Great roads in Ireland

A Selection for you:

Antrim coast road, A2 north out of Larne up to Cushendall, but then the minor bit through Cushendun and up past Torr Point.

A43 from Waterfoot, up through the Glenariff forest park towards Ballymena.

R255 in Donegal, then R251 from Termon, through the Glenveagh National Park towards Gweedore. Worth visiting the beach at Bunbeg at the end.

From Westport, take the R355 towards Louisburgh, and then down through the Delphi valley, then joining the N59 down to Clifden (through the Connemara National park). This is simply stunning and not to be missed. Then you can continue on the N59 all the way to Galway, fastish road through wild scenery and very little traffic.


R560, including the Conor pass, through the Dingle peninsula down to Dingle itself. It was wet with low cloud when we did it, so you could not see a thing through the top of the pass, but then coming down out of the cloud to Dingle was nice.


We didn’t bother with the ring of Kerry as we were told it is incredibly busy and commercial with coaches etc, and even silly signs to watch for leprechauns crossing the road. Probably worth doing outside the summer season. Killarney seemd like a nice fun town though with loads of live music.

I did the Ring of Kerry at the end of June and it’s absolutely brilliant.
It’s best to do it clockwise as the tour coaches do it anti-clockwise and you’re better off passing them than getting stuck behind them. We did it it on a sunny Saturday(22nd June) and it wasn’t busy at all, we probably saw 6 coaches all day. The roads are stunning - especially by the Lakes of Killarney. We veered off to Portmagee and took the bridge over to Valentia Island and the ferry back to the mainland before heading over to Dingle. The Slea Head road loop from Dingle and back is brilliant. Connor Pass the next day was amazing too.
We stayed in Wexford, Killarney, Dingle and Dublin. Killarney was the most disappointing, it seemed a bit like cartoon Ireland. DIngle is a great night out and Jim McGhee’s in Wexford is brilliant.