Meet the R569.
An ordinary R-road, a back road winding through the Kerry hills and along the Roughty Valley.
A road just like any of hundreds of other rural R roads the length of the country.
Except . . . the R569 is special. It is somehow deserving of a 100kmh speed limit, more deserving than all the other R roads which are 80kmh as standard, even roads like the R132 which are former N roads now bypassed by motorways, often wide and straight and with hard shoulders.
The R569 is 100kmh all the way through the narrow twisty section to Morleys Bridge and beyond, with signs every km or so just in case you thought it was a mistake.
All the way to Kilgarvan, home of Jackie Healy Rae, after which, despite being generally straighter and wider, it is the standard 80kmh to the bigger town of Kenmare.
Odd that, isn't it?
Aquavid
