Scenic Drives

• Loophead Peninsula – Tour the Coast

  The Loophead Peninsula incorporates natural beauty, tranquillity, and breathtaking coastal scenery. Yet few people seem to know about or find it. There are no shops or interpretive centres, indeed precious few buildings, and you may well be alone as you drive along or get out to walk the cliffs. Beginning your journey from Doonbeg Golf Club, from the main entrance take a right turn and follow that round into the village of Doonbeg itself. At Morrissey’s pub take a left turn and head out the road to Kilrush.
  
  The town of Kilrush developed as a substantial seaport early in the 19th century. The central part of the town is a broad mall, leading down a gentle hill slope from the Town Hall at the top to the harbour at the bottom. Some of the dignified, three-storey houses, which line it, have fine gardens behind them, and there is an air of restrained opulence about it all. The newly painted Town Hall has an exhibition devoted mainly to the harder times of the middle and late 19th century when some singularly unpleasing landlords held sway.
  
  A little way offshore is Scattery Island from whence a sea serpent was banished by St. Senan who celebrated his achievement by building a monastery there in the 6th century. A round tower and ruins of many of the buildings remain. The present day sea beasts are gentler than the legendary serpent; a community of dolphins lives in the Shannon estuary. Scattery Island Ferries are based at the Marina and operate daily trips (20 minutes) to the island during the summer. In the off season, you can make local arrangements for the trip. Down near the quayside the Scattery Island Interpretive Centre is open June to mid-September.

• Burren Drive

  The coast road takes you to Carrigaholt, a small fishing village on two streets with many pubs and restaurants. The first sight of the village is quite dramatic, as the 15th-century castle, built by the McMahon clan in 1480, stands beside a stone pier framed by the lower Shannon estuary as it meets the Atlantic Ocean. Carrigaholt, meaning "Rock of the Fleet," still provides the first safe anchorage for ships as they enter the Shannon. Due to its location on this remote peninsula, there is an island feel to the area, unspoiled and refreshingly underdeveloped. Visit the information centre in the village square, then go to the Castle Pier where you can catch one of the daily dolphin watching trips or stop in at the only fresh fish shop in West Clare for wild Atlantic salmon and shellfish.
  
  The coastline westward from Carrigaholt assumes a more dramatic character with high cliffs sculpted by Atlantic storms where cliff pastures, rock ledges, and caves are homes to seabirds, seals, and a flock of wild goats. A premier European bird watching area, look for birds uncommon elsewhere like choughs, Europe’s rarest member of the crow family, and peregrine falcons. The road leads you through the village of Cross, which affords a fine view of the mouth of the Shannon and the Kerry Mountains. Away to the south you can see Mount Brandon, the mountain sacred to St. Brendan the Navigator, and beyond it, the Blasket Islands.
  
  After 1 km the road splits. Take the left fork along the south shore and carry on to the tiny village of Kilbaha, the last parish before America. A further 2 km west will bring you to the end of the peninsula and to the Loop Head Lighthouse. Here you can stretch your legs amongst the spectacular wild flora and scenery of Loop Head. See Cuchulan’s Leap, a sea stack broken away from the tip of the head and the nestling ground for thousands of kittiwakes and fulmars. This is also a good location to look out for migrating whales such as minke and fin whales.
  
  Unless your car has wings, you can go no further. Turn back towards the north and take the first fork to the left and next turn to the right to go to the church that you can see nearly as soon as you leave the Head. Here rests the Little Ark, one of the most touching relics of times of religious intolerance. It seems the landlord who owned the country for many miles around would not allow Mass to be celebrated on his property. However, as he did not own the beach between high and low tides, at low tide the priest and the people would wheel the Ark, a wooden shelter originally supported on four wheels, down to the foreshore and worship not only in peace but with well deserved satisfaction. There is a lovely stained glass window of the scene above the door in the church.
  
