WE ALL have our favourite roads. They are favourites because we like the scenery that they take us through or because we simply enjoy driving them.
For me they are roads that excite the senses and which bring alive the best characteristics of whatever car I happen to be driving.
In this series I've come across roads like that, but which are either too short or have neither a sufficiently interesting history or landscape to make them worth including.
This week's drive is relatively short but as it links two of my favourite places, it warranted being included in the series.
The car park at Loughcrew Passage Tombs, close to Oldcastle in Co Meath is our starting point and it is signposted from the Kells to Oldcastle road. I discovered Slieve na Caillighe - literally the Hill of the Witch - many years ago.
It's a wonderful place, perched on the highest hilltops in Co Meath, and part of the triangle of Neolithic remains found at Newgrange, Four Knocks and Loughcrew.
There are traces of no fewer than 25 tombs here and the most important, on Carnbane East, is a classic cross-shaped chamber into which, on the equinox days of March 21st and September 21st, the sun enters to illuminate the series of radial line patterns carved on many of the stones inside the tomb.
Heading south from the carpark we quickly arrive on the main road and turn west past the derelict lodge of Loughcrew House towards Millbrook.
From here, on summer evenings, you can often watch balloonists take to the skies over Loughcrew in their hot-air balloons.
Joining the Oldcastle to Castlepollard road (R195) we again turn south towards the Valley of Fore.
While there is nothing special for the first few kilometres, this road soon acquires a character which sets it apart from most other roads in the area. Well-surfaced, it rises and falls and begins to flow in a manner guaranteed to excite the most traffic-weary driver.
All too soon, however, we come to the signpost for Fore and we leave the R195 to take the short road into the tiny village of Fore. The Valley of Fore is a truly extraordinary place.
For Ireland, the landscape is unusual with its jagged rocky outcrops exposed on the hillsides of an otherwise verdant valley. Right in the centre of the valley lies the ruins of Fore Abbey, which was founded in AD 630, and where more than 300 monks are said to have resided. Here, you will also find the ruins of a Benedictine priory founded sometime before the year 1200 by the de Lacys, and which represents the most extensive remains of any Benedictine house in Ireland. Particularly fascinating among the many ruins in the valley is the anchorite's cell.
This is located in the tower of St Féichín's Church on the slopes of the southern side of Fore Valley. The cell was used by a religious person who upon entering it made a vow never to leave it during the rest of his life, and it is believed to be the only such cell in Ireland.
The tower containing the cell dates back to the 15th century, although the site on which it is build is much older.
In the 17th century the church was partially converted into a mausoleum by the local Greville-Nugent family.
Now that summer appears to have arrived, what better way to spend half a day than by exploring these two wonderful places and enjoying the road which links them.