Wild Atlantic Way, a coastal road in Ireland

A good way to explore Ireland's green and beautiful landscapes is to rent a car. First you must see what part of the country you would like to visit and then surely many attractive places appear and today, in addition, many tourist routes that are adjusted to different interests of the visitors.

Thus, Ireland offers us to know peninsulas, surf on its beaches, explore cliffs, remote areas with megalithic buildings, bays and the blessings of its wonderful Atlantic coast. That's what the Wild Atlantic Way.

Wild Atlantic Way

It is a route that covers 2600 kilometers so it is one of the longest coastal routes in the world. Walk the west coast of Ireland starting on the Inishowen Peninsula in the north down to the town of Kinsale, in historic County Cork, in the south.

It is an absolutely special tour for lovers of the nature and its landscapes. Land and ocean come together along all these kilometers showing their diversity (product of the constant encounter between water and land, between wind and beaches), carving cliffs, cutting out bays, eroding beaches, uniting villages, ancient monuments and other wonders.

Punctually the Wild Atlantic Way starts on the Inishowen Peninsula, in County Donegal, passes through Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Limerick and Kerry counties until ending in Cork. You can divide it into 14 points or stages along those 2600 kilometers. Write down these emblematic sites of each of them:

  • From Derry to Letterkenny: the Inishowen Peninsula.
  • From Letterkenny to Bunbeg: Fanad Head.
  • From Bunbeg to Donegal City: the Slieve league coast.
  • from Donegal to BNallina: Donegal Bay and Sligo.
  • From Ballina to Belmullet: Erris.
  • From Belmullet to Westport: the Achill Island and Clew Bay.
  • From Westport to Clifden: the Port of Killary.
  • From Clifden to Galway: Connemara.
  • Galway to Kilkee: The Burren and West Clare.
  • From Kelkee to Tralee: the Shannon Estuary.
  • From Tralee to Castlemaine: the Dingle Peninsula.
  • From Castlemaine to Kenmare: The Ring of Kerry.
  • From Kenmare to Durrus: Beara and Sheep's Head.
  • From Durrus to Kinsale: West Cork.

Bays, mountains, coastal villages, rocky headlands, dizzying cliffs, lighthouses, islands, national parks, beaches, whales, dolphins, cultural festivals, and verdant forests. A bit of everything. Along this route you will have places the sea of ​​peaceful and others, noisy, imposing. To get the most out of it, the Irish Tourist Office offers you the Wild Atlantic Way Passport, a unique souvenir to complete the tour.

The passport it only costs 10 euros and you buy it at certain post offices along the route. It is a blue book with the drawing of Ireland on the cover in which you are pasting the stamps that you receive at the time of purchase and that correspond to various places or Discovery Points (as they are called), along the route. You are sealing the places you visit and the ideal is to complete the 188 sites with 118 stamps.

When you get to the first 20 you can contact the Tourist Office and you will be given a gift. The passport It is the proof that you have traveled this part of Ireland, that you have traveled 2500 coastal kilometers and thus obtained the Wild Atlantic Way Certificate, well official. What's more, contains useful information about the route and its attractions.

Each of the passports that are sold has a specific number and the ideal is to register it on their website because in the end you can participate in a contest to win a lifetime vacation on the Wild Atlantic Way.

Castles along the Wild Atlantic Way

So far we have seen that the coastal route focuses more on Nature but the truth is that you will also see castles. There are many, but seven are the most outstanding. For example, in Donegal you can even stay or eat at a castle turned hotel, the Solis Lough Eske Hotel. It is a five-star lodge dating back to the XNUMXth century and once owned by the O'Donnell clan, the fathers of Donegal.

In Galway there is also the Ballynahinch Castle, also converted into a hotel. It rests on the banks of the Owenmore River, on land that once belonged to the O'Flaherty clan. In Clare, another castle hotel is the Gregan Castle. It is a good hotel to stay in the Burren, an inhospitable limestone landscape that inspired JRR Tolkien to write The Lord of the rings.

In Kerry is the Ballyseede Castle, in Tralee. It is an elegant place, a four-star hotel, former home of the Earls of Desmond and, they say, with ghosts! Following, in Cork is the Desmond Castle, open to visitors only with a guide. It was built by a Earl of Desmond in the XNUMXth century but today it is the International Wine Museum. The Dunguaire Castle, in Galway, is a classic tower house built in 1520 by the O'Hynes clan. It used to be a meeting point for WB Yeats and Lady Gregory, at the height of the Celtic revival.

Finally, in Leitrim is the Castle Parke, right on the banks of Lough Gill. It is a castle from the Plantation era (the time when the English brought English and Welsh settlers to live in Ireland, confiscating land from Irish families). In fact, the owner of these particular lands was brought to London and executed in 1591.

Accommodations along the Wild Atlantic Way

Along this route you can stay in comfortable and picturesque Bed & Breakfast, rent private houses offered to tourists or hotels. On the website of the coastal route you have a selection of these three options.

Remember that if you don't take your car to Ireland you can always rent one or even a caravan, to make it more adventurous or picturesque. The West Coast Camper Van company has a fleet of caravans and offers the possibility of picking up the vehicle at various points along the coastal route. With regard to cars, you have many companies in Ireland (Avis, Sixt, Europcar, etc.).


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