The West Coast of Ireland.

[TanselleTooTall]

I have always fancied the idea of holidaying somewhere in Ireland, especially so along a coast. Frankly it all looks beautiful, both inland and coastal.

I don't really know why but I'm gravitating towards the west coast although I really like the idea of visiting the very south.

I know I'm whittling on (sorry!) but the reason I am posting is to ask if anyone is familiar with west Ireland and if so, where would they recommend to visit. I would really appreciate the help.

We live in the very inner city so when we go away we only ever book self catering homes that are secluded, rural, situated on a farm, a quiet spot by a canal, tiny village etc etc. We love to walk and we take advantage of the hiking trails that are usually found nearby. We MAY visit a castle if there's one nearby/wander about a market or specialist fair/or even do a run of charity shops for the day in the nearby town, however we mostly hole ourselves up and spend the week taking in the immediate area, enjoying the lack of people and the quiet. That's just about as adventurous as (alliteration wasn't deliberate!) we get when we go away and I've included that info to put into context the type of holiday we like.

I would love to be minutes by the sea, eating cockles and oysters fresh from a seafood stand..my children would as well.

There are 6 of us, me, DP, and children aged 12, 9, 4 and nearly 2.

Thank you in advance for any help given. I am really looking forward to reading suggestions.

Oh, meant to add, Galway is truly lovely but it's got very popular in recent years and prices have shot up especially in the summer. So if you do decide to go there book as early as you can.

Westport! Just beautiful... must declare I am of Westport stock and very very bias

So many options. Research the Wild Atlantic way.
Cork and the Ring of Kerry is fab. Clare (Loop head and kilkee, Also Cliffs of Mother and the Burren and Bunratty castle and folk park). Connamara, Westport and Ballina up towards Downpatrick head.

If you might go to the south, don't take a ferry from Scotland, you'll only have to drive the length of the country. Better to go from fishguard to Rosslare.

If you are getting the ferry over from Scotland then you'll presumably land in Ulster. Which has some amazing coast of its own, the Glens are lovely as is Portstewart, they're both in NI, then Donegal is over the border and it's something else. If you wanted to do the west coast having got the ferry from Scotland I guess you would go to Donegal? I've done Larne to Donegal north coast drive before and it's about 1.5 hours but probably take you a bit longer to hit the west coast.

We had the most amazing day staying in Killarney, which I'd highly recommend- you can get a little boat from the castle all the way through the lakes to the Gap of Dunloe. The lake trip was absolutely amazing. It's a spectacular walk (or a horse-drawn cart ride) through the gap to Kate Kearney's cottage. If you google Gap of Dunloe boat tours there's a few different companies who offer it.

We've drove from Scotland ferry at troon then down to Connemara, it a loooong drive it took us around 7/8 hours remember there's no motorways, it was totally worth it though, beautiful part of the world.

Spiffs has lovely thatched cottages. Be sure to get one in the sea side of the road, last time I made the mistake and rented in the opposite side, and it just doesn’t feel the same.

Spiddal not Spiffs!

Hello everyone. Sorry I haven't replied to all your wonderful comments and recommendations. I'm depressed again and I pull away from social media. For what its worth (seeing as this isn't a particularly interesting thread for everyone else!) I will come back soon enough to go over all places mentioned and I hope that we can afford to go maybe this year and have a really good time. So what I'm trying to say (rambling, again) is I appreciate all the suggestions and none of them will go to waste so to speak.