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| Our happy little Fiat Punto. |
Today's guest post is written (and partially illustrated!) by the official "make-sure-we-don't-die" expert extraordinaire: Jason. Enjoy!
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I loved driving in Ireland – sure, we had to repair a punctured tyre and bent rim, but isn’t that all part of the adventure? And how else would I have met that nice mechanic in Galway? As the old saying goes, “You can’t know a city until you’ve fixed 2 tyres in it.” (Okay… I might have made that up.)
Over the course of 2 weeks we drove 1,700 km (or, if you’re playing the home game, 1056 miles). It really didn’t seem that far as everything is extremely close together; Ireland as a whole is about the same size as Washington State, though it’s noticeably narrower across the middle and taller from top to bottom.
None of our drives really felt that long since there was so much to do along the way – that is, when we weren’t stopping to eat veggie soup and brown bread. A castle here, a breathtaking view there, an ancient burial tome across the street – Ireland is rich with history.
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| Dunguaire castle, just south of Galway outside the town of Kinvarra |
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How to be a good driver in Ireland:
In my opinion, the thing about driving in Ireland – if you’re going to be any good at it – is that you must drive like the locals. What does this mean? Well, it means going 80-100 kph down country roads, not stopping for pedestrians, parking wherever you want, and merging into traffic whenever and however you feel like it.
It’s such an opposite experience to that of driving in the States – not just for the obvious reasons of being on the wrong side of the road, wrong side of the car, and shifting with the wrong hand – but for the sheer freedom and exhilaration you feel. I felt like I was speeding most of the time and I wasn’t even going the speed limit.
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Ready to hit the road?
Well, not quite. You see, there are 4 types of roads you will encounter: Motorway, National, Regional, and Local. Your typical M and N roads are similar to our highways and arterials. We didn’t drive down any L roads, as those are practically people’s driveways.
R roads are where things get interesting though. Imagine a typical 2 lane country road here in the US – now make the lanes narrower, so narrow that your SUV will struggle to fit. Oh, and how about we remove the shoulder on both sides (that’ll be fun!), and replace them with hedge rows, buildings, ditches, and/or stone walls. This is a typical R road in Ireland.
It’s not uncommon to hear the leaves of the hedge rows slapping the passenger side mirror as you race down the back country roads. It's not all fun and games though, if you get too close you might lose a side mirror or dent your rim (not that I would know anything about that).
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| An R road on the way to Clonmacnoise (between Dublin and Galway). Notice that this particular road has no lines - and a tractor coming at us. |
There’s definitely a reason cars are so small here: it’s out of necessity. And after driving a small car around for two weeks, I kind of liked being more agile and zippy. Maybe a Fiat Abarth is in our future! ;) However we don’t have to worry about dodging sheep or tractors back home, and our roads aren’t nearly as fun to drive on.
For reference, here are some Kph to Mph conversions:
30 kph = 19 mph (Schoolzone. Remember: children are not sheep.)
50 kph = 31 mph (Your typical in-the-city speed limit)
60 kph = 37 mph (As you’re approaching the city limits)
80 kph = 50 mph (Once you’ve left the city and R road speed limit)
100 kph = 62 mph (R and N speed limits)
120 kph = 75 mph (M speed limit)
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Rules of the road:
Some basic rules of the road you will have to adhere to when driving in Ireland*:
- Parking: Park anywhere you can, even if it’s in the middle of a road. Our Newgrange tour guide said, “The Irish don’t park their cars; they abandon them.” This is very accurate.
We saw many creative parking jobs over the last couple weeks: up on the sidewalk, blocking an entire lane along a harrowing cliffside drive… the list goes on.
Also, it’s not uncommon to have a gas pump along the side of the road; you’ll have to stop partially in the street if you want to fill up. You’ll get very used to driving around people, cars, and sheep alike.
- No unprotected turns: I found this interesting and very relieving; there is no turn on red. You do not move unless the light tells you to.
The unexpected result of which being that driving is much more enjoyable when you don’t have to worry about the person behind you honking if you don’t turn on red. It’s also much safer this way both for the cars and pedestrians.
- Red lights with green arrows: The first time I saw one of these it was confusing. Basically, it means everyone stop except those that are going in the direction indicated by the arrow.
So, a green arrow pointing right accompanied by a red light means that you are now permitted turn. However cars that want to go straight or left still need to wait. Some of these can get kind of tricky, you may even pull up to red light with two green arrows. Just keep in mind that if the arrow is not pointing the direction you're traveling, wait.
