When you’re preparing to pass your driving test, most people will spend their time learning on dull, troublesome city or semi-urban roads that have the all the prettiness and visual appeal of a rubbish dump. Ok, that might be a little over the top, but the chances are that even once you’ve successfully navigated the exam, your day to day driving will consist of travelling to work, going food shopping or collecting the kids. On holidays and longer excursions, you’ll probably end up using our efficient yet tedious motorway system. Whilst these are the reasons that most of us have a car, there are roads and routes that are a joy to the soul to drive. Here are some of them.
Glencoe on the A82
It may be a long way to go for anyone travelling from England, but the A82, which travels up from central Scotland along the north western coast towards Fort William is a breathtaking delight. Cutting through the rugged hills and peaks of the Scottish Highlands, there’s plenty of scope for admiring misty mountains, tumbling waterfalls and all the elemental joy of nature.
Despite the fact that it’s a little out of the way, it’s a journey that you won’t regret making.
The A591 From Kendal To Keswick
When it’s not raining, the Lake District is a glorious outpost of natural delights, and even when it is, it still possesses a mysterious allure that few other places in the UK can match. With no mobile phone signal to distract your passengers thanks to the height of the fells, both you and they will be dazzled by the landscape as you climb and descend winding roads on your way to Keswick.
The Glens of Antrim: The A2
Stretching for about twenty five miles of the Northern Irish coast that can boast the UNESCO world heritage site of the Giant’s Causeway, the A2 passes along some incredibly scenic terrain without allowing you to speed by it obliviously. Narrow, old fashioned roads, small coastal villages and the ever-changing movement of the sea means that you won’t be bored or impatient on this trip.
The Snake Pass
Sinuously stretching across the Peak District between the cities of Sheffield and Manchester, the Snake Pass offers challenging driving through a dramatic landscape of hills, forest and lakes. Although it’s often closed by snow in the winter and occasionally suffers accidents that cause travel chaos, it’s an engaging, even thrilling road to drive without needing to break the speed limit or take risks and was listed as one of the best driving roads in the UK by Auto Trader magazine in 2009.
Inevitably, such a short list can never do full justice to all of the dramatic and imposing drives to be found around the UK, but few who’ve driven these striking routes can argue that they offer a wonderful antidote to all the boring, traffic-ridden roads that clog up the arteries of our cities.
