Wild Atlantic Way: Kinsale to Achill Island

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kinsale

   Kinsale is a small harbour town on the south coast of County Cork, and it has been around long enough to have seen plenty of drama. The Battle of Kinsale in 1601 ended in defeat for the Irish lords and their Spanish allies and is often treated as the real end of the old Gaelic order. The star-shaped Charles Fort, built later in the seventeenth century, still guards the harbour mouth, and you can walk its ramparts for a view across the water.

   Read the complete Kinsale write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kinsale is where the day begins. Next is Mizen Head.

2. 2. Mizen Head

   Ireland runs out here, and it does so with a flourish. Mizen Head is the south-western tip of the island, a ragged headland of dark rock and heather above a sea that is rarely calm, and the road ends at the point where there is nothing between you and Newfoundland but ocean. From the clifftop you can see the Fastnet Rock far out to the south-west, a lonely pinnacle with a lighthouse, which was the last sight of Ireland for many emigrants and is often called Ireland's Teardrop.

   Read the complete Mizen Head write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Mizen Head comes up about 114 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dingle.

3. 3. Dingle

   Dingle is a small harbour town at the western end of County Kerry's Dingle Peninsula, with fewer than two thousand people but about as many pubs as you could want. The streets slope toward the water, shops and houses are painted in strong colours, and the harbour is full of fishing boats. This is a Gaeltacht area, where Irish is still the everyday language for many families, so you may see signs in Irish first, and the town's Irish name, An Daingean, appears on the road markers.

   Read the complete Dingle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 299 km into the recorded legs you reach Dingle. Next is Cliffs of Moher.

4. 4. Cliffs of Moher

   The cliffs rise sheer out of the Atlantic for about eight kilometres along the west coast of County Clare, reaching just over two hundred metres at their highest point, and on a clear day the whole line of black shale and sandstone glows in the afternoon light. They are Ireland's most visited natural attraction, and they deserve it, although a good many of the visitors arrive by coach at the same hour, and the car park gets busy. The main viewing area is a small piece of the whole, and the further you walk along the coastal path, the quieter and wilder it becomes.

   Read the complete Cliffs of Moher write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cliffs of Moher, about halfway. Next is Galway.

5. 5. Galway

   Galway is a small city with a big personality, and most of that personality comes out on the street. It sits at the mouth of the River Corrib on the west coast of Ireland, with Galway Bay opening to the Atlantic and the hills of Connemara beginning just beyond the suburbs. It is known as the city of the tribes, after the fourteen merchant families who ran it in the Middle Ages, and a few of their house names, like Lynch and Blake, are still common in the area. The Spanish Arch beside the river is a reminder of the trade with Spain that brought wine and prosperity here.

   Read the complete Galway write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Galway sits at 707 km, late in the day. Next is Achill Island.

6. 6. Achill Island

   Achill is Ireland's largest island, and you reach it by driving across a bridge, which takes a little of the romance away until you see the landscape. It lies off the coast of County Mayo, joined to the mainland at Achill Sound, and it is a rough, treeless land of heather bog, steep headlands and wide empty beaches. At Slievemore, the mountain that rises above the northern shore, a ruined village of stone cottages known as the deserted village stands on the slope, abandoned over generations after the Famine. At its foot, the winds sweep across the grass.

   Read the complete Achill Island write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 734 km.