One for hardcore Road Buffs: Which section of the M8 is the best?

Amtmann

The options are:

• Cashel to Cullahill (C-C)
• Mitchelstown to Fermoy (M-F)
• Fermoy Bypass (FB)
• Watergrasshill Bypass (WB)
• Glanmire Bypass (GB)
• Cashel Bypass (CB)
• Cashel to Mitchelstown (C-M)

This thread is a little premature seen as how we still have one section to go. But it's Sunday and I'm bored.

So, which is it?

Base your answers on:

1/ surface quality, including visibility at night
2/ alignment and sightlines
3/ landscape and scenery
4/ whether it bypasses a section on the old N8 which you especially loathed (such as Urlingford or an especially dangerous stretch).
5/ signage
6/ anything else you consider important

Do NOT base your answer on matters of local pride - i.e. "I love Cashel to Mitchelstown because they built it outside my house".

My personal favourites are M-F and C-C, for the landscape and build quality mostly.

I chose C-C in the end however, because every single bit of it just impresses the hell out of me, including the rock cuttings and smooth surfacing. It just about pips M-F.

The Fermoy Bypass will be fantastic in a few years when the foliage and trees along it have matured. I could not wait for this section to open. I was stuck in Fermoy for an hour every Friday before it did. It has made a fantastic difference to travel times and safety. Its signage and maintenance let it down, however.

The Glanmire Bypass is the father of the route. At an engineering level it's a deeply impressive achievement, and I love the secluded feeling created by the trees along its length. However, it is a little windy and hilly, and although a beautiful drive every April when it errupts into colour, it doesn't quite compare to M-F and C-C.

Cashel to Mitchelstown was a missed opportunity. Poor build quality and abysmal landscaping have turned this into a scar through the Golden Vale. But it's a great drive in other ways, and on a bright May day before the grass has died back, it's quite stunning in many ways.

My least favourite sections are the Cashel and Watergrasshill Bypasses. I find these very drab. It's a purely aesthetic consideration. The Watergrasshill Bypass is actually the best M8 section in terms of alignment and sightlines. But the barren, treeless weediness makes me die a little.

G_R

C-C,

that rock face is really something.

L1011

C-C, the cuttings tip it over M-F for me.

Amtmann

Very few votes so far.

Quite surprised that someone chose the Cashel Bypass though, and that no one picked the Fermoy Bypass (as yet).

nordydan

Fermoy Bypass

Furet wrote: »

Very few votes so far.

Quite surprised that someone chose the Cashel Bypass though, and that no one picked the Fermoy Bypass (as yet).

Even as an admitted road enthusiast, it is a pretty sad poll in fairness! Went for the WGH bypass by the way

Amtmann

nordydan wrote: »

Even as an admitted road enthusiast, it is a pretty sad poll in fairness! Went for the WGH bypass by the way

I am unable to rebut that.

xabi

Cashel-Mitchelstown

2 people picked C-M

BluntGuy

Hmm... this is a difficult one, but I think Cullahill-Cashel wins out in the end... stunning build quality, the amazing rock cuttings, a few great views, and a general all-round nice ride. It would be perfect were it not for some erroneous signage and those hideous parking areas.

The Glanmire Bypass and Mitchelstown-Fermoy scheme come next on my list. They both have their unique charms and some splendid views.

Cashel-Mitchelstown comes trailing in last place... ever since it opened last year, with each subsequent road scheme opening, I've found myself liking this stretch less and less. Its flaws just seem to keep getting more and more apparent.

I was going to say that I prefer tarmaced roads to hardcore ones but that would be silly. :pac:

Anyway I don't use the M8 so no comment, the M6 ftw

Amtmann

I haven't been on the M8 in a few weeks. I shudder to think what C-M looks like now in terms of vegetation. At least they put up the county signage I suppose - clearly an afterthought (or perhaps even inspired by an irate letter written by some crank into the Clonmel Nationalist earlier this year.)

Wild Bill

Watergrasshill Bypass

Cashel-Mitch is a road of two parts. And the Cahir - Mitchlestown has to be the worst stretch of motorway in the country with the possible exception of the M11 Gorey bypass. :mad:

Amtmann

Wild Bill wrote: »

And the Cahir - Mitchlestown has to be the worst stretch of motorway in the country with the possible exception of the M11 Gorey bypass. :mad:

Woeful landscaping and an uneven surface?

cml387

as a daily traveller, bearing in mind the lethal road it bypassed, I have no great issue with Mitchelstown Cahir.

My winner is the first view of the Galtees near the Thurles junction on a winter evening - so it's the Cullahill Cashel section that gets my vote.

Wild Bill

Watergrasshill Bypass

I'd go with CC; my dislike of the Cahir to Mitch stretch is that an opportunity for THE best stretch of M-way in the country was destroyed by crap design; ugly bridges, road bulging around the median supports; terrible vertical alignment - bit like a roller coaster. The landscaping doesn't matter much - this monstrosity is set in the Garden of Eden after all. :mad:

westtip

Mitchelstown-Fermoy

Do you know much as I am a fan of new roads, motorways 2+2s etc I really don't think I have an emotional attachment to any of them , Furet sorry but this is like something on IRN asking do you prefer the 1951 GMS 20,000 HP painted green steamer or the 1952 version from GWR. I mean to say perhaps a better poll is which parts of the old road did you really hate - now then we could get emotional. Grrrrrr

Its not one I travel that often - have more issues with the western roads like N17 and 18 as they are the ones I use more. but I guess the one stretch of the N8 that used to drove me to despair one day was Fermoy, so I would go with the Fermoy bypass, but dear old Fermoy is only like several other towns in Ireland I will be unlikely to ever go again - Moate being one of them.