We are planning to be approximately 2 weeks in southern Ireland and prefer having one base for as long as possible. Ideally I would park myself in Central Tipperary and do day trips from there, but when we spent 3 weeks in northern Scotland I learned that distances can be deceiving. After spending some time in Dublin I was thinking of renting a cottage in County Kilkenny and then another either in County Kerry or NW County Cork, splitting the time between the two. We will have a car and love driving through the countryside but really don't want to spend all our time on the road while doing day trips. What is reasonable? Also, should we divide our time equally between the two places or is one side of country more desireable than the other? We are most interested in ancient sites (husband is a retired archeologist) and we are both history buffs. Our time commitment is somewhat flexible as this will be part of a much longer trip including England and Wales. All insights greatly appreciated!
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9371 posts
Every part of Ireland has plenty of archeological sites and historical areas. It also has wonderful scenery everywhere, though my preference is for the west. I use viamichelin.com to judge driving distances and times. But you do need to add about 25% to their time estimates, particularly in the west, where you might be using smaller roads that are more likely to be impacted by farm equipment or animals in the road. If you want to have two bases, I would suggest that you move them a bit farther apart. Otherwise, there isn't much a benefit to moving.
Posted by
Fairfax, Virginia
348 posts
It probably depends a lot on your own driving style and how you react to driving on the other side of the road. I found driving timesd in Ireland to be similar to what I found off the motorways in Scotland, and for me, the driving time estimates in Google were pretty close. Perhaps try some of the drives you did in Scotland in Google or ViaMichelin and see how trhey compare to your experience, then adjust what they tell you for Ireland accordingly. And as already noted, allow time for livestock/farm/truck delays, and also for unplanned detours to things you find interesting along the way.
If you haven't already found these, here are a few sites I used to find some interesting stops of archaeological/historical interest that are less known:
http://www.megalithicireland.com/index.html
http://www.monasticireland.com/index2.htm
http://irishantiquities.bravehost.com/
http://www.saintsandstones.net/index.htm
Posted by
OP
Cathlamet Washington
19 posts
Thanks for the input. I am leaning toward doing something I've never done before and that is let whimsey guide us. I have always made arrangements for all of our accommodations ahead of time and let the amount of time we had in an area help us decide what we wanted to see most. I know that choice may be limited be trying to book only a day or two in advance and because we prefer to do a lot of our own cooking, finding self catering last minute might not be easy, but with all the B&Bs and small hotels in Ireland, it might add some nice surprises to the trip. Also, we have decided to add another week to this part of the trip. Gotta say I love the flexibility of retirement!