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
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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!
