#133 The Complete Guide to Driving in Rural Ireland

Ireland is a very small country, with almost all major cities and towns accessible in less than a 3 hour drive from the capital city, Dublin. There are a few different ways you can get around that I’ve outlined below, but the most convenient way to see all Ireland has to offer is to rent a car and drive! I'm Irish and have grown up in the countryside, so I know all the small things you're likely to encounter here!

Public Transport Across the Country

Bus Eireann at Dublin Airport

Our national bus service, Bus Eireann, can take you almost anywhere between towns and cities across the country, and it is often supplemented on popular routes by private bus services that typically provide a cheaper, more frequent and more direct service.

Our train service, Irish Rail, is more comfortable and can reach some places faster than the bus, but usually the prices are far higher and the frequencies less.

Cities like Dublin, Limerick, Cork and Waterford all have local bus services to take you around, and Dublin is supplemented by the DART train, LUAS light rail, and a bicycle rental system. All our public transport has WiFi, although not always so reliable.

Taxi’s in Ireland are expensive, alright for a quick trip back to your hotel after a late night out, but for journeys much longer than 30mins you can expect to pay upwards of 40euro or more.

Most of the gems in Ireland are hidden in the countryside, an hour’s drive from the nearest small town and way out of the way of bus routes and train lines. Basically, if you want to see Ireland, really see Ireland, you’re going to need a car.

Driving in rural Ireland is not for the faint hearted, but on the scale of things around the world it’s not so difficult either! For starters, we are part of that unique collective that drive on the left, so you may need to adjust to that. Secondly, aside from our main motorways and highways, the road quality usually isn’t the best. You’ll find they are usually narrow with no room to overtake, can be very winding with sharp corners and bends, and potholes are commonplace. Many years ago flooding was prolific with locals simply knowing to avoid a certain road after heavy rain, but in recent years most of these trouble areas have been cleared and appropriate drainage built.

A typical main country road between villages

Driving Carefully and Farmyard Machinery

Locals who know the roads often have no problems going excess speeds, even when the vehicles they’re driving are tractors! While it can be a terrifying experience to see them swerve around a bend on your side of the road – as I said they’re very used to it and will have no problem swiftly swerving back onto their side of the road without giving much notice. Conversely, you should be aware that if you are very nervous and break suddenly at every corner in the road you run the chance of being rammed from behind by local drivers who weren’t expecting any sudden stops, or you could cause them to become annoyed and overtake dangerously. It is courtesy if you are driving slowly and traffic builds behind you (even just two cars!) that you find a safe place to pull in and allow those behind you to clear.

Overtaking on most country roads is hazardous, so if you are stuck behind a farmyard vehicle moving slowly (most of the larger, heavy machinery will be on the roads around August – September depending on weather) please be patient for them to find somewhere suitable to pull in, or if they are being particularly oblivious perhaps a slight beep of the horn could remind them. Large agricultural machinery is very expensive to buy and sometimes used only once a year, so one or two machines can be shared between all the farmers in a village or area. It is their livelihood and they cannot help that the machine needs to be driven on sub-par roads to the next farm, so please understand this.

Farm and Wild Animals

Admittedly, it is very unlikely you will come across one of those classic “Irish traffic jam” scenarios with sheep and cows blocking the road. They’re not moved between fields so often, and even so the distance is usually very short so you won’t be held up long. Beeping or revving your engine will only frighten the animals and cause them to bolt making the job more difficult for the farmer and delaying you longer.

If you come across an unattended farm animal such as a cow or sheep blocking the road, revving your engine or driving very slowly towards them should be enough to scare them out of your path. All farm animals will have a marking or colour spray painted somewhere on them, and it is courtesy to inform a nearby house, shop or pub as they often know the owner by the markings (or will know someone who knows) and will be able to contact them to remove the animal before it causes an accident.

