Hi, Amy and I, after 3 nights in Dingle, will be driving to Kenmare for the night and I see that there are a few routes to take to get there. Do you have a suggestion for a route? What is it like traveling on R561 to Castlemaine from Dingle? And, has anyone driven on R563 from there to Killarney. We are not interested in the ROK but do want to see the Killarney National Forest. Thanks for any suggestions.
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9369 posts
Both the "preferred" and "sightseeing" routes suggested by viamichelin.com go over N roads, which are like two-lane highways. Any route involving an R road will take you much, much longer. They are narrow (sometimes extremely so), bordered sometimes by stone walls, and much more likely to be blocked by sheep or cows at times. I have been on the R roads in that area, but would never choose to drive on them for any significant distance. In addition, the signage on those roads can be missing (or just misleading), and you can get incredibly lost in a very short time. Most of my experience comes from taking what looked on paper like a shortcut, but which turned out to take twice the time (at least).
Posted by
Anchorage, Alaska
103 posts
Once you get to Ireland you'll get the hang of what kinds of roads you like to drive. Some of the N roads are wider than others, with shoulders and aren't so twisty & narrow. But, some N roads were just 2 lane roads, nothing like a highway in the American sense. We really loved the R roads, we had a Fiat Punto and it was fun to drive. My husband drove fast but still not as fast as the locals! It's hard to go much faster than about 35 to 40 mph on them because they are so twisty, but he managed. We only had a couple of times in 2 weeks with cattle or sheep on the roads and a couple of times with slow moving farm vehicles. The M roads are boring but fast. We tried to avoid them as much as possible.
Posted by
Yakima, WA
47 posts
R561 b/w Dingle to Castlemaine was one of the straighest roads I drove, with the exception of the motorways. Lovely scenery and a nice break to go straight and thus a little faster. As for Killarney National Park, N71 is quiet scenic and the main road. But I LOVED driving over the Gap of Dunloe (which the locals keep a secret for good reason). If you want to see Muckrock House and Ross Castle, you'll have to go N71. If you just want scenery and less people, go the other way --- just beware you may be stuck behind horse and buggies aways.
Posted by
OP
Mt. Vernon
94 posts
Hi Buffy,
It's great to hear that you took R561. Thank you for passing on this information. How did you access the road which goes over the Gap of Dunloe? Did you take N70 thru Killoglin, then N72 to the turn off to the Gap? And once beyond the Gap going South did you hook up with R568 and take that into Molls Gap? I'm excited about this new route. Thank you so much for telling us about it. Andy