Yeats Country bike tours self guided bicycle cycle cycling touring vacations.

This tour is built around wide-open spaces, peace and tranquility - and scenery to die for - in a region that is one of Ireland’s best-kept secrets. Many of the tiny roads followed by the routes are free of traffic, and at times you will ride for miles without seeing another living soul. Some of the very best vistas (of which there are many!) require a bit of elevation, so be prepared for a bit of climbing on some routes. If you have the time, the extended version of the tour that includes South Donegal will just enhance an already wonderful experience!

Region and Routes
This sparsely populated territory straddling the south west of Ulster and the North East of Connaught is one of Ireland’s undiscovered gems - an Carriebawn unspoiled landscape of lakes and rivers, steep-sided gorges, forest-clothed mountains and atmospheric moorland. William Butler Yeats, Ireland’s most celebrated poet, took the inspiration for many of his best-known works from the region.

Close to the town of Sligo, Lough Gill (route 1), wooded on three sides, has a unique beauty. The surrounding area is known as Yeats Country (routes 1, 2), where the curious flat-topped limestone ridge that culminates in Ben Bulben dominates the landscape. Waterfalls that tumble down the sides of deep limestone gorges feed the lakes of Glencar and Glenade. Further to the north, a series of wide sweeping sandy beaches form the coastline of Donegal Bay (Route 3), while inland, the Pullins (route 3) is a tranquil hinterland of secluded hills, small lakes and peat bogs.

Covering much of North Fermanagh (route 4), Lower Lough Erne, island-flecked and ringed by castles, is one of the largest and most picturesque lakes in the country. On its south shore, the forest-capped limestone cliffs of Horseshoe the Fermanagh highlands give fantastic viewpoints over the lake and across the Pullins to the distant Donegal hills. The high ridge of Cuilcagh Mountain (route 5), its lower slopes riddled with caverns and caves, towers above the countryside of South Fermanagh (route 5). The county of Leitrim (route 6) is a jigsaw puzzle of hills, islands, lakes, waterways and tiny market towns. It is also the birthplace of the mighty River Shannon.