You can occasionally encounter horse riders on the roads, and you should approach slowly and wait for a signal from the riders. In some cases these horses are being trained to get used to traffic, so are likely to panic and bolt if you frighten them by making a loud noise or driving quickly by.

While driving at night you need to be aware of many of Ireland’s nocturnal animals which may dash across the road such as rabbits, foxes, badgers and hedgehogs, or occasionally even an old farmer who is stumbling home after a few drinks in the village pub!

“City drivers”

We have a joke in Ireland about the fact that city drivers (from Dublin usually) can’t drive well in rural areas because they are unused to the narrow, winding roads, and also that rural drivers can’t drive well in the big cities or motorways because they get confused with all the different lanes of traffic.

In Ireland you can tell where a car was bought by the letters in the registration plate – for example D means it’s from Dublin while WX means it’s from Wexford. We sometimes try gauge a drivers competence by looking at this – if you see a nervous/slow/bad driver on a certain road and their registration has the name of a different county, then you can assume they’re not from the area and aren’t sure of the roads. In all likelihood your rental car will have a D registration, so locals may take heed you’re not from the area and give you a wider berth. However, the popularity of second hand cars in Ireland means this isn’t always a reliable way to tell.

Parking and Security

Parking is free in most rural places, but be sure you’re not blocking an entrance or parking inadvertently on private land. In a village, perhaps the most suitable place to park up is the carpark adjoining the local church. Some isolated places such as beaches are targeted by petty thieves (probably teenagers) who hide out and wait for you to leave your car, and then break in stealing your wallet or phone. Even if an area looks empty do not take this to be guaranteed, and either take your belongings with you, lock them in your dashboard or at least hide them from view.

It is beneficial to always have a good amount of petrol in your car. Almost all villages will have some kind of petrol station, but they can be spaced far apart and often their opening hours are limited, maybe 9am to 6pm or even less on a Sunday. Therefore, especially in the evenings, it is better to have a full tank because you could end up stranded somewhere at 9pm, or your journey may be delayed the following morning because you need to wait for a station to open. You also don’t want to take a wrong turn down an unknown country road and end up far from a station running low on petrol!

You know it's rural when there's grass in the middle of the road...

Rural Cycling

While it may seem like a nice idea, generally speaking, cycling in the countryside is dangerous – the roads are narrow and lined with wild hedges that are cut maybe once or twice a year, so often branches and weeds will stick out, liable to knock you off your bike or cause you to swerve into traffic. You also must remember that Ireland is a quite a rainy and windy country, even in summer, so there is no guarantee of fine weather for your trip. Some people do it, but I personally couldn’t recommend it.

Caravans and Camping

Since Ireland is accessible by car ferry from the UK and France, we sometimes get European visitors in camper vans. Basically, the same principals as above apply as regarding narrow roads and driving carefully. You should also be aware that it is illegal to park a campervan or pitch a tent on private land without permission, or not at all on public land such as beaches, woodland or car-parks. Therefore, you must really only use your caravan or tent at designated parks and pay fees. However, if you are only staying one night and will clean up after yourself, I think no one will notice you if you stay at a beach or something, since they are not patrolled so often and usually just respond to reports from the public. But officially it is against the law and you should plan to stay at approved sites.

The reason for these strict rules is that in Ireland we have a group called Travellers (like gypsies) who live in caravans and move from one place to the next. They have a bad reputation for staying in large groups in once place for maybe a few weeks, which can affect people who live in the area or who want to park their cars since there is no space. They also sometimes can leave a big mess behind which is expensive and troublesome to clean. While this is definitely not true of all Travellers, it has happened enough times to sanction these laws.

During your time driving around rural Ireland you may encounter none of the above situations – but they do happen and it is better to be prepared and informed than to panic or become impatient.

Driving in Ireland will take you to hundreds of ancient, unique places that would be otherwise be inaccessible, and it is a quick and convenient way of seeing the countryside. Safe travels!