beautiful rocky bay.
Re-join the road towards Malin Head turning left onto the R242 and follow it to Malin Head.
After Malin Head, go back along the R242 and head to Umgall, following the R242. At Malin Village, go straight through the junction on the R243 and follow the signs for
Distance: 51km Elevation: 534m
Diversions: A hilly detour to Ross Head and the historic WWII Eire 81 sign adds an extra 5.6km, or work in part or all of the Inishowen 100 for a bigger challenge.
Ellie writes: Despite the dramatic beauty of Malin head itself, my favourite stretch of this cycle is from Umgall to the Moss Road on the way into Malin village. An exhilarating downhill stretch has you whizzing past craggy outcrops, with views of softly rolling grassy dunes and the dazzling golden sands of Five Finger Strand behind.
Because of prevailing winds, you’ll likely have a head wind on your way out to Malin Head and this, like the old Irish blessing, will be at your back on your return once you’ve tackled the hillier sections of the route. This means it’s worthwhile keeping an eye on the weather when planning this cycle. It would not be fun in high winds.
Culdaff beach is a great place to start and finish this loop: it has coffee stalls, toilets, and even mobile saunas that would be great for tired post-cycle muscles. Bring togs for a dip at the end of your cycle.
Mark writes: It’s not unusual to have the hind legs talked off you wherever you stop along the road on our island, but there’s an added edge to it in Donegal. It feels like they are genuinely glad to see you. Ellie’s theory is that some of the farmers are keen to add more depth to the gene pool, but I reckon the people we encounter up there are just a couple of degrees friendlier than most other counties.
We’ve cycled this route three times and it was only on this spin we discovered that the Wee House of Malin isn’t a house, but a church with a hermit´s cave and well behind it. I have a theory about the fractal geography of Ireland: the closer you look, the more there is to see. It would take several lifetimes to cycle every laneway, walk every boreen, and climb every hill. There is always something new to discover.
The panoramic view that opens up as you make the descent to Malin Beg is my favourite part of this route. Donegal is the dog’s danglers for stunning secluded scenery.
Route: Malin Head Loop