Road trip, not roots trip, in the west of Ireland
By Jake Coyle |
April 27, 2013, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MANY visitors to Ireland make the trip in search of heritage, tracking down ancestors in obscure villages and wandering through ancient churches, pursuing the dream of a verdant, pastoral homeland. This year, Ireland is promoting this pastime with The Gathering, a tourism initiative of some 2,500 local events and ancestral reunions calling the Irish diaspora back.
But on a visit to Ireland last summer, despite my Irish blood, my wife and I decided to do a road trip rather than a roots trip. We set out for a week of pastoral rambling on the open road - or rather, the precipitous, cliff-hugging road.
We planned two or three days each in Kerry, Connemara and Donegal, connecting scenic drives along with hikes to stretch our legs and pub stops to make them wobbly. It was an ambitious haul - Ireland is about 486 kilometers top to bottom - and we left each county wishing to stay for another few days.
We meandered from the seaside foodie capital of Kinsale in County Cork, up to the Atlantic Ocean inlet of Ardara in Donegal, Ireland's most northerly county. Tracing a squiggly doodle, we swerved in and out of the splayed peninsulas of the fingered coast. Occasionally, at places like Tarbert in Kerry, we cut a straight line on a ferry.
Ireland is mired in an ongoing recession following the collapse of an economic boom, resulting in prices that may seem low to tourists. But one lasting benefit of the Celtic Tiger has been the work done to the country's roads. New highways have been built, rural roads paved and roadway fatalities have steadily declined for years. American visitors might still find the roads narrow, twisting and weird (they drive on the left), but it doesn't take an exceptionally intrepid traveler to thrill to the scenic drives of the west of Ireland.
Our first drive was the world-famous Ring of Kerry, a green loop of 179 kilometers around Iveragh Peninsula. Its sheer variety of topography - from coastal peaks to inland lakes - makes it feel like a craggy playground of countless secret pathways. You wouldn't be surprised if a hobbit lived somewhere in Killarney National Park.
The Ring of Kerry is also one of Ireland's biggest tourist draws, with renowned spots like the Gap of Dunloe and Ladies View.
Other rings in the area, as the circular driving routes are called, include the Skellig Ring at the end of the peninsula. The Skellig Ring offers a closer view of the Skellig Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to a frighteningly steep sixth-century monastery. In the same neighborhood, in the village of Waterville, is a different kind of oddity: a bronze statue of Charlie Chaplin, who frequently holidayed there.
The Ring of Kerry's northern neighbor, the Slea Head Drive, though less famous, is its equal. It starts outside the medieval hilltop town of Dingle (where Dick Mack's offers one of the warmest pub atmospheres you're likely to find), and takes you to the end of the narrow, 47-kilometer Dingle Peninsula. Out at Dunmore Head, the drive reaches a dramatic crescendo, braced against a cliff as it turns a corner and opens up to a view of a green slope leading into the sea, where the Blasket Islands stretch offshore.
In Connemara National Park, we hiked to the top of Diamond Hill, and continued the scenic drive circuit with the Sky Road. Beginning on the north edge of Clifden, the route rises to a staggering, wind-swept perch above Clifden Bay.
We made time for music in County Mayo's Westport (where Matt Molloy of The Chieftains owns a pub that nightly cooks up traditional Irish music) but soon enough pushed north, past the dreamy, foggy, glacier-carved Killary Harbour.
En route to County Donegal, we spent an afternoon in the town of Sligo, which has grown in recent years but has not lost its fine old pubs.
The rugged north country of Donegal opened before us on the rocky seaside circuit past the towering Slieve League cliffs, the astounding expanse of Maghera Strand (a cave-walled beach outside Ardara), the deep valley of Glengesh Pass, and the herky-jerky scenic road up along the shores of Portnoo and Dooey.
There were countless roads not taken - it pains me that we missed the Inishowen 100 farther up in Donegal, and the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland, for starters.
But, all-in-all, we spent our wonderful week in a happy daily cycle of drives, walks and pubs.
But on a visit to Ireland last summer, despite my Irish blood, my wife and I decided to do a road trip rather than a roots trip. We set out for a week of pastoral rambling on the open road - or rather, the precipitous, cliff-hugging road.
We planned two or three days each in Kerry, Connemara and Donegal, connecting scenic drives along with hikes to stretch our legs and pub stops to make them wobbly. It was an ambitious haul - Ireland is about 486 kilometers top to bottom - and we left each county wishing to stay for another few days.
We meandered from the seaside foodie capital of Kinsale in County Cork, up to the Atlantic Ocean inlet of Ardara in Donegal, Ireland's most northerly county. Tracing a squiggly doodle, we swerved in and out of the splayed peninsulas of the fingered coast. Occasionally, at places like Tarbert in Kerry, we cut a straight line on a ferry.
Ireland is mired in an ongoing recession following the collapse of an economic boom, resulting in prices that may seem low to tourists. But one lasting benefit of the Celtic Tiger has been the work done to the country's roads. New highways have been built, rural roads paved and roadway fatalities have steadily declined for years. American visitors might still find the roads narrow, twisting and weird (they drive on the left), but it doesn't take an exceptionally intrepid traveler to thrill to the scenic drives of the west of Ireland.
Our first drive was the world-famous Ring of Kerry, a green loop of 179 kilometers around Iveragh Peninsula. Its sheer variety of topography - from coastal peaks to inland lakes - makes it feel like a craggy playground of countless secret pathways. You wouldn't be surprised if a hobbit lived somewhere in Killarney National Park.
The Ring of Kerry is also one of Ireland's biggest tourist draws, with renowned spots like the Gap of Dunloe and Ladies View.
Other rings in the area, as the circular driving routes are called, include the Skellig Ring at the end of the peninsula. The Skellig Ring offers a closer view of the Skellig Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to a frighteningly steep sixth-century monastery. In the same neighborhood, in the village of Waterville, is a different kind of oddity: a bronze statue of Charlie Chaplin, who frequently holidayed there.
The Ring of Kerry's northern neighbor, the Slea Head Drive, though less famous, is its equal. It starts outside the medieval hilltop town of Dingle (where Dick Mack's offers one of the warmest pub atmospheres you're likely to find), and takes you to the end of the narrow, 47-kilometer Dingle Peninsula. Out at Dunmore Head, the drive reaches a dramatic crescendo, braced against a cliff as it turns a corner and opens up to a view of a green slope leading into the sea, where the Blasket Islands stretch offshore.
In Connemara National Park, we hiked to the top of Diamond Hill, and continued the scenic drive circuit with the Sky Road. Beginning on the north edge of Clifden, the route rises to a staggering, wind-swept perch above Clifden Bay.
We made time for music in County Mayo's Westport (where Matt Molloy of The Chieftains owns a pub that nightly cooks up traditional Irish music) but soon enough pushed north, past the dreamy, foggy, glacier-carved Killary Harbour.
En route to County Donegal, we spent an afternoon in the town of Sligo, which has grown in recent years but has not lost its fine old pubs.
The rugged north country of Donegal opened before us on the rocky seaside circuit past the towering Slieve League cliffs, the astounding expanse of Maghera Strand (a cave-walled beach outside Ardara), the deep valley of Glengesh Pass, and the herky-jerky scenic road up along the shores of Portnoo and Dooey.
There were countless roads not taken - it pains me that we missed the Inishowen 100 farther up in Donegal, and the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland, for starters.
But, all-in-all, we spent our wonderful week in a happy daily cycle of drives, walks and pubs.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
