Clockwise or Anticlockwise?

Organised coaches run the Ring of Kerry anticlockwise. Out of Killarney, west toward Killorglin and Glenbeigh, round the coast, and back through the mountains.

Two things about that are worth getting right, and one of them is contested.

It is a convention, not a law

You will read that buses are “required” to go anticlockwise. We could not find a regulation, and the sources that describe it describe a practice rather than a rule.

The reason it holds is practical rather than legal: on a road with long narrow stretches and few places to pass, coaches all travelling the same way never have to negotiate past each other. One meeting between two buses on the wrong bend holds up everyone behind both of them.

So: expect anticlockwise, but do not repeat the claim that it is mandated. We are not going to assert a rule we could not find.

Which side to sit on

The left. Going anticlockwise, the sea is on your left along the coastal stretch, which is the half of the loop people photograph.

Seats are frequently unreserved on these tours. Board early. It is the cheapest possible improvement to the day and nobody mentions it at the door.

If you are driving yourself, the advice genuinely conflicts

This is where honest sources disagree, so we will lay out both rather than pick one and pretend.

“Go anticlockwise, with the buses.” You travel in the same direction as the coach traffic instead of meeting it head-on, so you are not the one reversing into a hedge on a single-track bend.

“Go clockwise, against them.” You will meet buses, but you will never be stuck behind one for an hour with nowhere to pass — which is the complaint most self-drivers actually have.

Both are real arguments made by people who have driven it. The honest resolution is a timing one: coach departures cluster in the morning, so a clockwise driver setting out early meets fewer of them, and an anticlockwise driver starting before the coaches has the road to themselves either way.

The quiet advantage of the coach

Whichever way a self-driver chooses, they are managing coaches all day.

On the tour, you are the coach. The single most common frustration on this road — being trapped behind a slow vehicle on a stretch with no overtaking — is not something that can happen to you.

That is not an argument that the tour is better. It is an argument that the tour’s real benefit is not the one operators advertise, and it is worth weighing against the freedom you give up.

So, which?

Taking a tour: the direction is decided. Sit on the left, and pick your departure by where you are sleeping — Killarney or Cork is the actual choice.

Driving: start early, before the coaches, and go whichever way you like. After about ten in the morning, the argument stops being theoretical.