Wild camping in Ireland

[samleeds]

We are about to set off on a round Ireland trip. Has anyone done it and are there plenty of wild spots to stop overnight, or is it better to plan in advance

 

[Wooie1958]

Message trevskoda, he`s the daddy when it comes to all things Irish :dance:

 

[Clunegapyears]

Just arrived in Kerry. Wilding fine. Use the Motorhome craic app. Also park 4 night is good. Pubs are also very relaxed if you have a drink or meal. Enjoy.

 

[jann]

Last time we went was 2011.Three weeks no plans, didn't go on a camp site.Mainly wild with a couple of Aires.
There are a few Aires with service points if you do a search for them.
The one I remember offhand was at Askeaton.
There are others mentioned in Brit stops book,but I'm sure you should be able to find others on the internet.
When we were there food was cheaper in the North and diesel cheaper in the republic,

 

[Debroos]

Loads better than England for wilding!
As said Motorhomecraic app is great. There are quite a lot of spots along the Waterways Ireland rivers and canals. Free to park, sometimes have toilets and showers if you buy a card, reasonably priced. They also sometimes have rubbish bins too!
Don't put household rubbish in litter bins in the roi, it's illegal!
Enjoy!

 

[trevskoda]

Simple to wild here,up north around donegal is best and some bits down west coast,n/ireland has some aires both in donaghadee co down and broughshane village co antrim,also portrush at back of fire station though it is on a slope.
Antrim coast rd has lots of places to hide out but do go on round to donegal if you want to find good spots and places to go.

 

[Roger Haworth]

I've wild camped in Ireland both south and north on quite a few occasions. The only problem I came across was height barriers on several nice looking car parks.

 

[malagaoth]

wild camping in Ireland (Republic of) is easy as pointed out you main problem will be disposing of your household waste

there are several aires/motorhome stops
Askeaton Co Limerick
Eyeries (Beara) county Cork
Goosey Island (Sneem) county Kerry
Middleton county Cork
White point county Cork
Buncrana county Donegal

being a few some are free others are about €15 some provide rubbish disposal others dont as with many things in Ireland what you pay often isnt reflected in what you get!

 

[Canalsman]

Not directly related but an amusing anecdote ...

Around 1970 just after I had left school two school chums and I spent a couple of weeks touring by car in the Republic. Our nighttime accommodation was a tent.

One night as dusk fell the fog came down and it was so dense it was not sensible to drive any further.

So as soon as we spotted a wide grass verge we pulled off the road and pitched the tent. We had a very peaceful night in the middle of nowhere.

Or so we thought ...

The next day dawned sunny and bright. As we emerged for a few stretches and to enjoy our surroundings revealed in the fresh light of a new day we were a little surprised.

About 50 yards away was a house, and our tent was on their front lawn!

The Irish, being an extremely hospitable nation, demonstrated this in the best possible way. The house owner greeted us cheerily and invited us in for a cooked breakfast ...

Not sure that would have happened in Blighty!

 

[Clunegapyears]

Chris. James has a similar story, but they woke to find they’d pitched on a golf course green. No breaky offered though.

 

[Moped]

Park 4 night and motorhomecraic are perfect for Ireland. Plenty of water taps around the coast. Use organic septic tank friendly fluid for easier brown water disposal. Waste disposal an issue in Ireland so little and often is essential. Also LPG filling stations are limited if this is required. Off peak many height barriers in the nice looking car parks are left open. Buy your diesel in Eire and your alcohol in NI. Cans of Guinness in Eire are more than twice the price of NI which is surprising considering! You will have a fantastic time!

 

[trevskoda]

Lots of bins and disposal places in the north,bag it down south and pay.
As you go down or east coast wilding is harder but up north no prob.
Most places will soon be out of season at end of mth so dont leave it to late.

 

[malagaoth]

I know that the question was about wild camping but I should point out that most caravan sites in RoI close at or about the end of september

 

[UFO]

We went around the coast in April, 30 nights. See post #33 on the last page of this thread Round Ireland with a Campervan for where we went and general info.

Enjoy, you should have better weather than we had.

 

[samleeds]

roads

Ive just been informed that the roads around the west coast are very bd and if i want smooth ride to forget ieland as there are potholes everywhere. in fact the sender was adamant that in places over 20 miles per hour cant be reached its so dangerous for the suspension. Can anyone comment please as i dont fancy shaking my van to bits

 

[malagaoth]

In rural areas the universal method of road building is tar spraying and scattering stones on top, of course this is common more or less everywhere but in Ireland they have their own twist on it -

they never sweep up the loose stones so driving at any sort of speed results in your underside being shot blasted and any on comming traffic travelling at speed will throw up stones cracking your windscreen and chipping your paint work

of course the loose stone eventually migrate to the side of the road - widening the carriageway especially on curves to the point that the road doesn actually have an edge it just merges with the countryside

the road surface slowly rises up out of the landscape due to the aggregation of decades worth of tar and stone chippings
the best example of this used to be in Westport (its resolved now I think) the road surface was fully 3 feet above the level of the shops and footpath

In short, yes there are pot holes but your speed will be so limited by other factors that you will have planty of time to avoid them.

That said there is a great motorway system which I implore to to use as soon as possible before it too becomes a cart track

 

[trevskoda]

Ive just been informed that the roads around the west coast are very bd and if i want smooth ride to forget ieland as there are potholes everywhere. in fact the sender was adamant that in places over 20 miles per hour cant be reached its so dangerous for the suspension. Can anyone comment please as i dont fancy shaking my van to bits

Bull ,most of the main roads are good and built with eu money some 20 years back.
No if you go of the main roads yes some very scary roads but i have managed at 30mph to get to some very wild parts away from numptys.

 

[Clunegapyears]

Italy, Greece and parts of Portugal are worse. We are on the ring of Kerry at the mo and yes we’ve had to slow up a few times and our cupboards have rearranged themselves, but that’s pretty on par for travelling. The UK roads can be abysmal. At least here there is little traffic and people are considerate and patient!

 

[trevskoda]

Italy, Greece and parts of Portugal are worse. We are on the ring of Kerry at the mo and yes we’ve had to slow up a few times and our cupboards have rearranged themselves, but that’s pretty on par for travelling. The UK roads can be abysmal. At least here there is little traffic and people are considerate and patient!

Just wait till you gets up norf,i could give you a few hints on nice out of way places like caupchin monestry ,national park outside lettery kenny which has nice grounds and free bus up to castle,cost about £5 for hr tour and well worth it.