The Clifden Station House Sky Road 17k
Leaving the front of the Clifden Station house and passing through the small scenic town of Clifden you get a taste of why this quaint picturesque place is so popular with visitors from both home and abroad. Taking the Sky road out of town gives you another reason again.
The Sky Road early in the morning
The Sky road late in the evening
The road rises as soon as you pass the town centre, and keeps on rising. There is an option to take the ‘low road’ about a third of the way up, but that defeats the purpose. As a climb, it is very manageable as it has that roller coaster feel about it. It kicks up for a hundred or so meters, flattens, then rises again, flattens, and this is the pattern all the way to the top. On this climb you can gain altitude quickly but remain in the big chainring all the way to the top.
At the summit you get to see why every visitor to this area has it on their to do list.
The descent is short, fast and sweet. The beauty of the rugged stone walls stretching down to the sea before you is magnificent,
A road off to the left joins the lower sky road which would return you back to Clifden making for an 11k spin, but to continue on the winding road right down to sea level is well worthwhile. This road eventually leads you to a junction with the main Westport to Clifden road where a right turn brings you on to another gradual incline. This drag lasts for about 2k before a fast descent back into Clifden itself once more.
[iframe width=”640″ height=”480″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/_wFXCvQiVC4?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe]
This route would rate a four out of seven for difficulty.
Here is a downloadable map of todays Clifden Station House 17k
Here is todays Strava file
And here is a smartphone downloadable file on mapmyride
[iframe src=”http://www.mapmyride.com/courses/embedded/1441052?width=600&height=400&info=true&line_color=7f0000ff&distance_markers=1&map_mode=ROADMAP” height=”401px” width=”100%” frameborder=”0″></iframe><div style=”text-align: right; padding-right: 20px;”>
<a href=”http://www.mapmyride.com/courses/1441052″ target=”_blank”>View this Course</a> on <a href=”http://mapmyride.com” target=”_blank”>MapMyRide</a>
</div]
Barry
Leave a comment