The Wild Atlantic Way

Today’s weather wasn’t great to say the least. If you are interested take a look at the radar or satellite for Ireland at the moment and you’ll see what I mean. It was with some misgivings that I decided to stick to my original plan and go to Arranmore.
From east of Kerry to near Londonderry the road along the coast is known and signposted as The Wild Atlantic Way. If I’d had the time if would have been wonderful to drive all 2500km of it. Up until today I’ve taken the wild to mean the wild beauty of the lamdscape. Today though I got to experience the wild weather.

Unlike other ferries that I’ve taken this one wasn’t a “roll on roll off” in which you drive on one end and drive off the other. This one you backed onto it and drove off. The tide was low and it was quite steep reversing down the ramp. I obviously didn’t look to confident as one of the ferry guys came and offered to reverse the car for me. I gladly accepted his offer.

The crossing itself was okay. The route is relatively sheltered as it finds it’s way through some small islands before arriving on the east side of Arranmore.
I set off to drive to the lighthouse but took a wrong turn and ended up on some really narrow roads where a lot of the bitumen had washed away in parts. I found my way back to Leabgarrow which is where the ferry came in. There weren’t a lot of options for lunch as nothing looked open but I found a pub that did ham and cheese toasted sandwiches (and that’s all they did) but it was fine for lunch.
After lunch I set out again to find the lighthouse. It’s on the northwestern tip of the island and the weather there was quite ferocious. The rain was coming in horizontally and quite hard. I didn’t take a lot of photos as I didn’t want to get out of the car and even winding the window down sent in stinging rain. I could barely see the ocean through the rain. I’m sure it would be amazing on a fine day. I tried to take the ring road around the island but the weather got worse and so did the road so I went back to Leabgarrow. I was concerned that the ferry might be cancelled but on the other side of the island the wind was much calmer.

As I turned the car around to reverse in the same guy as before came up to the car and I was again very happy to let him put the car on the ferry. I’m sure I could have done it but I’m equally sure he was a lot quicker than I would have been.

Once back on the mainland I headed for Inishfree island (which isn’t an island) just for a look. Again the weather was quite wild.

I finished up with a stop at a service station laundromat to do a wash before coming back to the hotel.Read more