  Turn back towards the north and park your car where a signpost indicates the Bridges of Ross, a geological phenomenon where natural rock bridges connect towering cliffs to rocky outcrops, passing high above the Atlantic. The car park gives a view of rugged cliffs, backed by folded limestone strata, weathered in places so that the impression is of sculpture rather than forces of nature. Follow the narrow footpath for half a mile to see the wonderful natural arch, spanning a narrow cleft in the rock.
  
  Then take the road along the ridge of the peninsula in the direction of Kilkee, a popular resort established in the glorious days of the West Clare Railway and immortalised in song by Percy French. (Near Moyasta, between Kilkee and Kilrush you can travel on-board the Old West Clare Railway). Situated on the Atlantic facing a scenic semi-circular sweep of sand which slopes into the bay, Kilkee enjoys the warmth of the Gulf Stream, and is protected from the might of the Atlantic by a reef across the mouth of the bay.
  
  Back to Doonbeg? Then head on the N67 out of Kilkee. Travel about 9.5 km and you will arrive back in Doonbeg Village. From the village, continue straight for another 4 km. The entrance to Doonbeg Golf Club will be on your left...look for the flags!

• A Drive around the Wondrous Burren

  The northwestern corner of County Clare, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the quieter waters of Galway Bay, is a rock garden of no ordinary proportions. The Burren extends over more than a hundred square miles and most of it is bare, pale grey limestone. If there were nothing but rock, a tour might become tedious, if spectacular for a while. But the rock is enlivened by big or small patches of green pasture or little pieces of hazel woodland. On the pasture, and in the many crevices in the pavement of rocks, there are countless wildflowers making the region a mass of colour. Besides all this, it is mountainous, has a wonderful seashore, and is liberally scattered with the monuments created by its human inhabitants in the course of six thousand years. While the greatest numbers of wildflowers are in bloom in May, the Burren is unique and worth a visit any time of year.
  
  From Doonbeg take a left onto the main road and continue on that road until you get to a T junction. Take a left at the junction towards Quilty on the N67. Pass through Quilty, Milltown Malbay and Ennistymon (approx 37 km in total). After Ennistymon take a right onto the R481 and continue onto the town of Kilfenora.
  
  Our route makes a circuit of the Burren, beginning at the ancient cathedral town of Kilfenora, which is 45 km from Doonbeg. There you may visit the Burren Centre, located in a whitewashed village schoolhouse, which features an excellent interpretative centre explaining the wonders of the Burren Region. Kilfenora itself is a very interesting place having enjoyed fame as a great religious centre. Much of the old cathedral remains, together with a fine sculptured high cross.
  
  The road westward leads through Lisdoonvarna, which doesn’t quite fit in with the wilderness, but has good shops and restaurants and various sources of entertainment. Its popularity stems from the nearby mineral springs and spa where you may indulge in all sorts of health treatments. A popular watering place since the 18th century, Lisdoonvarna offers a distinctive form of therapy for lonely hearts in the form of a matchmaking festival every September.
  
  Signposts for Fanore and Black Head show the way to the coast, passing Ballynalacken Castle, perched on a cliff top. The coast road is very welcoming to visitors and more than one fisherman’s cottage has taken to providing delightful home-made meals.
  
  Stop anywhere along the way, get out of the car, and walk for as much as you like over the pavement-like stone amongst the wildflowers. The dryas, or mountain aven, is one of the most abundant, a pretty white flower with a yellow centre. Usually found only on very high mountains or in the Arctic tundra, the existence of these flowers in the Burren is part of what makes the area so exciting and unique. Other beautiful Alpines of the Burren are the blue gentian and a variety of saxifrages. Take a walk down to the shore at Fanore. Here the rocks of the Burren meet the sea, which carves them into wonderful shapes. The rock pools are encrusted with pink and purple algae and are the home of the very remarkable purple sea urchin. These spiny creatures are able to burrow into the rock and are ever so slowly eating away the Burren. The mushroom-shaped islets just off shore are the result of their activities.
  
