Author: Kari

We checked out of our castle today around 9 AM and headed south toward Newgrange.

Newgrange is 5,000 years old. It was built about 3200 BC, during the Neolithic period, which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. It is about five hundred years older than the current form of Stonehenge, and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, as well as predating the Mycenaean culture of ancient Greece.

We were allowed inside with our tour group. The entry way is small and narrow. Some areas were barely large enough to squeeze through. When we got to the center it was much smaller than what you would think by seeing the outside. There are rocks shaping the walls into almost a triangular shape. The rocks used weighed up to 50 tons each.

Once a year, at the winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly along the long passage, illuminating the inner chamber and revealing the carvings inside, notably the triple spiral on the front wall of the chamber. This illumination lasts for about 17 minutes.

They have a drawing for people to be able to be inside the chamber on the winter solstice. The chamber holds about 25-30 people.

Next we headed to Trim to visit the castle there. We took the tour which cost €4 each. The guide was very knowledgable about the castle and we were able to go right up to the top and look out over the city. There are a few reminants of the old city walls still visible, but it’s mostly in ruins.

Trim Castle was built in the 12th century by Hugh de Lancy. It took 30 years to build. It is the largest Norman castle in Ireland.

When we finally reached Dublin it was about 5PM. We were hungry and headed out to find some grub. We walked toward the action in the Temple Bar area and found an Italian/Mexican place and had dinner. After that we walked across the street to the actual Temple Bar and listened to some fantastic Irish music and had a beer.

Tomorrow is our first full day in Dublin and we’ve got quite a bit to see and do in the next two days before we fly home on Friday.

– Kari
9/16/14

Today we left Larne and headed toward Kingscourt.

Our first stop was Carrickfergus Castle in Carrickfergus Northern Ireland.
We spent £5 each to enter the castle. We walked around a bit and took some photos. This castle was in great shape and was only missing a wall or two.

Pictured above is King William III and Carrickfergus Castle.

Next we headed down to Kingscourt and found our hotel that was actually a castle from the 1780’s. The original Cabra Castle was ruined in the 1600’s.

Meet Oscar, one of two Irish Wolfhounds roaming the castle grounds.

An interesting story about this castle is that it’s haunted by a ghost named Sarah and her unborn child.

Here’s what I’ve found online about the haunting.

In The 1780’s, the local people of Dun Na Rí witnessed the unfolding of the tragic saga which was to become the legend of the ghost which still haunts Cabra Castle to this present day – dare to walk the corridors of this haunted castle knowing that the footsteps that went before you were that of evil predecessors………The then owners of the castle had a daughter and two sons, one of whom fell in love with a servant girl called Sarah. In true Romeo & Juliet – style, it was a passionate but secret love, which for the sake of property, could only be pledged silently.
The secret was broken when Sarah became pregnant and her lovers family ordered that she was to be killed; legend has it that she was taken from the Servants Quarters of the castle and dragged deep into the forest, where her body was hung over a bridge.It is said that in the dead of the night, the haunting cries of a baby may still be heard in Cabra Castle. Local people say that the baby is pining for its mother.
There is also a testament by those who have felt ‘a presence’ in the courtyard rooms – formerly the Servant’s Quarters where it is said that Sarah’s lost soul still wanders the Castle in search of her lost love and her lost child……..

I’ve also read some things about people feeling a presence and hearing the baby crying. I know it’s a hard thing to believe in this stuff and Alex is definitely not a believer but I am going to be sleeping with the lights on tonight. Especially since our room is in the courtyard not far from where Sarah lived. My mind will certainly play tricks on me tonight. I’m already spooking myself.

Kari
9/15/14

We skipped out early on Portrush and headed toward the Giants Causeway today. We arrived about 9:30 AM and luckily there weren’t many people there at that time.

Here’s what the Wikepedia says about the Giants Causeway:

According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet. In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner. In another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he. Fionn’s wife, Oonagh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the ‘baby’, he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn could not follow. Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal’s Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this.

