An insider's guide to driving around Ireland in 12 days, by Irish-Australian taxi driver SEAN BREHON.

Ask anybody about any tourist spot in Ireland and you will get the answer, "Aye, you have to see that. Aye, that's a must". To do it all you would have to go and live there and, as my grandfather used to say, one lifetime is not enough. Besides, there's the rain. So, here is a dozen-day tour around the edge of Ireland (in an anti-clockwise direction, of course!) and let's hope it doesn't rain at all.

Outside the cities and major towns, it's as quiet as anything and the rules of the road and the signposting are largely familiar (don't be one bit afraid of 'ghost islands' or 'heavy plant crossing'!). But farmers on tractors (minus the rear-view mirror) need to be taken into consideration on those narrow, windy country roads.

If it is geologically true that the southern part of Ireland originated somewhere near the South Pole, then Australians and New Zealanders will feel at home here! But remember that tectonically the northern half came from the North Pole. So, what happened and what will you find?

Day 1
Where to start? Most people land in Dublin, which was known as the second city of Europe in the eighteenth century and it's still there! Most tours of Dublin can be done on foot and/or by guided tour bus and these are interesting, affordable and, in season (April to September), regular. Your interests, from archaeological or architectural, through historical and military, to zoological or zymurgical, will be taken care of _ the people in Guinness will tell you where to go if you ask them about zymurgy! When you get your energies back you're ready for day two and you can venture outside The Pale. But you will need a motor car.

Sure, Iarnrod Eireann or Bus Eireann will get you to the major provincial centres and the major tourist spots, and Northern Ireland Railways and Ulsterbus will do the same for you from Belfast. There are, of course, many private bus tours as well.
But there is a hidden Ireland out there and you will need the car to find out your own secrets.

Day 2
Less than an hour from the capital of the modern Republic you will arrive at the round, green Hill of Tara in County Meath, the seat of the High Kings of Ireland. There's not much of Tara's Halls left there now but plenty for the imagination. Down the road a little way, call in to Slane Castle if U2 or some other class act is playing.

Next, it's only a short drive back in time (4,500 years or so) and down the road to Newgrange, a megalithic tomb capable of holding 1,000 cremated bodies and built 1,000 years before the Pyramids of Egypt. Also eye-catching is the La Tene style of decoration with striking Celtic whorls and spirals on the gravestones.

But you must hurry on your way towards Belfast past Drogheda and Newry to see where 'the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea' and to visit Downpatrick to pay tribute to one of the two or three St Patricks of hymn and story and history.

Day 3
Belfast could be a day's exploration by itself but you'll be tempted away to relax in 'the green glens of Antrim' and then have a gentle sway on the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge near Ballintoy. But don't do this if you've just come from Bushmills Distillery 20 minutes ago! Instead, go to The Giant's Causeway, which isn't far away. Try not to be disappointed by the size of it — pictures are misleading — and just marvel at the 37,000 columns and at the Giant's Organ.

On your way to Stroke City (Londonderry/Derry) along the scenic coast, call in at Coleraine to see if you can spot any sign of the Fir Bolg (the leather sack people) who landed there 10,000 years ago and were Ireland's 'aboriginal aborigines' _ they were nomadic hunter-gatherers and lived chiefly on the coastlands and around lakes because 80 per cent of the island was covered in forests, mainly oak. It's hard to know who were the first 'aborigines' of Ireland and in some (hi)stories the Celts were the third wave of boat people or even the seventh.

Day 4
Next day you leave the Walls of Derry (the legal name for the city at the present time) and head for Donegal. Anywhere in Donegal is good on a fine day but you shouldn't miss Glenveigh National Park where you may have your first brush with Gaelic/Celtic speakers, the third/seventh group of Irish aborigines, found mainly in the western parts of the county and indeed of the country. There are native Gaelic speakers scattered over six or seven counties and there are only 70,000 of them altogether. They look like everybody else these days and speak English as well as anybody in Ireland. So you'll have to listen carefully and try out any few words you've picked up and you'll find them particularly warm and willing to help.

