Ask ten Irish people to name the best scenic drive in the country and you’ll get eleven different answers — all of them passionately defended. That’s the thing about Ireland’s roads: they don’t just take you somewhere, they show you something. A mountain that ambushes you from behind a bend. A bay that looks painted. A stretch of bog where the silence feels like it has weight.
We’ve put together our list of the ten most breathtaking drives in Ireland. Some are world-famous. Some are quietly brilliant. All of them will make you pull over at least twice. But here’s the real question: do you agree with our ranking? Have we got your favourite in here at all? Tell us in the comments — and if we’ve missed a gem, we want to hear it.
10. The Wicklow Gap, Co. Wicklow
Just an hour from Dublin, the Wicklow Mountains feel improbably remote. The Wicklow Gap road rises through open moorland, past the dark waters of Lough Nahanagan, and crests a ridge with views that stretch to the Irish Sea on a clear day. It’s the drive you do when you need to remember that Ireland is stunning — and you only have an afternoon to spare. The Military Road, which runs the length of the Wicklow Mountains, is its more dramatic sibling if you want to make a full day of it.
9. The Burren, Co. Clare
The Burren is unlike anywhere else in Ireland — or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. A limestone plateau the size of a small county, it looks lunar in places: cracked grey rock stretching to every horizon. But drive slowly through it and you start to see what’s hiding between the cracks — rare wildflowers, ancient dolmens, the odd bewildered stoat. The road from Ballyvaughan down to the Cliffs of Moher is a complete journey through Ireland’s geological soul. Give yourself the whole morning.
8. Inishowen 100, Co. Donegal
Donegal gets overlooked — and that is precisely what makes it magnificent. The Inishowen 100 is a signed loop around the Inishowen Peninsula, Ireland’s most northerly point. It takes in Malin Head (the actual tip-top of the island), Mamore Gap (a heart-stopping mountain pass with a shrine at the summit), and Lough Foyle’s glassy waters. The light up here has a quality that photographers travel from across the world to capture — that soft, slightly theatrical northern Atlantic light that makes everything look like it’s being gently spot-lit from above.
7. The Copper Coast, Co. Waterford
This is Ireland’s hidden coastal gem, and we’re slightly nervous about putting it on a list. The Copper Coast — named for the copper mines that once ran along this stretch of the south-east — is a UNESCO Global Geopark, and the R675 coast road between Tramore and Dungarvan is one of the finest drives in the country. Rocky coves, Victorian ballrooms turned beach-side cafés, red sandstone cliffs tumbling into a pewter sea. Half the people who discover it say they’re coming back to live there. Most of them mean it.
6. The Connemara Loop, Co. Galway
Connemara is the Ireland of the imagination — bogs, mountains, lakes, and white cottages that look like they’ve been dropped there by a benevolent giant. The loop from Clifden takes you through Letterfrack and Kylemore Abbey (where the neo-Gothic castle reflected in the lake is almost offensively beautiful), along the coast of the Twelve Bens mountain range, and back through Joyce Country. This is also the gateway to the Aran Islands, if you want to extend the adventure to somewhere that feels genuinely ancient.
5. Slea Head Drive, Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry
The Dingle Peninsula has two great drives — the Conor Pass over the mountains, and the Slea Head circuit around the tip of the peninsula. Slea Head edges it. The road narrows to single-track in places, forcing you to slow down enough to actually look: Iron Age beehive huts perched on clifftops, the sharp silhouettes of the Blasket Islands in the Atlantic, sheep who have absolutely no intention of moving for you. On a clear evening, the sun drops behind the Blaskets in a display that has reduced grown adults to tears. We’ve seen it happen.
4. Causeway Coastal Route, Co. Antrim
The northern coastline of Antrim is Ireland showing off. The A2 coast road from Belfast to Londonderry takes in the Giant’s Causeway (40,000 basalt columns cooling into perfection 60 million years ago), the precarious rope-bridge at Carrick-a-Rede, the ruins of Dunluce Castle hanging over the sea on a shelf of rock, and the nine Glens of Antrim cutting down to the water. This is the drive that made Game of Thrones film here. If you only do one drive in northern Ireland, this is the one. Allow a full day and don’t skip the Glens.
3. Gap of Dunloe and Black Valley, Co. Kerry
The Gap of Dunloe is a glacial pass cutting through the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks — Ireland’s highest mountain range — and the road through it is barely wide enough for one vehicle. In summer, jaunting cars compete for space with cyclists and walkers. Go in spring or autumn and you might have it to yourself: five lakes connected by the same river, purple mountains on both sides, absolute silence except for water and wind. The Black Valley, tucked behind the mountains, was the last place in Ireland to receive electricity (1976). That remoteness still feels palpable.
2. Wild Atlantic Way — Donegal Section, Co. Donegal
The Wild Atlantic Way runs the entire west coast of Ireland — 2,500 km from Donegal to Cork — but the Donegal section is its most savage and spectacular stretch. Slieve League, the sea cliffs that stand three times the height of the Cliffs of Moher, appears without warning. Fanad Head lighthouse has been photographed so many times it should pay a modelling fee. The road between Ardara and Glencolmcille follows the edge of the Atlantic as if daring the ocean to come closer. This is Ireland at its most elemental — raw, windswept, and completely unforgettable.
1. The Ring of Kerry, Co. Kerry
It’s famous for a reason. The Ring of Kerry — the N70 circuit around the Iveragh Peninsula — is 179 km of continuous splendour: the Skellig Islands appearing like broken teeth on the horizon, MacGillycuddy’s Reeks towering inland, Kenmare Bay glittering below, and Killarney’s lakes bringing it all home in the most satisfying finale in Irish motoring. Yes, it can get busy in high summer. Yes, the tour coaches take the circuit clockwise for a reason (go anti-clockwise in a car to avoid them at every passing place). None of that changes the fundamental fact: this is one of the finest drives in Europe, and the south-west of Ireland rewards anyone who lingers.
Do You Agree?
That’s our list — but here’s what we know: you’re already disagreeing. Maybe you think the Healy Pass in Cork deserves a spot. Maybe the Sheeps Head Way has your heart. Maybe you drove the Sky Road outside Clifden once in evening light and you’ve never recovered. Tell us in the comments: what’s the most beautiful drive you’ve ever taken in Ireland? And what would you bump off our list to put it in?
These arguments are exactly what Ireland is made of. We want to hear every one of them.
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