Welcome to the second Three Rock Books newsletter. Thanks for signing up. I hope these monthly emails will offer some interesting insights into my plans for Three Rock Books.
Cycling
In the last few weeks I have dusted off my bike and started researching ie. cycling some of the 20 new routes that are going to go into the second edition of Cycling in Ireland. The goal is to have the book out in the early summer, ideally at the start of May. The vast majority of the new routes will be either gravel or mountain bike so hopefully this should broaden the appeal of the book..
With 20 routes spread across the island I have started with those closest to Dublin. One of the first I did was a very flat route that linked up sections of the Grand Canal, two of its feeders and a short section along the Barrow. With well over 50% off road it was a really lovely way to get back into the cycling groove.
Last week I did a more challenging route on the Wicklow Coast. Again mixed terrain with some coastal path and plenty of quiet roads and laneways.
On Friday I went back down to Wicklow to do a loop around Trooperstown Hill just outside Laragh. It’s an amazing route with lots of off-road – 60+% – through beautiful oak woodland and some tricky, but doable, riding on the open hillside.
I’m really pleased with these routes and hopefully the other 17 turn out just as well.
The Island
For the last few years I have been working hard at restoring my great-grandmother’s farmhouse on a small island on the Shannon. It’s been a wonderful, but challenging project, mainly due to the fact that the island is so remote and that I don’t have any building background.
However, each year we spend a few weekends working away, the goal is, as ever, to get the roof finished. Maybe this year will be the year that we finally get it done. The forecast is good for tomorrow so hopefully we can take advantage and get a good start.
You can read a few more posts about the island on the blog: here, here, here, here, here, and here.
In the last month I have published the first two posts in a series that suggests some things to do for a weekend in each county in Ireland. You can check them out here: Antrim and Armagh.
Thanks to the customer who got in touch to say that my website’s Apple Pay wasn’t working. Seemingly it has never worked due to some quirk on their end with Eircodes, however, it is fixed now.
Since the New Year shipping has been free on all orders to the island of Ireland.
Some copies of Exploring Ireland have gone to my Irish distributor so you should be seeing it appear in the windows and on the shelves of your local bookshop soon.
Thanks for reading, if you have any thoughts, suggestions or feedback then don’t hesitate to get in touch, I would love to hear from you. Enter the code below to get a 20% discount on any orders you make over the four weeks.
Dave