The Notebook
Roads, from the notebook.
Everything we have filed under roads: what we saw, where we stayed, and what we would do differently.
Roads
Entry No. 01
After Rain
Connemara when the cloud lifts
Forty minutes of light on the Twelve Bens, after a morning of grey.
Entry No. 02
The Long Way Round
Lough Tay from the Sally Gap, in the wrong weather
The dark inland lough below the Wicklow uplands, seen from the bog road above, on a day the cloud will not lift.
Entry No. 03
The Long Way Round
Fanad Head, the last lighthouse before the open sea
A working lighthouse on the northern tip of the Fanad peninsula, where Lough Swilly opens to the Atlantic and the sky is bigger than the land.
Entry No. 04
The Long Way Round
The Mournes from Newcastle
An hour from Belfast, a different country entirely.
Entry No. 05
The Long Way Round
The Mournes when the bracken turns
C.S. Lewis country, on the week the colour comes in.
Entry No. 06
The Long Way Round
The Vee Pass in Tipperary
A road that opens up the entire valley, best seen when the mist is lifting.
Entry No. 07
The Long Way Round
The Healy Pass from Adrigole
The serpentine road across the Beara Peninsula.
Entry No. 08
The Long Way Round
The Sky Road out of Clifden
Where Connemara meets the Atlantic.
Entry No. 09
The Long Way Round
The Headford road into Connemara
The transition from farmland to wildness.
Entry No. 10
The Long Way Round
The road to Slea Head, just after rain
Dingle Peninsula, when the light comes back.
Entry No. 11
The Long Way Round
The Ring of Kerry, the wrong direction
Why we drive it counter to the buses and what you see.
Entry No. 12
The Long Way Round
The Causeway coast in late light
Antrim from Belfast to Bushmills, taken in the wrong order.
Entry No. 13
The Long Way Round
The Sky Road out of Clifden
Connemara's small loop, the one most visitors drive past.
Entry No. 14
At the Edge of the Atlantic
The Burren on a grey afternoon
When the limestone is the right colour for it.
Entry No. 15
The Long Way Round
The Beara peninsula when everyone else is on the Ring
Cork and Kerry's quieter peninsula, driven slowly.
Entry No. 16
The Long Way Round
Sheep's Head, driven slowly
The smallest of the south-west peninsulas, and the best for an afternoon.
Entry No. 17
The Long Way Round
Mizen Head on a clear afternoon
The south-westernmost point, when the bridge is open.
Entry No. 18
The Long Way Round
The Wicklow Military Road
Dublin to Glendalough the long way, over the bog.
Entry No. 19
The Long Way Round
The Gap of Dunloe on foot
Kerry's narrow valley, walked rather than driven.
Entry No. 20
The Long Way Round
Inishowen and the northern headlands
The most northerly road in Ireland, almost no one drives.
Entry No. 21
The Long Way Round
The Cooley peninsula out from Dublin
Louth in a half-day, the bull and the mountain.
Entry No. 22
The Long Way Round
The coast road from Galway to Doolin
Two hours of Atlantic with the Burren on the inside.
Entry No. 23
The Long Way Round
The back roads of West Cork
From Skibbereen to Schull, by way of nothing in particular.
Entry No. 24
At the Edge of the Atlantic
Achill Island after the bridge
Mayo's largest island, fifteen minutes from the mainland.
Entry No. 25
The Long Way Round
The Headford road into Connemara
Galway to Cong, the road few visitors take.
Entry No. 26
The Long Way Round
The Vee Pass in Tipperary
The Knockmealdown mountains, in a one-hour drive.
Entry No. 27
The Long Way Round
The Healy Pass from Adrigole
Beara's mountain road, twenty minutes that takes an hour.
From the notebook
Editorial itineraries from Ireland.
Collected notes. A few times each season.