We took Pope's Quay (R846) west through the city (Category:  Travel)

We took Pope's Quay (R846) west through the city, and when we got to the university campus, we went off the road onto the rec trail to stay directly along the river. There's a bridge towards the end of the trail, which goes across to Mardyke Walk. At the end of Mardyke Walk, we took a right back over the river to Sunday's Well Rd / Lee Rd (total 3.5 km). Left on Lee Rd for 5 km, at which point it ends and you merge right onto R618. The river bops in and out of view for this whole part of the ride. In 29.7 km, R618 merges with N22, which we took into Macroom but it was miserably fast, narrow, windy, and busy--it would have been better to stay right on Coolyhane Rd for 2 km until it ends. At that point you could turn left into Macroom, where we stopped for lunch at a nice park with a castle ruin which we did not tour. To continue, though, it's right onto Massytown Ter, and stay right / go straight until the fourth intersection, which is more of a Y than the previous ones. 10.6 km of beautiful, unpaved, poorly graded road later, merge right onto R582. We stayed on R582 for the rest of the way to Millstreet, but it was unpleasant due to high truck traffic--the recommended route would be to go 1 km until the right onto Drishane Rd, which goes for 8 km, and then either take the couple of turns on those back roads, or just merge back onto R582 for 1.3 km. R582 goes for another 11.3 km, then merges with N72 in Rathmore. On our map, N72 looked smaller and more manageable than N22, but we were too nervous about the zippy traffic and lack of shoulder to enjoy those 20 km. If distance were no object, it may have been nice instead of N72 to turn right on Clounts Court Rd, take the third left (soon before the creek crossing), right when that ends, and left at the Y onto the road that becomes Upper Park Rd when it meets N72 and R876 outside of Killarney. In any case, from the roundabout to R876, it's another 4 km into town.    Co Cork, Ireland -- 7/9/2014