In September, I bikepacked on my Brompton, all along the north coast of Ireland, camping wild every night. The journey was 450km long, and took seven days, so I had six nights wild camping, from the western end of County Donegal to Belfast, pitching my little tent on windswept beaches and headlands, and in hayfields and high up on hillsides, where I could watch the sunset across the valley. I like to go slowly, and I like to be as comfortable as possible - plenty of coffee stops, time to look at the view, chat with people, and to cook good food and enjoy the peacefulness of camping wild. On this trip, I cycled through plenty of Irish rain, but it made the journey more sort of atmospheric (haha! no, really! it did!) My Brompton and I largely followed the Wild Atlantic Way for the first half of the trip, and then Northern Ireland's Causeway Coast.

The reason I did this ride was because in late summer, I'd cycled across Ireland to stay in Donegal with an old friend. And when our holiday came to an end, I had some time, and there I was with my Brompton and my camping gear, and really nice map of Ireland. So I decided to do the journey home to England by bike too.

During the cosy evenings in the cottage where we had stayed in Donegal, I had looked at the map a lot. The north coast of Ireland looked fantastic - a jagged shoreline, beaches everywhere, wild mountains and glens, loads of tiny lanes - and I really wanted to see it. And on top of that, my friend and I had talked a lot about her family, and I wanted to see more of this place that is such an important part of her family's story, especially her Granny's story. The cottage had been hers.

So I decided to cycle from where we were in Donegal in Ireland's far northwest corner, to Belfast over in the northeast, where I could catch a boat back to England. For the first half of the journey I would largely follow the 'Wild Atlantic Way', and the second half would be on Northern Ireland's 'Causeway Coast', although I didn't plan to stick to any marked route, but just to choose whichever roads looked most interesting and spectacular. I thought I'd wild camp the whole way. I didn't plan in any detail as I thought it would be nicer just to choose roads as I went along, so I just checked the ferries I might take across the sea loughs, looked at the weather forecast (not very good!), and set off.

Hope you enjoy the film!

PS Special thanks to Sarah M, who now lives at the house where my friend's Granny grew up. How amazing of you to welcome me like that, when I randomly knocked on your door on a rainy evening! Thank you so much. It was a perfect end to a brilliant trip.

PPS If you liked this film, and want some brilliant Brompton touring knowhow as well as loads of super inspiring films, visit Gianni's channel if you haven't already found it ‪@BromptonTraveler‬
And to see how gorgeous the Irish landscape really is, head over and watch Miriam Kennedy's beautiful films at ‪@MiriamKennedy‬

Thanks for watching! See you soon!

Music in this film:
Gabriel Lewis, Mountain Spring High
Velvet Moon, Live your Life
Ten Towers, Stay the Same
Bird of Figment, Sincerely
Johannes Bornlöf, We Trust
Velvet Moon, Open Sky
John T Graham, Today is a Good Day to Live
Marc Torch, Heartache in Heaven