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Detailed but foldable maps of Ireland for driving the WAW coastlines?

We are planning a return trip to Ireland for September, 2020, to revisit all that we saw on our first trip ten days after the attack on the Trade Center in 2001, and to see sites we missed on our original "must-see" list.
My wife and I work well with foldable maps, rather than the page-by-page atlases available, for the better continuity they provide.
The most-detailed map I've found is the Michelin #712 National map of Ireland, even though the National Geographic map of Ireland is 'supposed' to have finer detail (1"=6 miles as compared to the Michelin's 1"=6.31 miles).
We are planning to spend much of our time driving the Wild Atlantic Way route to visit and photograph about a dozen of the 'heads' from Mizen Head in the Southwest up to the Antrim Coast.

Any recommendations/suggestions would be humbly appreciated!
RustyMusket and Barbie

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15 posts

Reply to horsewoofie:
Yes, we are planning to take our time on this trip, despite a significant improvement in the roads in both the North and the Republic.
On our trip in 2001, heading north from Valentia Island and Portmagee, we drove up the side of a tall hill and found a lovely expanse of red fuscia bushes along the roadway. I have a beautiful photo of the experience!
Since my last entry, I have received copies of the DK publication, Back Roads Ireland and a new book (for me) Wild Atlantic Way Route Atlas published by Xploreit.

This is an excellent guide for anyone planning to drive all or part of WAW (WildAtlanticWay) while in Ireland! It is 30+ pages showing segments of the Wild Atlantic Way, and printed in a scale of 1:126,720 (1 inch = 2 miles or 1.267 km/cm)! Amazing detail.
With us living in a US COVID-19 'hot spot', I chose to order my copy from Amazon and it was at my door in just a few days.
Reply to nastyroy67: You certainly have a predicament with COVID-19 complicating your travel plans. I would definitely advise not travelling any great distances, as you can probably find what you are looking for locally! And 'hot spots' would certainly provide you with plenty of dates! Good luck!
I have been researching off-site license locations across the countryside, In addition to visiting Jameson Heritage Center in Dublin, Bushmills Distillery in the North, and the Midleton Distillery outside of Cork, I've learned of some excellent companies with lovely selections of 'Ireland-only' whiskies, and I've noted stops along our planned itinerary where I'll be shopping for 'liquid refreshment' to either ship (via licensed shipper) home or pack in my checked luggage in 'wineskins' to protect the contents.
Thank you, all, for your valuable comments.
neverhome_rph

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1014 posts

In buying a map of Ireland, be sure it includes "R" and "L" roads. I bought an ordnance map and thought it was sufficient. It was not. Some of the places my AirBNB rooms were on were not even on the map. GPS helped a lot. It was not perfect, but at least it could get me close andI had the GPS Co-ordinates of most of the places, plus I printed out pictures of the houses, so we got there. Also, do not count on road signs. They are few and far between. In renting a car, get the SMALLEST you can fit in. Inches make a difference. Also, get full coverage. You probably will brush some bushes and scratch the paint and maybe remove a side mirror. Full coverage covers this and is worth it. If you are only going to major cities, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Belfast (which I recommend), some of the previous information is not needed. Going into the interior and small villages, information is valid.

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602 posts

Some people really dislike electronics, but for our 2019 trip, I bought a used Nuvi 2460 on eBay for $22 and loaded it with City Navigator 2019.20 (I found it on the web, but you can buy it from Garmin for $69) and it never failed to get me where I wanted to go. Despite disobeying the instructions when something caught our eye, it let us continue on cow paths without a hiccup (Priest's Leap, for example). I never did find anything that wasn't on the map. There are so many rural roads that you never have to consider a U-turn. I had pre-loaded all my daily driving routes before hand, so I just had to pick the day from the menu and never worry about a map. Probably cheaper than a bunch of quality paper maps, and certainly cheaper than paying a rental car GPS fee. It also frees up your passenger to browse for things to stop for or nice B&Bs or in my case, it let my wife knit.