Ireland - The Wild Atlantic Way

Wapping

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For anyone looking for this tourist route (a bit similar in concept I guess to Scotland’s North Coast 500) this website is reasonably informative:

https://www.wildatlanticwayonline.com/

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Hi Richard , we did part of it in the missus car last year. My tip would be take your time. Areas such as the Burren need at least a day to walk around and appreciate. I guess we did a quarter of it in 4 days, loved it and found the people so friendly. Not as busy as the NC500
 

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Thank you, Steve. Your response was exactly the sort of thing that I hoped would come up. Great pictures, too. A nice car to do it in, too.
 
On the to do list, just a pita time wise for me cause would take at least 14 days and under normal circumstances I don't get 14 days off at one time but deffo gonna do some of it :okay
 
You'd give it a pretty good lash in a week Cabby

A day to get to the ferry port, the crossing, a day to get up north to the start, there is three days plus that in return and six days are gone already, believe me, I've been giving serious consideration for a while.
 
Ah but sure who says you have to do it in a onener?

We're close enough that you can take a couple of goes at it. I did much the same thing with Scotland, took maybe three bites at it and saw pretty much all that I wanted.
 
But you can get from Bandit country to the ferry in probably less than an hour, it would take me 3 hours to get to the ferry on my side, like I said PITA
 
Buggeration! Tentatively "planned" something like this for when we are finally allowed out....the thinking being that once the lights go to green, every fekka and their Auntys will be out to Wales, Scotland and over the Channel. Nobody will have thought of the West coast of Ireland now will they :blast

:thumb
 
But you can get from Bandit country to the ferry in probably less than an hour, it would take me 3 hours to get to the ferry on my side, like I said PITA

Depending on the amount of time you have got for the trip I would get to Cairnryan the evening before your ferry sailing and book into a nearby B&B and get the 0730 sailing to Belfast.

Off the ferry at 1000 and follow the Antrim coast road north towards Derry, Letterkenney, the Gleveagh national park, Donegal and Sligo. Lots of lovely little roads of the main roads to explore.

Then on the return leg get the 1530 sailing from Belfast to Cairnryan and off the ferry at 1800 and 3 hours will get you home. :thumb
 
Depending on the amount of time you have got for the trip I would get to Cairnryan the evening before your ferry sailing and book into a nearby B&B and get the 0730 sailing to Belfast.

Off the ferry at 1000 and follow the Antrim coast road north towards Derry, Letterkenney, the Gleveagh national park, Donegal and Sligo. Lots of lovely little roads of the main roads to explore.

Then on the return leg get the 1530 sailing from Belfast to Cairnryan and off the ferry at 1800 and 3 hours will get you home. :thumb

That's excellent info :clap

One thing I certainly don't want to do is rush round. When I go solo I become a right nosey git and start riding up every little road possible so my two weeks might just cover the top half :aidan
 
Did the WAW back in June 17 with Nick (GNITS of this parish).

We actually went most of the way around the coast of both Eire and N. Ireland and also took the opportunity to stop off for a couple of days at the Horizons Unlimited event in Enniskillen, where we listened to some really good talks on adventure travels, including one by Mide of this parish on her exploits on the "Road of Bones"

My trip was 11 days in total, as I also stopped off the night before the ferry in the Wye Valley, and then we also did the two days at Enniskillen. I would imagine you could do the WAW in 7 days if time was limited, but you wouldn't be able to spend much of that exploring stuff around the route.

The WAW route features in a number of excellent maps and downloadable routes. I bought the Xploreit book which has all the detail you could possibly need: http://xploreitmaps.com/wild-atlantic-way-route-atlas/
The route is also very well marked and signposted so you are pretty unlikely to go wrong!

We took camping kit, mainly for the HU event, but we did end up staying on a campsite for one night as all the accommodation in town was booked out for some big annual event. The rest of the time it was dead easy to find good places to stay. You don't need booking.com, just turn up somewhere at the end of your day, go to the pub and ask there. They often have accommodation above the pub, and if not, then they will phone round and find you somewhere!

The roads that form the route are quite varied, from tiny single carriageway stuff well off the beaten track, to more open and sweeping high speed stuff. The scenery is just stunning, and the beaches were amazing but nobody on them (with apologies my pics don't do it justice).

Due to time constraints, we just rode round it and occasionally went off to a viewpoint, or a to see something of particular interest, but there is so much to explore you could easily turn it into multiple trips over time if you wanted to. The people are also incredibly friendly and helpful and we had a great craic everywhere we stayed.

A trip I really enjoyed and one I wold most definitely do again
 

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It is stunning.
We did the lower half in 2014 , from Kinsale around to Galway.
Need to go back and do the whole lot.
Places like the Sheep’s Head were utterly beautiful.

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Thank you.

Some good hints and tips there, along with the link to the mapbook. I have just ordered a copy via the Amazon, as my sister calls it.

As you say, there are lots of websites on the Wild Atlantic Way, I tripped over this one when looking at Belfast for something entirely different.

https://www.bangorni.com/wild-atlantic-way-road-trip-itinerary/
]

There's lots of good books out there Richard, I also got this one, mainly as the guy was a local and rides the route regularly on his Harley:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exploring-Irelands-Wild-Atlantic-Way-ebook/dp/B01JJL5S0W

If I did it again, I'd probably take a smaller, lighter bike, slow everything down and find more time to explore stuff that is around the route.
 
It is stunning.
We did the lower half in 2014 , from Kinsale around to Galway.
Need to go back and do the whole lot.
Places like the Sheep’s Head were utterly beautiful.

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Second photo is sheeps head, third photo is where I live, Allihies, last photo is Gortahig, and the reason why no coaches go around the Beara.
 
If I did it again, I'd probably take a smaller, lighter bike, slow everything down and find more time to explore stuff that is around the route.



Smaller and lighter? I’ll being using my 1600 :eek: or I may use a 7.9 metre motorhome and really piss off bikermates.... but I think I’ll save that for Wales.
 
Me and Mrs. Uturn along with our two travelling companions Mark (GSAMARK) and Jo were due, next month, to go off for up to two weeks and do the WAW.
Of course that went out of the window but, we will be doing it at some time so this is a handy thread and thank's Wapping for bringing it up :thumb2

We have the full route on our Garmins done by Mark in Basecamp but that was just to amuse Mark really as he loves doing it :) were not expecting to
need a definitive route as, from all accounts, it's well marked anyway. Mark and i have done some of it mainly in the south, Ring of Beara, ring of Kerry,
(The Gap of Dunloe was factored in too which was a stunning ride) round to Dingle and back over Conor Pass. Mark has done some in the North whereas i haven't.

Will be watching this thread with great interest :thumb2
 


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