Wild Atlantic Way in 2 days

[Jobbo]

Well, only half of it. Ireland has its own alternative to the NC500, running all the way from Donegal to West Cork along the west coast. I holidayed with my wife this time so it wasn’t planned as a driving holiday but we ended up driving along about the half of the route from Galway to Bantry so I thought I’d share and compare - the NC500 being still very fresh in my mind.

Coral Beach at Carraroe, west of Galway:


Biggest difference is that Ireland isn’t as wild and unoccupied as Scotland. You feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere, round the next bend and you’re at a village or a pub or some other small population centre or tourist attraction. The scenery is the draw rather than the feeling of being miles from anyone.

On the north side of the Ring of Kerry:

The roads are all wide enough for two cars to pass. Most have a white line down the middle. But this does mean there are even full sized coaches using them. There would be some nice driving roads but it’s generally a much more busy part of the world.

The Shannon ferry crossing from Killimer to Tarbert:


There are some lovely places and views; the road for a mile or two south of the ferry at Tarbert runs alongside the water and the views are distractingly beautiful. But I expected the ferry to be an idyllic little crossing and in reality had to drive to a very commercial looking terminal at Killer straight after having passed what looks like a fairly new nuclear power station. It feels totally different to doing the NC500. You won’t struggle to find a petrol station, probably even EV charging.

Overall the two routes are not at all similar in terms of either the roads or the general feel. I did love the Ring of Kerry although my wife complained it felt like we’d been driving all day. I really liked some of the towns and villages we stopped in or passed through. We particularly liked The Burren. We laughed about the tourist attractions being pretty much all like Father Ted’s Holy Stone of Clonrichert or St Kevin’s Stump. It rained quite a lot. We had a lovely time. But next time will be Scotland again.

[mik]

It rained quite a lot.

Exactly. Nothing like Scotland

I have easy access to some good roads, but the Highlands (at least on a nice day) are something else

[Jobbo]

In the Highlands you can cover hundreds of miles without really seeing anyone. The Ring of Kerry - which made my wife say we’d been driving all day - was only 143km, about 90 miles, including driving from Tralee where we’d stayed.

[GG.]

Nice. Fancy doing that myself at some point. Where'd you need to get the ferry from to get there - Wales or Liverpool?

ETA - I googled the route you did - was slightly nervous typing that into a search engine

[Jobbo]

We did Holyhead-Dublin and back the same way. Had a couple of nights in Dublin, drove west to Galway (couple of hours - the motorway network in Ireland is a massive change from my last trip to Cork in 2002) and then had a couple of days there before doing the Wild Atlantic Way to Tralee and then Skibbereen as overnight stops. Final night was in Cork. I got the itinerary right in terms of ferry times but wrong in that yesterday involved ~200 miles from Cork to Dublin port, a ~4hr ferry and then a further ~200 miles from Holyhead to home. Very lucky with traffic; moving average over 70mph both sides and just under 42mpg. But a long day. I recommend a cabin even on a daytime crossing; it’s nice to have somewhere private to lie down.

[nuttinnew]

Thanks for the write-up and pics
How much effect do you think in season v out of season has on the comparison?

[duncs500]

Interesting, it's been on my list for a while. It's funny because all the Irish folks I talk to about it say how it'll be a lot of narrow roads and a bit of a nightmare. I doubt any of them have actually done it though!

Your write up does change how I imagine it, but doesn't make me want to go any less.

[Jobbo]

Thanks for the write-up and pics
How much effect do you think in season v out of season has on the comparison?

The traffic was present rather than bad - I don’t think it would be a pain if your holiday was just the Wild Atlantic Way. But it’s not ‘driving roads’ like the NC500; the gaps between settlements are much smaller for instance so the whole feel is different.

I’ve been to Donegal before, 25 years ago, and that felt far more wild and big - and I would suspect the southern section we did this week is different in character to the northern part from Connemara up to Donegal. The Ring of Kerry has been a tourist destination for decades before being incorporated in the Wild Atlantic Way.

Signposting is pretty good along the route, which makes it feel more like a brown sign tourist trail. The signs continue through small towns which feels incongruous because they are not particularly Wild and often not even that close to the Atlantic, being some miles inland

[Jobbo]

Interesting, it's been on my list for a while. It's funny because all the Irish folks I talk to about it say how it'll be a lot of narrow roads and a bit of a nightmare. I doubt any of them have actually done it though!

Your write up does change how I imagine it, but doesn't make me want to go any less.

The impression we got was that Irish people don’t much leave their local areas day to day - one little tea shop in Waterville Spunkane we chatted to the owner who had been there every day for 45 years.

Driving standards in Ireland seems to have become more like the U.K. There’s much less pulling over to allow following traffic to pass, much worse lane discipline on dual carriageways etc. I’d definitely recommend doing it, but it might not feel like it’s all that far from home.

