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The Wild Atlantic Way runs for roughly 2,500 kilometres along Ireland’s western coastline, and at various points along that route the land simply gives up and hurls itself into the sea. Some of those moments are well advertised. Others, you stumble upon and spend the next ten minutes wondering why nobody warned you. This list covers the seven clifftop viewpoints that genuinely warrant the detour, the slow drive, and the slightly wobbly knees. These are not the prettiest stops on the route. They are the most dramatic, in the truest sense of the word.

A few of them are famous. A couple are criminally underrated. One has no safety barriers whatsoever, which tells you something about either the landscape or the philosophy of the local county council. Either way, if you’re planning a drive along the Wild Atlantic Way, these are the spots to build your itinerary around.

1. Slieve League (Sliabh Liag), Co. Donegal

At 601 metres, Slieve League stands nearly three times the height of the Cliffs of Moher, yet it takes a fraction of the visitor numbers. That says more about the power of marketing than the power of geography. The cliffs rise from the Atlantic with a kind of slow, brutal authority, their faces striped in rust and ochre and grey depending on the light. You can view them from Bunglass Point car park, which is remarkable enough, or walk the ridge to One Man’s Pass if you have the legs and the nerve for it. On a clear day, you can see parts of the Inishowen Peninsula to the north and Connacht to the south. This is Co. Donegal operating at full volume, and it makes the case for the county better than any tourist board ever could.

2. O’Brien’s Tower, Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare

Yes, everyone goes to the Cliffs of Moher. Yes, the car park fee stings. Go anyway. Specifically, walk south from the main viewing area to O’Brien’s Tower, built in 1835 by Cornelius O’Brien as a viewing point for visiting tourists, which makes it one of Ireland’s earliest purpose-built attractions and, arguably, the country’s first piece of tourist infrastructure worth the name. It sits at the highest point of the cliffs, 214 metres above sea level. From there, on a clear day, the Aran Islands sit in the bay below like three green stepping stones. Co. Clare is full of geological drama, but this particular spot rewards the people who walk past the first viewpoint and keep going.

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3. Downpatrick Head, Co. Mayo

This one is not for everyone, and that is precisely what earns it a place on this list. Downpatrick Head sits on a remote stretch of the north Co. Mayo coast, and it has no safety barriers. None. You walk to the edge, and the edge is simply there, with nothing between you and a long, cold discussion with the Atlantic below. The centrepiece is Dún Briste, a sea stack that broke from the mainland in 1393 during a coastal collapse. It still carries the remains of an ancient promontory fort on its flat top, completely inaccessible since the fourteenth century. Geologists and archaeologists can only look at it from a distance, the same as everyone else. There is something genuinely unsettling about Downpatrick Head, in the best possible sense.

4. Slea Head, Co. Kerry

The Dingle Peninsula has been drawing people to its far western tip for a long time. Slea Head sits at the end of the Slea Head Drive, a loop road that curves past stone beehive huts and ancient field systems before arriving at a clifftop viewpoint directly facing the Blasket Islands. The Great Blasket was abandoned in 1953 when its last permanent residents were evacuated to the mainland, and on a grey day the islands carry that history with them. What fewer people mention is that this coastline was used as a filming location for Star Wars, which gives the landscape a slightly surreal double-take quality. Co. Kerry is well used to visitors, but Slea Head manages to feel genuinely remote even in the middle of summer.

5. Minaun Heights, Co. Mayo

Achill Island is connected to the Mayo mainland by a bridge, which means you can drive onto what feels like the wildest island on the Irish coast without getting on a ferry. Minaun Heights, at 466 metres, is accessible by car along a steep, narrow road that climbs the western face of the mountain before delivering you to a summit with views that are, to put it plainly, ridiculous in their scope. On one side: Achill Sound and the mainland. On the other: the open Atlantic and the sea cliffs dropping away below you. This is one of those viewpoints where you take a photograph, look at it on your phone, and immediately understand that no camera has ever done this justice. Co. Mayo earns its reputation up here.

Duby Tal - Minaun Mountain

6. Horn Head, Co. Donegal

The road to Horn Head is single-track with no passing places to speak of, which means you will at some point have to reverse a considerable distance while a farmer in a Land Rover watches you with what might be amusement or might be pity. Do not let that put you off. The 180-metre quartzite cliffs at the head are among the most architecturally striking on the Irish coast, their pale rock catching the light in a way that makes them glow even under cloud cover. The cliff faces host one of the largest seabird colonies in the country, so bring binoculars if you have them. From here, on a clear day, the view extends north to Malin Head, south along Donegal Bay, and west to nothing at all. The Atlantic wins from here.

7. Mizen Head, Co. Cork

Mizen Head holds the distinction of being Ireland’s most south-westerly point, which means it has geography working in its favour before you even arrive. What lifts it above a simple headland, though, is the approach. A footbridge suspended 150 feet above sea level carries you across to the signal station, which has been guiding ships around this treacherous corner of coast since 1910. The bridge sways. The sea moves underneath you. Below, the Atlantic throws itself against the rocks with the kind of energy that makes you very glad to be above it. Co. Cork has no shortage of scenic coastline, but Mizen Head has something the others don’t, a piece of working maritime history at the very edge of Europe. If you’re planning the Malin Head to Mizen Head road trip, this is where you want to finish.

The Wild Atlantic Way was never going to be short of drama. This is a coastline that has been battered by the full force of the North Atlantic for millions of years, and the results are predictably spectacular. But there is a difference between scenic and dramatic, and the seven spots on this list fall firmly into the second category. Pack good shoes, check the weather forecast, and be prepared to stand somewhere that makes you feel genuinely small. The Atlantic has that effect on people, and after a while you start to think it might be doing you some good.