When my sister & brother-in-law invited us to join them for a trip to Ireland, I decided that driving the XKR would be more fun than flying & hiring a rental. So, a 5-hour drive from London to Fishguard in Wales, a 3.5 hour ferry trip, an overnight stay in Rosslare and another 5 hours driving (including a detour to collect the other half from Shannon airport), and I was in darkest Kerry. Spent 7 days bumbling around Kerry, Dingle and Limerick, and have just completed the run home.

So, things we have discovered:

1. "You don't want to start from here"
2. It didn't get to be the Emerald Isle without constant watering
3. Rural Ireland is a culinary desert
4. The Irish drive at 80-90 km/h, regardless of the 100 km/h speed limit
5. There are a lot of tractors, horse trailers and trucks, and most of the roads are winding 2-lane blacktop
6. You can deal with points 4 & 5 easily if you have 530 HP and a short straight (record for the trip: 6 vehicles in one pass)
7. Long division: XKR into Irish road will go, but with very little remainder - see pics

 

HOLY MACEROLE DUDE!!! YEEEEEHAW!!!!! An awesome trip most of us could not accomplish because we cant bring our Jags!!

 

It was fun - nice to be on some 'normal' roads rather than just motorways, like being back in NZ. And the Jag handled everything very well, even the really rough road over the Gap of Dunloe (that's the one with the stone bridge in the photo). I was a bit worried about the low, firm suspension, but it was fine.

 

I bet that was a little tense driving. We went to Ireland a few years back landing in Shanon and touring the south going back up to Dublin. Stayed in a few B&B's and played golf at OLD Head , Ballubunion and Killarney. Did most of the tourist stuff but the fun was driving a stick shift on the other side of the road. It kept my wife on the edge of her seat , LOL. The people were great and the beer was great and we had a good time. You just never know when the sheep will be in the road or a tourist buss will be coming around the corner. No need for big HP where we went as it could only get you in trouble.

 

Fantastic and thanks for sharing, road trips is what I miss the most here in the US. Endless highways to get some scenic roads.

 

Well, I was in some of the same places - we were based near Killarney for a few days and near Adare, Co. Limerick for a few more. Yes, on the little country roads like the Ring of Kerry, discretion is the better part of valour, and you need to be ready to stop & pull over if necessary. But the HP comes in handy when you're on an N road and everyone's stuck behind a truck.

 

very dissapointed to miss your vist, you were just 1 hour from me. Wud have loved to have got a pic of our xkr's together, gutted.

 

Had a good laugh at #3. No wonder they drink.

 

Sounds like we had a similar trip. We visited friends in Limerick (don't remember how many Guinness' I had) and then stayed at the Adare Hotel. I can't imagine your drive at the Ring Of Kerry but it sounds like fun. We did Blarney and a few other towns . Great trip and some day we'll do northern Ireland. Glad you had fun.

 

Sorry, mate, it was a bit full-on - our time in Adare was for family research, so we were rushing about visiting churchyards and history centres.

 

The family name is of Irish Palatine origin - German Protestants who came to England as refugees in 1709, and were sent to work on Irish estates. They were in various places around the Rathkeale/Adare area; in fact, there are still some close to Adare. So part of the trip was to dig into some family legends - for example, we eventually managed to establish that the Post Office that my great-great-grandmother ran in Adare is now part of the Dunraven Arms hotel.

 

Did they look after your car well on the ferry?

 

No insults or injuries from the ferry - the only 'tonk' I had on the trip was when I pulled over on the north side of the Connor Pass and ran over one side of a flat rock, which flipped up and belted the underside. No visible damage.