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| Red light, green arrow: in this particular example, only cars turning right may proceed. |
- Zig-zags: Before intersections and cross-walks there will be zig-zag lines along the sides of the road. I wasn’t really sure what these meant, but they looked cool. After doing some searching though it turns out that these are a simple solution to making crosswalks more visible.
- Yellow Diamonds: You will notice yellow diamond shaped grids on the street: these mark areas where you're not supposed to stop. They're pretty much in the middle of most major intersections and in front of important roads/driveways that shouldn't be blocked.
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| Zig-zags and diamonds and crosswalks, oh my! |
- New driver decals: Learners have an L sticker plastered on their rear and front windshield. Also, learners aren’t allowed on the M roads, or so a sign I flew past said.
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| Contrary to what you might think, "L" is for "Learner", not "Loser" |
- Road marking colors are switched: Yellow demarcates the edge of the road whereas white marks the middle.
- Fold in your side mirrors. There’s a reason why some cars do this automatically now. Parking alongside a road? Fold in your mirrors, or you may come back to find you don’t have them anymore.
- Roundabouts. Are. Everywhere. I've driven through my fair share of roundabouts, but nothing like the ones you'll find in Ireland. In their favor, they usually have names (unlike the streets – more on that in a moment). While the single lane roundabouts are simple, when you start to introduce two- and three-lane ones that's where it gets a little tricky, especially when they are unmarked (i.e. the lane isn't labeled to indicate that it's for a specific exit).
I ran into a situation where the car on the inside of the roundabout wanted to exit before me and started to turn into what I assumed was my lane. This forced me to exit from the roundabout earlier than intended. As far as I can tell, a good basic rule of thumb for roundabouts (if the lanes are unmarked) is to stay in the left lane if you're taking the first exit and get in the right lane if taking exit 2 or 3.
Signage:
This gets its own section because signs in Ireland are very distinctive. We’ll break it down into a few categories.
That sign you’re looking for? It probably doesn’t exist.
The typical signage that tells you what street you’re on just isn't there. If you’re lucky the street name might be bolted to the side of a building – or maybe a stone wall – most likely somewhere out of sight.
When you come to an intersection the street signs will instead be pointing to destinations. Need to find a particular street? Well, you’re out of luck, but I can tell you how to get to the nearest pub!
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| Signposts point out destinations like B&Bs, hotels, and cities, rather than telling you street names. (Fun fact: Cathair is the Irish word for "city", and, no, it is not pronounced like "cat hair".) |
Some signs just flat out lie.
We passed one sign listing our destination as 7 km away, drove farther down that road and the next sign said 9 km. The sign after that was back to 7 km.
Or maybe they’re just giving you you some mixed messages.
You’ll pass a sign that says 100 kph, then a sign that says Go Mall (Slow Down), and then another sign that says 100 kph about 15 seconds later. Where and when was I supposed to slow down?
Signage might just not exist for the direction you’re going in.
We completely drove past a few turns we were supposed to make because there was no sign. When we turned around and went back, there were now signs for where we were trying to get to, but only from that direction!
Maybe you just missed the sign because you didn’t bring your microscope.
Sometimes I wonder how serious a speed limit sign actually is based on its size. Am I supposed to pay more attention to it if it’s larger? Should I care less if it’s smaller?
I saw a lot of tiny speed limit signs along major motorways – we’re talking circular signs no more than 6 inches across. Good luck figuring that out as you’re driving by. Good rule of thumb, go as fast as the car in front of you; chances are they might actually know what they're doing.
Then there are the overcompensatory “No, we’re really serious this time” ones. That moment when you come to the bottom of a hill and see not one, but three stop signs is when you really know it’s time to stop. Maybe even stop three times. Who knows?
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Road obstacles in Ireland:
Sheep, tractors, and tour buses are all common obstacles you will find while driving around Ireland. The sheep will meander out of your way in their own time; no matter how fast you’re going, sheep just don’t care. That’s just how badass (killer) they are. If you played that much paintball, you’d be pretty badass, too.
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| The "killer sheep" reference is from this Connemara driving tour map. Neither we nor our hosts had any idea why there's a "Killer Sheep" or a "Mr. Pony". |
The tractors are huge and quite slow, so these can be tricky to get around especially if you’re stuck behind one. If they’re coming at you it’s a different story – you just get as far to the left as possible and hope for the best. (Note that closing your eyes when this happens, while tempting to avoid the horror that is slowly but inexorably coming at you, is not only inadvisable but it also does not make your car any smaller.)
