Ireland by campervan: best regions and routes

Areas of Ireland

The regions of Ireland: the Wild Atlantic Way, the Ancient East and Dublin

Ireland is small enough to cross in half a day and slow enough that you should not. The Wild Atlantic Way runs 2,500 km down the west coast with 180 signed Discovery Points, and it is where the scenery, the crowds and the campervan byelaws all are. The east is drier, flatter, quicker to drive and far easier on a long vehicle. Pick by how much reversing you are willing to do.

Cork and Kerry

Cork and Kerry: the south west, and the busy end of the Wild Atlantic Way

Five peninsulas, the highest mountains in the country and the wettest weather in it. Valentia Observatory on the Kerry coast averages 1,646 mm of rain a year, more than twice Dublin's, and the landscape is the direct result. This is also where Irish campervan tourism is most concentrated, which cuts both ways: more services, more pressure, more full car parks.

Best May, June and September

What it is like

• Green to the point of absurdity, and wet enough to explain it. Pack for rain in July.
• Cork city is the best food in Ireland and an easy city to like. Kerry is the postcard.

Where to go

• The Dingle peninsula and the Slea Head loop
• The Beara peninsula, quieter than the Ring of Kerry and better

For the vehicle

• Cork County Council is the constructive one. It publishes a motorhome policy, a code of conduct and a county map of designated motorhome parking.
• Slea Head and the Ring of Kerry are signed one-way for coaches. In a long vehicle, follow the coach direction.

Clare and Galway

Clare and Galway: the Burren, Connemara and the strictest campervan byelaws in Ireland

The Cliffs of Moher, the bare limestone of the Burren, the Aran Islands and then Connemara: bog, quartzite mountains and a coastline that keeps turning back on itself. It is the most photographed stretch of the Wild Atlantic Way, and it is also the stretch where councils have legislated hardest against overnight campervan parking.

Best May to September

What it is like

• Shannon Airport's July mean daily maximum is 19.5 °C, the warmest month on the Atlantic side of this guide, which tells you how warm Ireland gets.
• Galway city is compact, musical and impossible to park a van in. Leave it outside.

Where to go

• The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher
• Loop Head, the quiet alternative to the cliffs

For the vehicle

• Clare has four 2023 byelaws prohibiting overnight camping outright, at Doughmore, Loop Head Lighthouse, Illaunamanagh and across the whole of Lisdoonvarna village, on a €75 fixed payment.
• Kilkee allows it in one marked area, eight campervans, 48 hours, and prohibits it everywhere else in the town.

Mayo, Sligo and Donegal

Mayo, Sligo and Donegal: the north west, where the Wild Atlantic Way empties out

The best reason to drive the whole coast rather than the famous third of it. Achill, the Mullet peninsula, Sligo's mountains, the Donegal headlands and Slieve League, with a fraction of the traffic of Kerry. It is also the wildest end of the country: Malin Head averages a July mean daily maximum of 17 °C, the coolest in this guide, and the wind is relentless.

Best June to September

What it is like

• Emptier, cheaper and more exposed than the south west. Whole beaches with nobody on them.
• Donegal has large Gaeltacht districts. Gaoth Dobhair and Gleann Cholm Cille are the names on the signs.

Where to go

• Achill Island and the Atlantic Drive
• Slieve League, the sea cliffs in Donegal

For the vehicle

• We found no campervan-specific byelaw published by Mayo, Sligo or Donegal, but that is a gap in what is published rather than a permission.
• Donegal's town car park byelaws carry the standard clause that a parked vehicle may not be used for camping or caravanning. It is boilerplate and it is rarely signed.