The Athenry Castles Heritage Looped Cycle Trail.

A delightful journey of discovery through a beautiful hidden landscape

of east Galway.

August Country Fair Day, Monivea

Tour Times/Dates: 9.30am, Sunday June 21st

Duration: circa. 7hrs

Start location and route: Athenry Castle, continue onto Monivea Bog, to Monivea village, then onto Castle Ellen and finish up at Athenry Castle. 

Organiser: Cumann na bhFear (Men's Shed, Ballinfoile).
Contact: Brendan Smith, speediecelt@gmail.com 
The event is being organised in assocation with Galway Bike Festival and the national Bike Week.

With its largely unspoilt landscape of small farms, hedgerows, stone walls, lakes, bogs, rivers, castles, Gerogian mansions, network of botharíns and villages, east Galway is a largely unknown landscape waiting to be discovered by walkers and cyclists. 

The aim of this pioneering heritage tour is to open up a new heritage route that will allow visitors to experience these wonderful timeless features and environment by way of a leisurely cycle through a representative section of east Galway that could  act as a catalyst in the development of  a network of Greenways.

The circa 30km looped cycle tour will start at Athenry where we will have a guided tour of the Castle (above) followed by a visit to the stalls  of the Bia (Irish - food) Lover Food Festival. After our hunger for food and local history of the town is satisfied we travel onto the Monivea Road before turning right approximately a mile outside Athenry in the direction of Graigabbey. 

The participants will then cycle through the farmlands and bogs of Bengarra, (above) on into the village of Newcastle, along a botharín through the Monivea Bog with its fascinating flora and fauna; to the Monivea demesne with its collection of historical sites that was for centuries the home of the renowned Anglo-Norman fFrench family, one of the famous merchant tribes of Galway. 

fFrench Mausoleum

This will be followed by a stopover in the quaint plantation village of Monivea. 

From there the tour will continue onto Castle Ellen (above) for a picnic on the lawns of the famed Georgian mansion that was formerly the residency of the Anglo-Irish Lambert family. After a guided tour of the demesne by Its owner Michael Keaney, participants will cycle onto towards the town of Athenry to finish up at Athenry Castle. 

Abaondoned farm, Currantarmuid

Monivea Wood

Restoration of Vintage Carriage & Messenger Bike

On Saturday August 3^rd, Cumann na bhFear (aka Men’s Shed Galway city) is inviting volunteers to help them start the process of making road-worthy a vintage horse-drawn carriage (aka Trap) and three wheel bicycle.

The light framed two wheel Trap was a traditional form of family (2-4 people) transport in Ireland during the period from the 1830s up until the 1950s, when it was replaced by the motorised car.

The three wheel bicycle was in service with the national (Irish) Post and Telegraph (P & T) service probably in the 1950s-1960s. Fitted out with a large wicker basket in front, postmen used such bikes to deliver commercial and domestic parcels and letters in urban areas.

It is hoped that both the bike and Trap (harnessed to a pony) will be operational to take part in a forthcoming Seven Galway Castles Heritage Cycle Tour during the autumn.

The bike's wicker basket will be used to carry first aid, bike repair kits and picnic beverages/foods.

The repair work will commence at 10.30am on Saturday August 3^rd.

Both vehicles are on loan to the club from heritage enthusiast Micheál Keaney from Castle Ellen.