Scotland - Wales - Ireland - back to Scotland

[redsquare]

Thinking of planning a 12 day trip to Ireland and was wondering if anyone had any good road trip advice / places to stay for that part of the country. Will be leaving Scotland driving down to Pembrokeshire West Wales where my family lives. Then plan to get the ferry at Pembroke or Fishguard do most of the days in Ireland (hence advice for this part of the trip) then Ireland to Stranraer.

All places of interest / great roads to take in both Southern and Northern Ireland would be gratefuly appreciated.

[FatFergie]

Great move Redsquare, BTW, are you a commie?

Sorry you haven't got a reply to now, I'll address that.

Where you go depends hugely on the interests you have and the amount of time you'd like to spend on the bike each day. Ireland and Northern Ireland together are a big little country in as much as there's loads to do, Loads of roads and travelling times are slower than just about anywhere else in western Europe.

I couldn't say " do this " or " do that" because my advice would be just come and let your route find you, I see tourists with itineraries running around "like mad eejits" as we say here, ticking off the important sights but never getting to see the real Ireland.
I tend to avoid the big sights, Blarney, Killarney etc are fabulous in their own way but you can get just as good off the beaten track with people who care, an example being the time Sugarbunny and I stopped in an ugly bog town famous for nothing except having a turf powered electricity station and having the best time in a nondescript pub that was in no way " oirish" and was everything Irish.
I would also probably advise going west simply because even though there are great roads all over Ireland there are more in the west.

Let me know what your interests are; history, music, food, sport etc and I might be more able to give you more specific advice. Maybe if it suits, one or two of the site members can join you for a few miles or otherwise, we're all over the place so should be somewhere close to your travels.