The High Nelly Bike Company

The High Nelly (which Michael Collins famously used to get around unmolested during the War of Independence while there was a £10,000 bounty on his head) has been a favoured mode of transport for generations of Irish. Today, the worldwide craze for nostalgic “tweed ride clubs” includes 11 High Nelly Clubs around Ireland (with over 2,000 members). 

The High Nelly Bike Company, based in Co Limerick, is the only one of its kind in the country. Here you can get your granny's bike restored as-new, or jump on a brand new Irish-made bike of your own. The shop (also online) features a whole range of vintage accessories and clothing. 

"HighNelly Bikes Ltd is an Irish Family business established several years ago in the Mid-West of Ireland. Our main line of business is to refurbish vintage bicycles from scrap condition back to the splendour of the day it came out of a country hardware store, some 60 - 100 years ago.

Given our many years of experience & love for these classic bicycles, we designed & manufactured a model to compete on the World stage.

The HighNelly bicycle in Ireland was more than a mode of transport up until the late 1950's, it was literally a life line. My very own Grandmother rode 17 miles three times a week to the Smithfield Market in Dublin from Co. Meath.

She rode on a single speed HighNelly bicycle laddened with heavy sacks on both sides to sell the vegetables she grew behind her cottage, simply to earn enough to buy essentials to feed her 13 children.

My Father & Uncle would set her off in a straight line & she had to keep going all the way without stopping or the bike would be too heavy to pick back up off the ground.

As a family touched by the HighNelly bike, we have the greatest respect for the products we build, not only the quality & attention to detail but the historical importance of these machines & the respect for the very name HighNelly sits at the centre of what we do. We take pride in what we do & we do it with pride."

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