I am trying to plan our first trip to Ireland starting with our route around the country. Our 3 week trip begins Sept 8 and we are flying in and out of Dublin.

I guess I'm an "orderly" person when it comes to traveling in a circle so my 1st thought was to drive out in the direction of the Wicklow area and begin our clockwise circle tour of Ireland from there and end up in the Newgrange area before returning to Dublin for our last 4 nights.

Considering September weather would it be better to go to Newgrange first , then over to the Galway/Connemara area early on our route rather than later? I didn't know if there is much of a difference in temperatures/rainfall in Ireland at this time of year between the east and west coasts of Ireland.

I'm just beginning my research and I hope to discover what you find so magical about Ireland on this trip. Thank you for any suggestions or comments you can give. Deborah

I suggest you read "Last of the Donkey Pilgrims" by Kevin O'Hara for a beautiful story of a circumnavigation of Ireland by donkey cart.

Deb:
With three weeks please you could include the North..dramatic scenery, good feel..perfectly safe these days. In four trips, we've always gone clockwise. the entire perimeter, and a good part of the middle. Leaving Donegal, you can head for the North sea coast, remarkable Giant's Causeway, the pretty Glens of Antrim and Belfast (an underrated city, IMO). Two of our visits have been in Sept/October...had comfortable weather, not much rain....and no summer hordes.

stu t.

Stu, thank you for your observations. I didn't want to include Northern Ireland on this first trip. I'd like to do our travels as slow as possible and feel there is so much to see and experience in Northern Ireland that we should leave that for our next visit.

My husband is a cautious person and I can tell him Northern Ireland is safe but it takes him one visit to a country before he is gets comfortable. I know he believes there is still religious strife in the north. He's a wonderful travel partner so I have to allow him his lack of adventure from time to time!!

spaarne, thank you for the book recommendation. My local library does not have it but I can buy it on Amazon Deborah

I have done both directions and can't recommend either over the other. However, if you end up going clockwise, you'll end up at Newgrange and from there it is a fairly easy run into the airport for your flight home.

Another fan here of Kevin O'Hara. It's a lovely story. He comes from a "city" within a short drive of home and I was lucky enough to see his slide show and hear him talk when he was just after coming home from his Donkey trip. We were just at a booksigning for him on Sunday as he has just written another tale, this time of growing up in this area. A truly delightful fellow!

Another story in a completely different vein is "Traveling with a Fridge Around Ireland". In a moment of weakness, when had too much of the drink taken, the author made a bet that he could carry a fridge around Ireland. It was a dorm sized one, but nonetheless, a heavy load. The story is hilarious. Can't remember the author's name, but I saw it on a booklist recently so I would think that it is still in publication.

You might want to rent the Ballykissangel series from netflix or somewhere if you didn't catch it on PBS along the way. The fictional town of Ballykissangel is Avoca in county Wicklow.