I'm cycling through the County Limerick countryside in southern Ireland, between steep banks of ferns and greenery, when suddenly everything's plunged into darkness.
I knew this was coming. I was headed straight for it. But still, I need to take a breath, to allow my eyes adjust. And when they do, the sensation is electric. I'm now cycling through a 377ft-long, Victorian-era railway tunnel, and the only sound is the whirring of my wheels bouncing off its beautiful brickwork.
The Barnagh Tunnel is a 19th-century engineering marvel and a standout feature of the Limerick Greenway, a 25-mile cycling trail linking the towns of Rathkeale, Newcastle West and Abbeyfeale. The off-road route reboots a section of the former Limerick to Tralee railway line, and the passing scenery ranges from a patchwork of farm fields to old station houses and stone bridges. There are plenty of stopthe-bike attractions, like Ferguson's Viaduct, a cast-iron bridge near Newcastle West.
"If you wrote to Santa, you couldn't have asked for a better place than this," says Ben Noonan, one of the engineers involved in the greenway's upgrade, accompanying me for the cycle and a pit stop at Platform 22, a cafe at the Barnagh Greenway Hub.
This story is from the UK and Ireland 2023 edition of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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This story is from the UK and Ireland 2023 edition of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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