Cycling the Old Railway Line from Athlone: Where to Ride, and Where We’ll Drop Your Bike-Blog

Athlone is the best starting point we have for a Shannon ride. You’re on the river the moment you arrive, and the old railway line gives you a traffic-free spine running out of town into some of the quietest country in the Midlands. Send us your accommodation address, and we’ll have the bikes, scooters, and helmets waiting when you arrive – you don’t come to us; we come to you.

We deliver to your hotel, B&B or campsite

This is the bit that changes the day for most guests. You don’t need to collect anything or drive anywhere. Tell us where you’re staying in Athlone, and we’ll drop off and collect at a time that suits your plans.

We deliver to accommodation across Athlone and the surrounding area, including hotels, town-centre guesthouses, campsites and holiday parks along the Shannon and the lakes. If you’re staying somewhere we haven’t been before, that’s fine; send us the address, and we’ll confirm.

What lands at your door: your choice of e-bike, manual bike or e-mobility scooter; helmets and high-vis vests; a lock; and a Garmin with your route loaded if you’re going self-guided. We’ll run through the controls with you, adjust your saddle, and only then leave you to it.

Rental periods run from an 8-hour day up to a full week, so a single afternoon on the old line and a multi-day exploration of the midlands are both straightforward.

The rides worth doing

Athlone town and the river bridges

The shortest and most sociable option. Ride the banks on both sides of the Shannon, cross at the town bridge and back at the bypass and treat it as a couple of hours with coffee in the middle. Flat, mostly traffic-free on the waterside sections, and a good first ride if you haven’t been on a bike in a while.

The old railway line, north out of Athlone

The signature ride. The disused railway gives you a straight, gently graded, traffic-free corridor out of town – the kind of surface that flatters an e-bike and lets a manual rider keep up. Easy grades, no junctions to negotiate, and a steady rhythm that makes the distance disappear. If you’re nervous about Irish country roads, this route removes the problem entirely.

West along the Shannon to the lakes

The quieter direction. Cycling west from Athlone takes you into the widening river and the lake country, past jetties, reed beds and the small harbours that don’t make it onto postcards. This is the ride to pick if you want to see almost nobody. Birdlife is the main event – herons, swans, cormorants, and if you’re lucky an early-morning kingfisher.

If you’re brave, come all the way to Ballymahon

The Shannon route out of Athlone doesn’t have to be an out-and-back. Keep going and it brings you to Ballymahon, and Ballymahon brings you to Newcastle Forest, home of Center Parcs.

This is the big one, and it’s the ride we get asked about most. The forest trails here are the best terrain we have: soft ground under full canopy, no traffic, dappled light through the trees, and a network of paths that lets you choose your own distance rather than follow a single line. It’s a completely different feeling from the open water sections, quieter, cooler, and genuinely immersive. If you only do one long ride while you’re staying in Athlone, make it this one.

Leave the bikes in Ballymahon, travel back light

You don’t have to ride home. If you’ve come all the way to Ballymahon and the legs have had enough, leave the bikes with us there and make your own way back to Athlone by bus or by car, whichever suits. No return leg, no pressure to turn around before you’re ready, and no bike to worry about while you’re eating dinner in town.

Just tell us at the start of the day that Ballymahon is your finish line and we’ll have collection arranged. It turns a there-and-back ride into a one-way adventure, which is often the difference between doing the long route and not doing it at all.

Which ride suits which rider

Distances are approximate and shift depending on where you start from, so treat them as a guide rather than a fixed number.

Riding with mobility needs, or in a mixed group

The old railway line and the Shannon sections work well on our ebikes as well as our e-mobility scooters. If you’re staying in Athlone and want a shorter tailored version of any of these rides that’s something we organise regularly rather than an exception. Tell us what you need when you book, and we’ll build the route around it.

Mixed-ability groups are genuinely easy to sort. Some on e-bikes, one or two on scooters, everyone meeting at the same place for lunch. That’s a good day out, and it’s more achievable than most group organisers expect.

Book your bike to the door

We deliver across Athlone to hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs and campsites, and we collect when you’re done, no drop-off point to find, no car park to negotiate, no bike to squeeze into a boot.