Cycling the Grand & Royal canals from Dublin to Mullingar via the western shore of Lough Ennell

A good bike packing for beginners route is this one or two night loop following the Grand canal out of Dublin as far as Ballycommon, then about 35lm north by quiet country roads running west of Lough Ennell to join the Royal canal at Ballinea. From. there there is a good quality cycleway through Mullingar and down the side of the canal all the way to Maynooth.

Both canals have multiple spots you can wild camp on and there are two public park areas on the southern and northern ends of the eastern shore of Lough Ennell. The route along the canals is flat with towns or villages where there are pubs, restaurants and shops at regular intervals. The route between the canals at the Mullingar end is hilly with only one significant settlement at Castletown Geoghegan so you'll want may want to stock up as I did at Daingean.

There are parts of the Grand Canal where you can't (easily) cycle along the banks and will need to detour on the road network but its easy to exit Dublin that way so it makes sense to use this for your outward leg and the more straightforward Royal for the return until you get to Lexlip station. In the next couple of years the route into the centre of Dublin should finally be completed but in the meantime I suggest you go as I show in the video and get back the the city via St Catherine's Park, the Strawberry beds and then the Phoenix Park.

I've a map of the route at https://cycle.travel/map/journey/487741 however as you'll see from my video there are a couple of additional sections of both canals now passable that I couldn't plot along that but are passable already with a bit of effort.

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