The Northwest offers great contrasts. In counties Sligo and Leitrim you will find limestone terrain, dry walking underfoot, great views over the Atlantic, and a contrast between bare limestone plateaux and the rich, lake-filled valleys. This is the country made famous by the Nobel Prize winning poet W.B. Yeats, and its dominant feature is the huge brow of Benbulben.

In County Donegal you are in wilder country, amongst the oldest mountains in Ireland - or the world. Inland there are many mountain ranges. In South Donegal, the Bluestack Mountains, unfrequented and the setting for many folktales also have one of Ireland's finest waterfalls, with the evocative name of the Grey Mare's Tail. Further north the Glenveagh Mountains are formed of rough grey granite and have fine walks in their cliff bound valleys and on their high heathery plateaux. From these peaks you can look across a lake filled valley to the solid mass of Muckish Mountain and the contrasting cone of Mount Errigal - at 752 metres the highest summit in the Northwest.

Among these hills is Glenveagh National Park, known for it herds of deer. Finally, away to the north in the Inishowen Peninsula is the isolated Slieve Snaght, only a few kilometres from Malin Head, Ireland's northernmost point.