Did Scotland from Heathrow this past summer for two weeks, and did Ireland last summer for 10 days. England's roads are very advanced, wide enough with lots of painted directions. Use SATNAV everywhere, and realize that the SATNAV works on Postal Codes, so you can get to the exact area, but maybe not the exact location, which might mean driving around slowly looking around. Make sure you go slowly at first, to get used to driving on the left. Go slow in roundabouts as getting in the correct lane at the start gets you off at the correct exit by just following the lanes. In the cities, Edinburg, London, stay in the suburbs near train stations, and take the train into the areas you want to explore. Driving in the cities is not the easiest, especially when looking for parking spaces.
Look up and print off the local signage meanings. We were often curious what all the different signs mean. Also, speed cameras are an occasional occurrence, just keep to the speed limit. I have driven a manual transmission all my life, from 16 though 63 y/o, but I won't do left side of road AND left hand stick, so I paid for a standard every time we went. daily route planning prior to leaving the US, using google maps, will be a big help to give you a distance and time to destination estimate to plan your travel times
The first habit to overcome is to look RIGHT, when making a left hand turn onto the left side of the road.
Ireland is a way different country. Why more people aren't killed daily driving in Ireland is beyond me. It does require a bunch of focus if you are tired, as you will fall back to US habits more easily. The count of numbers is the class of Highway. M4 is a class 1 highway, comparable to the US interstates. Occasionally there are tolls which take credit cards. . N71 roads are usually wide two+ lanes, one each way or more. R604 are narrow two lane roads, which has the passenger looking at death the entire time, hitting curbs with tires and branches from bushes reinforces that sentiment. Any road with 4 number is only an oxen cart wide, may have to stop for the afternoon milking as the cows cross the lane, and look for pull offs for meeting other cars.
good luck, but both countries are very easy to deal with the locals. Many have very strong ties to New England, and the US, and most are up on the intl news. When people asked where we were from, i would commonly replay with "We are 1776 expats"
have fun!
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