The Irish Mitsubishi FTO Owners Club

Just came across my mind. I just love to hop into my Missy and go for a ride, Here is the list of my favourite drives in Mayo/Galway area.

1. Atlantic Coast drive on Achill Island - beautiful drive, winding road, occasional sheep, minimal traffic, low probability of Garda encounter, amazing scenery, challenging at sections. Advice: take 319 from Keel and drive to the very end of it to Keem Bay to find one of the most picturesque beaches I visited.

2. Castlebar to Bangor - Start from Castlebar, take R 311 turn into R312 after couple of miles (3) and enjoy nice moderately winding road, lots of straights, the traffic is minimal, sections with bumpy road surface, low probability of Garda encounter, nice scenery, watch out for farms scattered along the road and be prepared for ocassional farming machine on the road, but they are easy to overtake, locals have mentality like..., well, locals, they may assume that nobody ever drives on their roads so they do not pay attention just pull into the road, I am working on changing their habits , Advice: from Bangor take road to Portacloy to find some great scenery.

3. Castlebar to Ballina road via Pontoon - R310 from Castlebar, turn into R315 1 km after Pontoon - great road through bogs, with winding sections and some nice straights, enjoyable drive, challenging section app. 10 k from Castlebar, there is series of up and down right and left turns, drive carefully through Pontoon, lot of people walking on the road, moderate traffic, moderate chance of Garda encounter, nice scenery. Go salmon fishing in Moy river in Ballina, if you can (I am ready to kill after 15 min of fishing or I am snoring).

4. Clifden to Leenane road - N 59, really, the part between Clifden and Kylemore is the best, nice winding section, watch out for blind corners and expect some tight bends, expect moderate to heavy traffic, considerable chance of Garda encounter, spectacular scenery. You can visit Kylemore Abbey on the way, or climb Diamond peak in Connemara national park, gardens of the abbey are great during spring/summertime. Leenan to Westport drive is not bad either, and Westport is quite nice little town.

These are my favourite drives in my area, share yours

Great thread idea witcher and one that could help form that basis of future meets.

CJ

Glad you like it, will be updating this whenever i discover some nice stretch of roads
cheers

Really nice drive from Killarney to Kenmare. Up the mountains. Amazing scenery. Can be quite busy during the summer though.

Great topic idea alright, must think of a few to post.

I know all the roads witcher is talking about, all good, and the one via pontoon in particular.

Got me thinkin, might look at organising a meet up around Mayo toward the end of the summer. An over-night in Westport or somewhere would be nice and probably necessary given the distances most people would have to travel.

TopCat wrote:Got me thinkin, might look at organising a meet up around Mayo toward the end of the summer. An over-night in Westport or somewhere would be nice

I agree, would be a good location for a meet, theres always the Pontoon Bridge Hotel if you want total immersion in the scenery...

CJ

Let me know if you need any local help organizing a meeting. September is usually nice here in the west
cheers

You stay there before CJ? might be worth looking into. Certainly is some nice places to see up there.

September might be a good time alright, weather should be good with the kids going back to school, and the rates will be better.
I'll have a proper think about it and PM you witcher and see if we can plan a route or two?

Anything around September that might clash with it, the Limerick show?

( - topic split?)

TopCat wrote:Anything around September that might clash with it, the Limerick show?
( - topic split?)

Limerick show on end of this month

found this on octane.ie, some more fabulous drives:
http://www.octane.ie/news/features.php?id=2
drove Maam to Leenane road, a nice stretch this one.