Get the show on the road
WILD AT HEART
Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, regarded as one of the world’s greatest drives, stretches 2500 kilometres from County Cork to Donegal in the north. We joined this drive at Galway on the mid-western seaboard, following signs with the Wild Atlantic Way logo to Connemara, County Galway’s fabled west coast, with views of the Aran Islands and, inland, mountains looming over forests and heathlands. Navigating windy roads where you often find an Irish traffic jam – a flock of sheep – you pass cliffs, coves, Connemara ponies and charming villages and towns like Clifden.
Heading north, there’s more dazzling coastal scenery on the drive from remote Erris Head, on Ireland’s Surf Coast, through Sligo’s beautiful Yeats country and north to Ireland’s most remote county, Donegal. It’s a mix of jagged coastlines teeming with seabirds, sweeps of golden sands, mountains, ancient standing stones and castles, quaint towns, and welcoming pubs such as McDaid’s Bar near Burtonport.
Travelling further north we visit the Northern Headlands, where sheer cliffs at Sliabh Liag near Teelin, a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) village, rise above the ocean. We then make our way to the Inishowen Peninsula and Malin Head, Ireland’s most northerly point and our journey’s end. For now, anyway.
There is no shortage of accommodation along the way, from hostels, B&Bs and traditional cottages to upmarket establishments such as Rathmullan House, a Georgian mansion overlooking Lough Swilly. The restaurant here serves seafood fresh off the boat, with vegetables grown on-site in an ancient garden. For more, visit wildatlanticway.com
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
Wild Atlantic breakers lash Ireland’s rugged west coast but all is snug inside Clare Island Lighthouse. Dating from 1818, the beacon is part of Great Lighthouses of Ireland, 13 lighthouses where visitors stay in former lightkeepers’ cottages from Cork to Antrim. From Roonagh Pier on mainland County Mayo, we catch a ferry across Clew Bay to Clare Island, once home to pirate queen Grace O’Malley, born in 1530, whose stone tower still stands at the island’s harbour. Lighthouse co-owner Roie McCann shows us our stylish room at this boutique accommodation. Seabirds squawk and sheep graze on green fields as we set off to explore the island, population 150, a place of sapphire-coloured bays, beaches, moorlands, villages, Bronze Age mounds, hiking trails and, most importantly, serenity. Visit greatlighthouses.com