Now, you can pick up an umbrella and good Donegal tweed anywhere in the county, but as you're going through the south near Leitrim, turn east back into The North (Irish directions indeed! Remember, any road in Ireland will take you to any place in Ireland; that's important to remember when you ask for directions _ don't ever give up!).

Where were we? Oh yes, Beleek. You will find some fine pottery and china in Beleek. While you're there, it's not far to Caldragh churchyard on Boa Island at the northern end of Lough Erne. There you will see the only Janus-like stone head in Ireland. Do hurry back in the direction of Sligo before nightfall, passing 'bare Ben Bulben's head' in the clouds. Yes, you're in Yeats country. So, cast a cold eye on his grave in Drumcliff churchyard before you lodge in homely Sligo town.

Day 5
You could spend a Yeats summer-school week in this county searching for lake-isles and bee-loud glades before you pass by, west into County Mayo. There you will find the finest fishing in the country, especially the fly-fishing in May on the Moy. But you can find great fish anywhere, anytime in Ireland.

Pass on to Ballina (accent on the third syllable) and further north-west past Killala (the second syllable) to meet the second lot of Irish aborigines, the farmers. On an unspectacular hillside overlooking the sea you'll find their farms all marked out by stone walls and even by traces of their dwellings. These are the Ceide Fields of the Stone Age farmers who sailed in at the dawn of the Neolithic age around 4,000 years ago.

Now, you have to reach Westport before night. Stay there or somewhere between Clew Bay of the hundred islands and Croagh Patrick, which you won't have to climb, for your sins, unless it's the night of the 29th of July.

Day 6
Wriggle your way down into jaw-dropping Connemara. With all that spectacle it is easy to forget to visit Killary Harbour but don't, because it's Ireland's only fjord. If you manage to get to Galway city, remember that university students, not all of them young, have been known to deliberately fail exams so that they could stay another year in the City of the Tribes. Have a good night!

Day 7
You're allowed only the one night in Galway. Do try, at least, to get as far as The Burren in County Clare, just south, not an hour's drive away. This area has been compared to the moon but in spring it reveals its geological ancestry through both alpine and tropical flowers rubbing shoulders gaily with each other, half hidden by the limestone slabs.

If you haven't seen a cave in a while, the Ailwee Caves are worth a visit, and certainly don't miss the Poulnabrone Portal Dolmen to see how individuals were buried. There are hundreds of dolmens around the country but this is the biggest one. You may need a spa in Lisdoonvarna after all that moonscaping or you could visit the Cliffs of Moher, but stay the night in Doolin, the traditional Irish music capital of Ireland. There are dozens of B&Bs there.

Day 8
If you want to really get away from it all, take the ferry from Doolin to one of the three Aran Islands, less than an hour away. You will talk more French than English or Gaelic on Inis Mor (Innismore, The Big Island), so cosmopolitan has it become.

Inis Mean (Innismaan, The Middle Island) is the most unspoilt, but Inis Oirr (Innis(h)ere, The Eastern Island) is amazing. It is a maze of walls, dry-stone walls, and the only soil was 'made' over the centuries by the people covering the rocks with seaweed. Only 300 people live here all winter and in summer most people come to learn Gaelic. Authentic traditional singing is strong here. There is always music in the three pubs and when they close at 2am there is authentic traditional dancing in the hall. Everybody dances and dances well. There are no Gardai (police) to enforce laws and there are no roads or cars to cause death _ just a couple of tractors to haul visitors' luggage from the quay or the airport to one of the many B&Bs.

Day 9
Catch the early morning ferry back and take one of the many roads to Ennis. You can avoid Limerick (of Angela's Ashes fame), though it is a fine Viking city renowned for singing and churches and rugby, by taking the ferry from Killimer, south of Ennis, to Tarbert in North Kerry. If you have made good time, go a little west to Foynes and there you will see in a museum the last seaplane to travel regularly between Rose Bay, Sydney and Lord Howe Island.

