CORK’S John Creedon has embarked on an epic 2,500 kilometre road trip along Ireland’s west coast for a new RTE documentary.
Creedon’s Wild Atlantic Way is a new three-part series due to be broadcast on RTÉ One, starting on Sunday July 26 at 6.30pm.
The series — three one-hour specials — will see the RTÉ presenter travel from Kinsale, the official starting point of the Wild Atlantic Way, to Malin Head in Co Donegal by car, ferry, currach, helicopter, cable car and horseback.
“My car is always happiest when it’s pointed west,” John claims, whose vehicle of choice for the journey was a 1960s VW campervan that he named ‘Seanvan’. His parents had one just like it in the 1970s.
His journey started in Kinsale, which will be featured in the first episode. His travels in Cork included a visit to Jeremy Irons’ castle in West Cork, where he discusses the actor’s love of the west of Ireland.
Afterwards, he visited Schull and the site of a recently discovered pirate ship off its coast, Barley Cove, Beara, Dursey Island — via Ireland’s only cable car — and took a helicopter out to Fastnet Rock, where he had ‘an absolute blast’ with Neilly O’Reilly, the former lighthouse keeper on the rock.
Music is a big part of the show, according to John, with later episodes showing a recreation of a trip to the Cliffs of Moher by the Beatles, with Steve Wickham of the Waterboys and Steve Wall of the Stunning stepping in.
John said the thrill of discovering the nooks and crannies of the west coast is unlike anything he has ever experienced in his travels all over the world.
“I’ve been lucky in life in that I’ve got around China, India, the Middle East, Australia, the Arctic Circle, and they have all been fantastic but, genuinely, the most beautiful place in the world is the west of Ireland.”
Later episodes include a fishing trip with Donegal actor Sean McGinley and unprecedented access to what was Ireland’s only nuclear-powered lighthouse off Slieve League.
The theme music for the series has been recorded by Corkman John Spillane.
The Wild Atlantic Way is Ireland’s most marketable tourism product at the moment.
The 2,500 km driving route passes through nine counties and three provinces, stretching from County Donegal’s Inishowen Peninsula to Kinsale.
Along the route there are places and attractions which have been designated as points of interest for travellers.
Tourism bodies have pinpointed the Wild Atlantic Way as a unique selling point for potential overseas visitors to Ireland. It is loosely modelled on the Great Ocean Road in Australia.