Considering 2 weeks in Ireland and Scotland next year…anyone do a similar trip?

[Frwinkley]

You can do one-way rentals from Shannon; the issue is that they don't often do them for drop-off in the North, which is another country altogether (though you can certainly drive the rental back and forth over the border, I've done it many times.) Agencies in the UK are less draconian about taking cars to NI on the ferry, so people sometimes do it that way.) If you return the car in Dublin and take a train up to Belfast for the ferry you would be fine.

Another option would be to take a short flight to Belfast from Shannon and pick up your car there, then do a round-trip.

As a general rule, flights into/out of Dublin are cheaper than Shannon, so it may make sense to fly to Dublin, train to the west coast, then drive back.

The ferry is an interesting experience, but as you can see, it can often be easier and less expensive to just fly from one island to the other.

Thank you for this. You’ve given me a few other things to consider.

 

[Earstou]

Giant's Causeway in NI is amazing, as is Newgrange north of Dublin mentioned earlier. Find out if there are any stone Celtic Crosses in the area you will be driving. We stopped on our way back to Dublin from NI to see a site with three crosses, there were also the ruins of two churches and a high tower from a monastery (built with doors off the ground to help defend against the Viking raiders).
In Belfast be sure to walk around and see the murals, for a bit of history.
Falkirk Wheel in Scotland was fun to visit. It was built to connect some canals and you can ride a boat up to the upper canal which turns around and brings you back to the Wheel to ride back down. This was a highlight of our trip.
We originally thought we would use the ferry, but ended up flying instead, mostly due to time involved (departure times didn't work for us), it also was cheaper, if I remember correctly.