Hiking

Hello all of you,
I'm planning to visit Ireland in March for a month, backpacking and hiking.
The idea is to walk as much as possible and to use transports as less as possible.
I'm not walking to walk but to see nice landscapes, especially mountaineous areas.
I'm well trained and experienced for hiking and for orientations so no need of a highway-trail.
I'm planning to camp and I can be autonomous several days (I've already experienced up to 12 days).
Any ideas of trips ? I guess it won't be continuous or straight ... but I just wouldn't like 3 days in the north than 4 days in the south-east and finishing by a week in the west with 400km of bus in between !
Feel free to give me any advices or share your experience,
Thanks
Cederic

Check out
Websites
- http://www.mountainviews.ie/. User rated walks
- http://www.mountaineering.ie/. Official mountaineering council of Ireland. Everything here from clubs, events, festivals, guides etc..
- http://www.walkireland.ie/homepage.aspx. Overview of walking trails in Ireland.

Books
- 30 Irish Adventures (http://www.30irishadventures.com). 7 walks plus loads of other adventure activities covering both North and South Ireland.
- Walking Ireland by Lonely Planet

In south east Id do something like wicklow way or barrow way, in the north Id do a walk on north Antrim coastline taking in Giants causeway, glens of Antrim etc...

Hope this helps..

Lovely area

Thanks, I've already bought the lonely planet "hiking in irland" but there are mainly small day-hikes not really close to each other ... that's the reason for my message ! But thanks for the websites :-)

You could easily spend three weeks in Connemara using this excellent book. It looks like it might be out of print but you could try to buy it loaclly in Roundstone. I've used it extensively.

Another question ... which area(s) have the most spectacular and scenic landscapes for you ? Connemara, Northern coast, south-est, ... ?

Do you mean areas that are good for hiking as well as having scenic landscapes? Connemara has to be one of the best areas for both scenery and hiking possibilities. There are access issues in some parts of the Republic of Ireland.

Certainly, the southeast is probably the least spectacular. Pleasant, yes, but not spectacular. County Donegal is spectacular in parts but you'd need to do some careful research about hiking there.

I love the North Antrim coast in Northern Ireland but, again, you'd need to research the hiking there to be sure that it's what you want.

Conclusion of the Tour ... It got slightly different but amazing !

I like to take pictures, so here is the summary :

http://picasaweb.google.com/cedric.schuster/Ireland#

Thanks for your useful information anyway ! Thanks Ireland :-)

Looks like you got to both Connemara and the North Antrim coast. Good for you.