  A bit north of Fanore you meet the only visible river in the Burren (all the others flow in underground caverns). The road beside it takes you to the ruined church of Fermoyle. That is where the Green Road begins, one of the most wonderful footpaths in Ireland, wandering for miles over the hills, amongst the wildflowers, all the way back to Ballynalacken.
  
  But if you don’t feel that energetic, keep to the coast road. This will take you around Black Head, with its little lighthouse below the level of the road, and on to Ballyvaughan, a harbour village with many good places for shopping, seafood, and other refreshments. A signpost there shows the way to Aillwee Cave. One of many deep caverns in the limestone, it differs from the rest by providing guided tours for visitors, which leave from the information centre (which is also an excellent spot for a meal). Even if you don’t want to be led by very knowledgeable and enthusiastic young people into the silent and spectacular underworld of the Burren, you should drive up the hill to admire first the view and then the centre, a brilliant architectural achievement using stone walls to blend with the rugged surroundings.
  
  From Aillwee take the road south. It passes close to many of the stone-age tombs and ceremonial places which are liberally scattered throughout the Burren, memorials to a distant time when the area supported a wealthy farming community. The Poulnabrone Dolmen is one of the finest and it features on more postcards than almost any other Irish monument. Looking like a huge table, it is made up of a great slab of limestone resting on two long flagstones. Excavations in the 1980s showed that people had been buried beneath it more than five thousand years ago.
  
  A little south of Poulnabrone Dolmen is Caherconnell Stone Fort, one of the best preserved stone forts in the Burren. Further south of Poulnabrone, the ruins of Lemaneh Castle stand by the roadside. A combination of a 15th-century fortified tower and a Tudor mansion, it was the home of the redoubtable Maire Ruadh O’Brien in the turbulent days of the 17th century. Her descendants agree with serious historians that she never threw her third husband out of one of the beautiful windows - but it is a good story, nonetheless. A right turn here brings you back to Kilfenora, three miles to the west, completing the circuit. But the left turn sets you on the way to Ennis and some more of the highlights of the region.
  
  Two miles down the main road, a signpost for Cathair Chomain takes you into the depths of the Burren, passing a ‘wedge,’ another kind of stone-age tomb. In contrast to the open-ended dolmen, the wedge tomb is a sort of box, made of slabs of limestone. About a mile farther on, another pointer to Cathair Chomain shows the way along a little track to a parking space beside ancient farm cottages. There you take to your feet, following a stony path and passing a little hazel grove where wild orchids and ferns enjoy the cool shade. Finally the Cathair presents itself, concentric rings of great stone walls whose outer defense is the precipitous wall of a deep chasm. While people lived there in the iron age for security, it is now a place for meditation, the ground carpeted with mosses and the exquisite star-like flowers of rare saxifrages.
  
  Coming to Kilnaboy, look for a sheela-na-gig, a provocatively sculpted female figure, above the door of the ancient church beside the road. Then proceed towards Corofin, passing the beautiful Lough Inchiquin on the right. A church building on the edge of Corofin now houses the Clare Heritage Centre, a museum which also offers a genealogical research service.
  
  On leaving Corofin, you turn right onto the R460 and then left onto the N85 until you get to Inagh. Turn right onto the R460 and continue on that road for about 13 km. Following the signs for Milltown Malbay, turn right onto the R474, pass Milltown Malbay, and turn left onto the N67 through Quilty. About 3 km from Quilty, take a right (signposted) back to Doonbeg.
  
  Please note: The people of the Burren welcome visitors to Ireland’s most extraordinary landscape. The Burren may look rugged, but it is also a fragile place and is always under threat from increased human activity. The limestone pavement, flora, and built heritage are the resources on which tourism in The Burren thrives. Respecting and conserving this resource is extremely important.