This is a land of blue mountains and forest parks, mazy lakes and windswept moors, white Atlantic sands, an inland sea. In fact, it's a country that is just pretending to be small.

Dozens of small towns are hidden away down among the green places of the countryside, and fishing villages string out along the shores. The towers and steeples of parish churches mark the high ground beyond trimmed hedgerows. The country's turbulent past, which still resonates today, has also helped shape the landscape.

Distinctive field patterns, for instance, are especially striking, and so are ruined castles. Built from the 12th century onwards, and once symbols of both oppression and reassurance, they are now among Ulster's finest architectural treasures.

Driving in Northern Ireland is to recapture motoring's glad confident morning. The roads are excellent, with miles of motorway and dual carriageway, and you are never much more than half an hour from the sea. Minor roads are well signposted and there are convenient places for picnics and sites for caravanning or pitching a tent. The only traffic jams are flocks of sheep or cattle changing fields. In the summer you may have to pull over occasionally to let the music-makers pass, with their pipes and brilliant banners, marching to a festival in town.

The weather can be fickle but the rain keeps the land a magical emerald green and, when the wind blows the clouds away to sea, the sky like the mountains is blue. The air is clean - and so sweet that you will want to open the car windows to let the breezes in.

Because Northern Ireland is only 5,500 square miles in area - about the size of Yorkshire or Connecticut - you can see most of the main attractions in a week without clocking up more than 500 miles.

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