Then you have to get to Tralee, about an hour away. From there take the coast road and climb up through the Conor Pass to Dingle. Take the coast road, to the south of the peninsula this time, and you will pass by the Blasket Islands which have produced so much classic Gaelic literature but which are now deserted. Further on you will see circular, rounded beehive huts made of stones corbelled in layers to the dome. Monks came to pray there in isolation.

Don't forget to check out the Ogham Stone nearby in the grounds of Kilmalkedar Church. It is an example of Ireland's earliest writing that was used on gravestones. Masons scored groups of notches on the corners of tall rectangular stones to denote the various letters of the alphabet. Ogmios was the Celtic god of writing.

When you get back to Dingle, if you have time take the road to Killarney and you will have a million B&Bs to choose from around 'heaven's reflex' and a million places to visit.

Day 10
You should be on the road early to 'do' the Ring of Kerry in an anti-clockwise direction so that you don't get stuck on the narrow roads behind the buses, which do the Ring in the opposite direction, in theory. If you really want the isolation, austerity thing, stop at Ballinskelligs and take a boat to Sceilig Mhichil — Mont St Michel is a palace by comparison.

Then you can break off from the Ring at, say, Sneem, and head through beautiful, unchanged Kenmare towards Bantry in West Cork. There are touches of a Mediterranean climate in West Cork and you will see it in the plants there. It will take you several hours to get to Cork by the coast road, even if you resist the temptation to visit the original Baltimore or to check out the environmental Marine Station on Sherkin Island. But you will want to get to Kinsale and spend the night in the gourmet capital of Ireland.

Day 11
You will be keen to visit Blarney Woollen Mills and Blarney Castle to kiss or bite the famous stone. But don't miss out on a quick visit to Cork city itself _ the many branches and bridges of the meandering Lee, the majestic South Mall, the triple-spired, French-Gothic St Finn Barre's cathedral and, on one of the many hills of the city, Shandon steeple. As you reluctantly head east for Waterford, you will find, only 15km away and just off the road, Fota House and gardens and arboretum and wildlife park, and just a little further off the main road Cobh ('cove'), the last port of call of so many Atlantic liners heading for the New World, the Titanic included.

If you have seen enough of coast roads, turn a little inland at Midleton and soon you will be in another world of quaint and forgotten towns in the valley of the Munster Blackwater. Then suddenly you will see Lismore Castle, one of the many lived-in-to-this-day castles throughout the country. It is owned by the Duke of Devonshire and was the birthplace of Robert Boyle of 'Boyle's Law' fame. The famine graveyard, one of the many, many in Ireland, is worth a visit and where else will you find two cathedrals? Remember, though, you have to be in Waterford tonight.

Day 12
Waterford is another Viking city with many historical sites but you will probably also want to visit the Waterford Crystal factory. You are now heading for the two counties that still retain their Viking names, Wexford and Wicklow, as well as, I feel, their Nordic accent. The more scenic route to Wexford is on the ferry from Passage East, if you can find the little road there _ it's out past the hospital! Enniscorthy is dominated by its Norman Castle, but Vinegar Hill across the river is very evocative for those who study the history of that period.

On your way back to Dublin there is one more place that must be visited and that is Glendalough, the Glen of the two Lakes. It is one of the most picturesque glens you will ever see and has the sixth-century monastery of St Kevin in the graveyard by the river, with one of the best-preserved Round Towers in the country.

If you have time, Powerscourt Estate and Gardens are very well worth a visit and there too you will also find the highest waterfall in Ireland. Good luck on your journey back to Dublin — go neiri an bothar leat (may the road rise with you)!

You could easily book ahead on the internet, but you could also take a chance on finding accommodation as you go.

There are four good hours of sunlight from 6pm till dusk right through the summer months and there are dozens of B&B signs on every road into every town in Ireland.