Ireland - Healy Pass (Driving videos)

The Healy Pass is a world renown "very dangerous road". It is 12.7km long and connects counties Cork and Kerry, with truly stunning views. It is a famine road, meaning, the government paid people to build the road during the famine to give them money since they couldn't farm or earn money in other ways. 

It twists and turns through the mountain. It is VERY NARROW, and there are so many blind turns. It is dangerous, although I will say, it felt a little safer than "normal" I can't recall what the speed limit was there, but either it wasn't as excessive feeling as "normal", or we just didn't drive the speed limit at all. But it was easier in parts, to see cars way off in the distance, drive until you find a slightly wider bit, and wait there to pass each other. You can see this done in a video below. Most of the drive the passenger side of the car is on the side of the cliff that goes way way down. We were both white knuckling it at times, but Brian did great!

Many of Ireland's roads, though not technically the most dangerous ones, felt much more dangerous than this, honestly. Maybe it's because the posted speed limits on roads similar to this were 100km/h. When driving just over 40km we felt reckless and on the verge of sudden doom (due to a crash, or falling off a mountain). But regardless, the Healy Pass is worth the minutes shaved off your life from anxiety. We were driving (as were most people) the teeniest cars possible (mini cooper or fiat size for USA comparison. Tiny), and two cars of that size can not pass each other. My single car driveway is wider these roads, for sure. It felt like driving on a laneway of some sort.

Sheep. Everywhere.

You can see two parts of the road winding around in this pic. It's a lot of back and forth for some reason. Maybe to account for steep/grading. Or maybe just because. Hard to tell.

He jumped a fence and was on the edge of a massive drop. You can't really tell that with all the green and the perspective of the pic, but he's up really really high

A waterfall

 Video of when a small van came flying around the blind corner, and Brian slammed on the brakes. 

We had a bit of trouble finding certain roads, because the signage and the maps aren't too clear. Hard to tell when it started and ended, really, because it was all scary

The sheep and cattle we saw just roaming about - they are spray painted to know whose is whose I presume, but it was unclear how they ever caught/found/collected their animals. We never saw any people or nearby farms or anything.

To pass a car on any road, there are certain spots in the road that are just a touch wider. Making it wide enough for 2 cars to pass. You wait for cars you see coming at these spots, or back up to get back to them if caught by surprise (which happened often).

Should have put this video first, I think it was the beginning of the pass.

Car stopped viewpoint

Healy Pass - highest viewpoint

 O'Shea's Forge was owned by Brian's great-grandfather, and is still there (not operational). One of his mom's cousins wants to turn it into a B&B. We didn't find it specifically, but it is in the area we were driving in. When Brian's parents were there a few years ago, they found it and got pics.