Location......The town of Skibbereen is located in West Cork, about 50 miles / 80 kms from Cork City.
Directions....If you are approaching on the N71 from Cork / Clonakilty, go straight ahead at the first roundabout and follow the N71 around to the north of the town. At the second roundabout, take the 3rd exit and the race HQ is at the GAA grounds just up this road.
View on arrival at the second roundabout....take the 3rd exit.
The 3rd exit from the roundabout...keep the houses on your right...
Just up the road, the O’Donovan Rossa GAA grounds are on the right. This is race HQ with the finish line just outside.
Course map...The race start just under a mile away from the GAA grounds. It then runs south into the town of Skibbereen before heading back north and taking in a loop.
Closer look....On the return leg at 5.8 miles, the race turns off right onto a quiet road and finishes near the GAA grounds.
Course description......The starts about 0.9 miles from the GAA club on a road to the north of the town...
You run back towards the town on a mostly flat road. At about 0.5 miles, you come to the junction where you will turn off later in the race. For now, it's straight ahead.
At 0.8 miles, you go straight through the roundabout and head into the town...
At 0.9 miles, you cross over the River Ilen...
Near the one mile mark, you turn left at the T-junction and onto Bridge Street...
At the next junction, you stay left...
At 1.2 miles, you take a left at this junction and start heading north out of the town...
There is a slight rise along this section and at 1.7 miles, you arrive at the roundabout on the N71 where you turn left...
Just up the road, it's right at the next junction and you head north on the road to Drimoleague....
There is a gentle rise in ground along this section but nothing too bad as you're close to the River Ilen.
At 2.3 miles, you pass the Skibbereen District Hospital...
From here, the road climbs but soon levels off and drops slightly again.
Road junction at 2.7 miles...
From here, the road is hemmed in by trees on both sides. At 3.2 miles, you pass this gate lodge...
At 3.4 miles, you cross over a small stream which is followed by a short pull and at 3.5 miles, the road levels off again...
At 3.8 miles, you reach a junction where you turn left. At roughly 25 metres above sea level, this is the highest part of the course but spread out over several miles, it's really not much.
From the junction, there is a nice fall of ground for a few hundred metres so it's really fast. It levels off around 4.1 miles...
At about 4.5 miles, you turn right at a T-junction and then almost straight away, you run up and across the bridge over the Ilen River before dropping down on the other side again...
At 4.6 miles, you come to a T-junction where you turn left and head south for home...
There are some small pulls along this next section but nothing of much consequence. At about 5.2 miles, you pass the point where the race started and at 5.8 miles, you're back to that junction again except this time, you turn right.
This is a narrow quiet road residential road which a slight pull at first but with a fall of ground at the far end.
At about the 6 mile mark, you come to end of this small road at a T-junction where you turn left...
From here, it's about 400m or so to the finish line outside the entrance to the GAA grounds...
Overall.........A reasonably fast 10k course. There are a few drags but they are mostly short and as pointed out already, there is only about a 20 metre difference between the highest and lowest parts of the course. A nice mixture of town and country running. One of the few 10k courses in this part of West Cork.