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| At least we're behind this tractor instead of it coming straight for us. |
The tour buses however are probably the worst obstacle you will face on the road. You can come around a bend to find one hurtling towards you like a drunken cow stumbling down a narrow hall – best to get out of their way quickly.
There were only a couple close calls with the tour buses, one involved an abandoned (read: parked) car in my lane that I was going around at the same time a tour bus was coming around the bend towards me. The second was on a very bendy and narrow road where we passed the bus very slowly with little more than an inch to spare.
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Getting around (otherwise known as “getting lost”):
You’re most likely going to need GPS to get around the back roads. For some reason our phone was receiving free data even though it wasn’t included with the pay-as-you-go SIM card we bought. This turned out to be very fortuitous since there were quite a few occasions we found ourselves driving in the wrong direction.
Note that getting GPS from the rental company may be very expensive. For 13 days with a rental car, it would have been the same price to just buy a GPS and digital maps for Ireland. In the future we’d probably do this.
Also, if you’re lost just ask for directions. The people there will help you get on the right track – everyone we talked to was incredibly nice and helpful.
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Our poor vehicle:
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| See? You can't even tell we did horrible things to it. |
Our car was a Fiat Punto. It was a real champ most of the time. Maybe it was the bent rim, but the car would begin to shake at 110-120 kph. That’s great and all, but I really don’t need my arms, legs, and butt massaged while I’m trying to drive down the M6.
The CD player wouldn’t play any of the local trad music I purchased. Kim must have sabotaged it.
We couldn’t figure out how to turn off the radio so we just muted it for the entire trip. On the last day we finally figured out that you’re supposed to hold the power button for several seconds to turn it off. This must be an important safety feature so you don’t accidentally turn off your radio. I posited that if you turned off the radio while driving the car would explode. I don’t think Kim agreed.
After the hedge row attacked the car I took it to a garage a couple days later and they hit it with a hammer until it was fixed. The rear passenger tyre was also leaking so I had them look at that, too. This they did not fix with a hammer.
Even though we got the rear passenger tire – excuse me, tyre – patched up, it was still leaking throughout the trip, so during every drive I would stop and fill it up again. The nice thing is that air is free and available at every petrol station in Ireland. I can’t believe that they get away with charging for it back home.
I’m glad that it didn’t really need to defog the windshield, because the air system broke. Early in the trip the car would make these horrible sputtering sounds whenever we were at a stoplight. At first it would go screek screek like an ungreased treadmill struggling under heavy load, but even that finally came to a halt.
I had no idea what was causing the sound, but when it stopped, well, so did the air. Whatever hamster was turning that wheel ran out of steam and gave up. Occasionally, though, it would burst back to life for a few minutes with a sputter, but ultimately it just decided it was easier to stay dead. We spent some time with the windows cracked because it did get quite warm on occasion.
And yes, we had power windows! Well, at least the front two were powered. They couldn’t bother to do all four, I guess – that probably would’ve made the car explode as well.
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Best drives:
Kim hasn’t written about all of these yet, but I’ll link to the ones she has. Here are some of our favorite scenic drives from the trip.
Connemara (Part 1, Part 2)
Simply amazing, my favorite drive of the trip – even if the bugs made one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen unbearable.
The Burren
Very different from Connemara in terms of scenery, more barren and rocky, still had some amazing views and sights.
Conor Pass
One lane mountain pass, have fun trying to pass on the edge of a cliff. It's worth it for the view at the top.
Slea Head
Excellent coastal drive with plenty of history: famine cottages, beehive huts, ring forts, and the Gallarus oratory, to name a few.
Inch
Driving on the beach? Sure, why not! Can’t do this back home.
Ring of Kerry
We only traveled the section from Killarney to Kenmare but it was beautiful – though, beware of buses hurtling around the crazy bends in the road.
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To wrap things up, driving in Ireland is not as bad as people make it out to be, and I even found it to be quite enjoyable. Just do what the locals do, try your best, and you’ll be fine. You don’t have to try to stick to the crazy speed limits (and if you don't feel like you're up to it, just do the polite thing and pull over to the side and let people pass if need be.) As one B&B host put it: “No one can go that fast on those roads. If you did you’d go flying off!” But yet somehow I managed anyway. :)
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* Some of these are tongue-in-cheek. So while the locals may abandon their cars instead of parking, we recommend that you use your best judgment on this one. :)
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