This post recounts the first day of my Mizen Head to Malin Head cycle tour in Ireland with Peak Tours in June 2024.

There’s nothing quite like cycling the length of a country. I’ve cycled across Great Britain twice (Land’s End to John O’Groats), and Portugal, and loved the sense of achievement. This year it was Ireland’s turn, cycling from the far south to the far north: Mizen Head to Malin Head, with Peak Tours.

It was an easy first day. We had a two hour coach ride from Cork to Mizen Head, where we set up our bikes for the tour. I’d arranged for Peak Tours to take my bike to Ireland, but because of the curse of Brexit they couldn’t take accessories such as saddle and tube bags. I was concerned about having enough time to set everything up, but needn’t have worried.

Mizen Head looked lovely on this sunny day, but it was time to start our adventure.

The road to Mizen Head is a narrow country lane, and I was glad I was cycling along it rather than driving a coach or large car. The first few kilometres hugged the beautiful County Cork coast, before we turned north. The road surface was far better than the equivalent highways in Britain.

The ride to lunch was a delight: largely flat, with wonderful views of inlets of Bantry Bay. There were also castles (as above) and ruins that looked like castles but may have been industrial remains. Many copper mines were operated in this part of Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries, with miners coming over from Cornwall and Wales.

It was a pleasure to roll into the attractive village of Durrus, above, for lunch in the sunshine: soup and sandwiches on the patio at O’Súilleabháin Bar – O’Sullivans’ bar. It was a relaxed meal as we had just 17 miles further to go today.

Not long after resuming the ride we couldn’t resist stopping to enjoy the seaside view at Bantry, with its famous bay. But it was tinged with poignancy: Whiddy Island, just offshore in the photo above, was the scene of a tragic disaster in 1979. The oil tanker Betelgeuse exploded when it was discharging oil at the terminal on the island, killing 50 people. I vividly remember hearing about the accident as a 15 year old in 1979 – it was a time when the news bulletins seemed dominated by disasters on land, sea and in the air.

Despite the sombre memories, the Bantry Bay shore was a pleasant place to pause before the final push to our destination. This included a section of road with lorries thundering past is which wasn’t very pleasant but we were soon approaching lovely Glengariff.

I went for a walk from the hotel hoping to find the waterfront, but made the mistake of going along the main road, rather than through the nearby park. So I headed back. Casey’s was a popular spot for dinner – a few of our group opted to eat early, but Julia, Lucy and I grabbed a table later on and had a convivial meal marking the end of a successful first day.

Read Day 2: Glengariff to Tralee

The day’s stats

38.2 miles, 1,873 feet climbing, 2 hrs 48 mins cycling, average speed 13.6 mph.

The day’s highlights video