Rocky road: Driving Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way

Think of the world’s greatest road trips, and America’s classic Route 66 and sunny Pacific Coast Highway no doubt come to mind, as does the heady romance of the Riviera’s Grande Corniche or Italy’s Amalfi Coast. You don’t automatically think of wet and windswept Ireland. That changed, however, with the launch of the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW) two years ago, a 1,500-mile route along the entire dramatic west coast. Described as the ‘wildest, most captivating coastal driving route in the world’ by Tourism Ireland, which invested more than £8m in the project, the WAW stretches from the magnificent Malin Head in the north to the historic harbour town of Kinsale in the south.

The route boasts countless places to stop and take in the sculpted coastlines, stunning beaches and spectacular ocean views, as well as 159 major tourism ‘discovery points’, all of which can be found on-the-go on the WAW app. Dwarfing other scenic driving routes such as Australia’s Great Ocean Road and the Garden Route in South Africa, the WAW is now the ‘world’s longest defined coastal tourist trail’. However, most of all, it offers a sense of discovery – and often remoteness – that you would usually have to journey 10 times as far to find.

The route is divided into five sections, north to south, so here follow my own top fives in various categories.

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Five unmissables

The soaring sea cliffs at Slieve League in County Donegal are, at almost 2,000ft, some of the highest in Europe (and three times higher than the more celebrated Cliffs of Moher – see below). Take the narrow road out to Bunglass Point for the best views, especially at sunset, when the rocks come alive with rusty reds, ambers and ochres.

The barren and unforgettable landscape of the flat, boulder-strewn Connemara countryside, backed by the peaks of the beautiful Twelve Bens mountain range, can seem endless and empty – lunar, even – and the sky and the churning Atlantic bigger than ever. You really feel as if you’re on the edge of something out here.

The mighty Cliffs of Moher offer viewing platforms and invigorating cliff walks (try the round trip to Hags Head or Doolin). At certain spots, the vertiginous views are dizzying and disorientating; it’s almost as if the ground has disappeared beneath you. The nearby Burren is an entirely different domain. A vast limestone plateau crafted into crevices and pavements by glaciation, wind and rain, it is eerily austere – except from May to August, when an array of flowers light up the rocky surfaces.

Driving to the end of the isolated Dingle peninsula feels like dropping off the edge of Europe; this is an ancient and often proudly Irish-speaking area of great pubs, good music, stone forts, the theatrical Slea Head loop road, and views out to the lonely, abandoned Blasket Islands. Oh, and, of course, trips to see famous Fungie the dolphin in Dingle Harbour.

A boat out to the Skellig Islands, off the western coast of the Ring of Kerry, is one of the most magical and memorable journeys you can take in Ireland. Most day trips head out from Portmagee to the UNESCO World Heritage island of Skellig Michael, where you can climb steep steps to a ledge on which is perched a small 6th-century monastic settlement of drystone beehive huts and oratories. The views back to the mainland, across the reflective sea, are a bonus.

Five essentials

The Inishowen 100 is a perfect day-long 100-mile route around the coast of Donegal’s rugged Inishowen peninsula. Expect long views of sea loughs, beaches, headlands, promontories, an impressive fifth-century stone ring fort and Malin Head.

The great Irish poet WB Yeats and his artist brother Jack are indelibly linked to County Sligo in the north-west, and it’s possible to get a powerful idea here of the loughs, forests, islands and landscapes that inspired them. WB Yeats is buried at Drumcliff, just north of Sligo town.

In a country of many handsome towns, two WAW towns stand out: prosperous Westport in County Mayo, which looks out to Clew Bay and the towering mountain of Croagh Patrick, and Kenmare in County Kerry, which is something of a centre for fine restaurants (try Packie’s or Mulcahy’s).

Each of the hundreds of islands off the coast of Ireland seems to have its own, singular personality, but few are as bleakly beautiful and otherworldly as the timeless Aran Islands anchored out in Galway Bay. Take the ferry from Galway, or, better still, hop over on a short Aer Arann flight.

Ireland is spoilt for long stretches of sandy beaches, with many empty, even in summer. Head to the strands at Portsalon and Five Fingers in County Donegal, Fanore in County Clare, and Derrynane, Inch and Banna in County Kerry.

Five insider tips

Unless you’re lucky, it will rain, even in summer, so bring the right clothes.

It can be hard, but do your best to look past the clusters of banally uniform bungalows and holiday cottages that blight many parts of the WAW.

The coaches on the Ring of Kerry all go in an anti-clockwise direction; you’ll make your journey along narrow roads a lot easier by doing the same.

Some road signs will be in Irish (and sometimes only in Irish), so make sure you have a bilingual map.

Add on the northern Causeway Coastal Route from Derry to Belfast via the Giant’s Causeway for further on-the-road thrills.

For further information, visit ireland.com

Philip Watson is an English travel and feature writer who gave up London life for the love of a good Irish woman. He has lived – and driven – in Ireland for the past decade, much of it along the Wild Atlantic Way in Kerry. He is the only Englishman who orders lager, not stout, in his local and never claims to be ‘Irish really’.