Driving from Letterkenny to Cork

shayser

I'm driving from Letterkenny to Cork in the morning. Anyone done this journey? Wondering if I should go down the west via Galway etc or head towards Dublin and get on the motorways.

littlejukka

letterkenny-sligo-ennis-cork is shorter, 440km

going through dublin is 490km and you could get destroyed going through traffic.

shayser

Cheers. Checked both routes on the AA site. Was wondering about the better roads of the Dubln route plus most towns are by-passed. Think I'd rather the west route though.

.Longshanks.

If you can to avoid monday-Friday rush hour traffic, i'd head via Dublin direction. It might be a bit longer in miles but you have the advantage of M9, M7, N7 (3 lanes so almost as good as a motorway), the M50 (when relatively clear of the worst traffic) and then the M1 as far as Ardee junction - so would work out a bit quicker time wise. Remember there are a least 3 tolls on this route.
It might be longer but its an easier drive because of the motorways. After the M1 take the N2 at ardee as far as the north (which is a great straight wide road) onto the A5 in through the north. Don't bother going any further up the M1 towards Drogheda as its of no benifit when the traffic is light. The roads aren't so hot in the North, but keep going for Monaghan, Carickmaccross, Ballygalley, Omagh, Strabane, Lifford & then Letterkenny.
I reckon you can do it in 7 hours, traffic and fuel/food stops permitting.
I've a mate who would go straight up across country via mullingar, but athough shorter he has to go through lots of small towns, hense adding a lot to the overall time....

littlejukka

he's heading from letterkenny to cork, longshanks. not the other way around.

.Longshanks.

opps - sorry about that. But same applies in reverse...

Altreab

littlejukka wrote:

letterkenny-sligo-ennis-cork is shorter, 440km

going through dublin is 490km and you could get destroyed going through traffic.

I Totally agree. The worst spots for traffic would have been Ennis Newmarket on Fergus and Limerick. AFAIK Ennis has been recently bypassed and Newmarket on Fergus has been bypassed for over 18 Months. Even going around Limerick wont be too bad depending on the time your going through it.
Good Luck on the trip

hawker

Have travelled a similar enough route (Ballybofey to Cork) in the past. I came down the western route and found it to be the best way. You could also consider coming down the middle of the country (something like Carrick on Shannon-Athlone-Birr-Roscrea-Templemore-Thurles and onto N8 at Horse and Jockey) . However the western route would probably be a better road.

old boy

as the song says go west young man, go west

kippy

The Western route is by far the better option.
The roads are pretty good all the way with the odd sketchy patch with most of the older trafic blackspots bypassed.
Should take you about 6 hours all going well.
Kippy

peasant

If you want to drive rather than chugg along in frustrating traffic, I'd go Sligo, Boyle, Roscommon, Athlone, Roscrea, Thurles and then the N8.

Usually very quiet ...mostly apalling roads though.

The western route can be quite frustrating in heavy traffic, the N17 (where it hasn't been widened yet) is pretty bad, so is Galway to Ennis.

Victor

peasant wrote:

The western route can be quite frustrating in heavy traffic, the N17 (where it hasn't been widened yet) is pretty bad, so is Galway to Ennis.

He won't be going through Galway (city).

mjquinno

ennis is also bypassed now.

bazz26

Yes but there is a poor section of road between Galway and Ennis. Gort to Barefield road has narrow twists and bends on it, difficult to overtake if your not familiar with the road. Saying that it is only about a 20 mile stretch and the rest of the road is hassel free since the Ennis bypass opened earlier this year. Ennis to Limerick is all dual carriage way but you still have to go through the suberbs of Limerick to get onto the Southern Ring road to Cork as the Shannon tunnel is not expected to open until 2010 at the earliest.

mjquinno

shannon tunnel? you messin? what that all about then..

cornbb

mjquinno wrote:

shannon tunnel? you messin? what that all about then..

Was driving from Cork to Galway yesterday, seems the tunnel is well underway. Can't see the actual tunnel construction from the road but there are high profile entrances to the construction sites on either side of the river as well as signs of the associated infrastructure, eg a new bridge going over the Dock road. The river is pretty wide down there, sounds like a major piece of work!

On topic, getting from Galway to Cork is pretty quick at the moment, although there are few places to overtake between Gort and Barefield. Getting past Limerick doesn't take long at off-peak times.

bazz26

mjquinno wrote:

shannon tunnel? you messin? what that all about then..

Slightly OT but they are building a Jack Lynch style tunnel across the river Shannon so that traffic travelling from the north side to the south side and vice versa don't have to come through the city as you do at the moment. It will basically link the N18 with the N20/21 southern ring road. Unlike the Jack Lynch tunnel which is free to motorist the Shannon tunnel will have a toll plaza. :mad:

Fey!

Avoid the Galway roads; races start today, so it could be a nighmare to get through, even in some parts of the county.

Biro

hawker wrote:

Have travelled a similar enough route (Ballybofey to Cork) in the past. I came down the western route and found it to be the best way. You could also consider coming down the middle of the country (something like Carrick on Shannon-Athlone-Birr-Roscrea-Templemore-Thurles and onto N8 at Horse and Jockey) . However the western route would probably be a better road.

Now you're talking. You've a good road as far as the turn off for Boyle more or less. Then on to Roscommon, Athlone, Birr, etc onto Horse and Jockey. No traffic, straight run.
I've been doing a run similar to that for years and often went via Galway for a change and regretted it.
Going by Dublin is a dead loss of a trip. Waste of time and money.