[Marv]

It was relatively quiet when I visited on my motorcycle in 2021, mainly because of Covid restrictions. I agree that the route is punctuated by more villages and towns on the Wild Atlantic Way, when compared to the NC500, but if you stray off a little and go to places like the Priests Leap (which is very narrow, like the Applecross pass) or the Healy Pass, neither of which are on the main route, IIRC, then you'll see the quieter, remote and desolate parts of Ireland.

I spent two weeks on my trip - the other roads off the Wild Atlantic Way, which I remember fondly, was the County Antrim Coastal road from the Giants Causeway down to Larn (near Belfast)

I'd say it's well worth doing a trip to Ireland, particularly if you've already been on several trips to Scotland and Wales.

It rained alot on my trips to Wales, the Outer Hebredes and Ireland in them pandemic years, so once the restrictions were gone, I went on a trip to the South of France the year after Ireland - it was wonderful warm and sunny - only half a days rain in two weeks, which was bliss on a motorbike

[Jobbo]

I’ve done the southern coast from Rosslare to Schull/Baltimore before and the northern coast from Ballycastle to the top of Donegal - but I really want to go back and see the North Antrim coast. I think my next trip over will be to Northern Ireland. Maybe carrying on to Donegal and Sligo.

But I really want to go back to Tobermory and visit a few more Scottish islands first.

[Ascender]

Very nice, thanks for the writeup... Another place on the list to visit!

[Jobbo]

Finally got round to looking up the power stations either side of the Shannon Ferry - turns out they aren't nuclear and Ireland has never had a nuclear power station. It's even banned by statute over there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Ireland

Some substantial recent investment has been made in the Moneypoint one which I assumed was nuclear; it ceased burning coal only last month.

[dinny_g]

On the north side of the Ring of Kerry:

I recognise right where you are there. Just after Glenbeigh and before you get to Kells. You passed by the big Viaduct not long after???

My folks place is in Glenbeigh.

turns out they aren't nuclear and Ireland has never had a nuclear power station.

Probably no bad thing really…

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdu2uD27/

[Jobbo]

That's exactly it Dinny - just here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/1VddaRZaocmYfJ5a9 - and I did indeed notice the viaduct, and some tunnels through the rocks which stuck out. I take it that's a disused railway line?

It's a lovely part of the world. Do your folks get bothered by the flow of tourists?

[dinny_g]

Yes and no on the Tourists. My dad was born in Glenbeigh. We would spend 4 to 6 weeks summer holidays there and at the local Rossbeigh beach and nearby Dooks Golf club. He built a house there when he retired and they largely spend their time there (but have kept a house in Dublin which is used more now he's got post Cancer treatments based in Dublin).

The tourists have brought a lot of comforts - you only have to go back 20 to 25 years and things were very different. If you didn't have a booking somewhere, you weren't eating after 18:00. Very few shops and all closing early, not opening Saturday afternoon or Sunday etc. Now there are 2 different Shawarma shops in Listowel and everything from award winning Thai (at Kells Bay Gardens) to excellent quality food from local suppliers with all sorts of influences. It is a lot busier now than it used to be.

You're right about the tunnels - part of the old Killarney to Valentia railway which served the place where the first transatlantic cables came ashore. They were also used to bring Slate from the Valentia Island Slate Quarry out - to be used in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the Paris Opera House. (This paragraph was brought to you by the Irish Tourism Board )

On the last day of service, as the final train was pulling of Glenbeigh Station, my grandfather, and others, were ripping up the sleepers - literally as you could see the train in the distance

[Jobbo]

That's a brilliant story Dinny - I can just imagine it.

We stopped at Waterville and I had a look at some stuff about the transatlantic cable. Not much is made of the one in Cornwall, so it's nice to see it celebrated. I was keen to go to Valentia island but we didn't have time. I did manage to get a bottle of Valentia vermouth from the Supervalu in Tralee though; I had a negroni made with it and it was great, so couldn't miss the limited opportunity to buy some.

What you describe about there being plenty of places open, and lots of choice, rings very true. I was reading that some places in Donegal didn't have electricity until the 1980s. That's as far in time from my trips to Donegal in 2000 and West Cork in 2002 as this visit was on from those. I shouldn't be surprised at the pace of progress; I shouldn't think of rural Ireland as being fixed in time but I seem to. I bet you notice changes whenever you're back.

[dinny_g]

Hell yeah. Very few people had phones so we’d earn pocket money in the holidays delivering messages to houses all over the village.

Unbelievably mundane crap. “ Mary! It’s Tommy, I’ll be home from work at 18:00. Can you have the dinner on!”

My mum’s house had no Oven - everything cooked in Dutch Ovens over the fire. And my dads had no running drinking water. He had a well. Neither had central heating.

I’d say Donegal now is more like Kerry was then. Certainly far less developed

[MikeHunt]

I make that 2 road trips I have added to my bucket list, Jobbo is slowly becoming the forum Judith Chalmers

[Jobbo]

What's more amusing is that neither was particularly planned - Scotland was a trip to see friends and Ireland was a holiday because my wife's never been there.

For my next holiday I'll aim to accidentally travel most of the length of Route 66 on the way to visit my mate in Tennessee