After the Causeway we headed to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.

It cost us each £5.70 to cross the bridge ( $9.27 ) kind of a lot in USD. There was a long trail to reach the bridge and once we got there, there was no turning back.

The bridge is 66 ft long and 98 ft off of the ground. There are crushing waves below, it holds 8 pedestrians at a time. Though there were more than that crossing today when we were on it.

The tiny island on the other side was where fisherman used to launch their boats from to fish salmon. Now it is merely a tourist attraction run by the trust.

Later in the day we arrived in Larne, still in Northern Ireland. There isn’t much to do in the town so we headed out to do a little geocaching. We were able to find one on a nearby trail.

After that we went out to eat dinner at Blue Chicago Grill. This place reminded us of a Red Robin or Ram back home. It was the first bar we’ve found that doesn’t serve Irish beer. We ended up with a bucket of Corona and Peroni.

Tomorrow we head to Kingscourt and get to sleep in a castle. Looking forward to that!!

Kari
9/14/14

Today we left Derry for a few hours and drove through County Donegal.

First stop was a large ring fort called Grianan Aileach which was perched atop a high mountain. We were the only ones here at the time, pretty neat to have it all to ourselves.

Second stop was Glenveagh Castle. We went on a tour here. The castle itself is in great shape, it’s now part of a national park.

We saw more very impressive views on this drive and some things we never thought we’d come across such as a large pond of swans. There might have been 100 or so swans floating about. Some were young and their feathers hadn’t turned white yet. We got some great video of this.

We also found a couple of momma pigs and about 18 piglets in an enclosure off the road. The piglets were hungry and one momma pig wasn’t in the mood to feed so she was making a scene, snorting about. Finally the two momma pigs decided to let the kiddos eat dinner and laid down for a bit to let them do so.

On the way back to our B&B we drove by two donkeys on the side of the road. Alex wanted to pet one but one of the donkeys freaked out and started coming right at us making horrible donkey noises and we got scared and ran to the car. Pretty exciting way to end our evening.

We have one more night left in Derry and tomorrow we are off to Portrush.

Kari
9/12/14

We got up early today and headed out of the busy college town of Galway.
I’m sure Galway had a lot to offer but we were mostly interested in what’s on the outskirts of these big cities. You can tell right away the difference between small town living and big city living. In small towns people actually say hello as you pass by on the side walk. In big cities, you barely get a glance from strangers.

All in all we were in Galway less than 24 hours and then we were off on a new adventure. My only photo I took in Galway was this one of some college kids playing what we think was a cross between hurling and water polo in kayaks.

Just a few blocks out of Galway we felt like we were back in the country again. We passed fields of sheep and cows time and time again.

Once we got deeper into the drive the scenery got more interesting.
The first big stop we made was Kylemore Castle.

We hopped out here to take a few photos, we decided not to pay the €12.50 to go inside. The photos were enough to satisfy us here.

After a few moments at Kylemore Castle we headed back out on the road and came to some more great photo ops. Our favorite was when we came upon a sheep hearder and his dog. They were moving the sheep out of one enclosure to another. We mostly captured video of this but here’s a still shot of what we saw.

After hours and hours of driving we finally reached Westport. A cute town with a river running through the middle of it.

Our B&B was very nice and our host was super friendly. We stayed one night in Westport and were off early in the morning again to continue our journey.

– Kari
9/10/14

We got up early today and headed out to the Slea Head Drive loop. The road is much more narrow than the Ring of Kerry and we thought the views were even better. The loop itself is about 30 miles as opposed to the Ring of Kerry being 110 miles round.

We stopped at many lookouts along the way and walked down to the beach. The beach sand is very fine and soft. Not at all what I would have expected here.

Further down we came to Gallarus Oratory, one of Ireland’s best preserved early Christian churches. This church was built about 1300 years ago.

Another interesting stop we made was at another old church and cemetery.
This church was called Kilmalkedar. This church went into ruin in the 19th century and was never rebuilt.

When we got back into town we walked around, had lunch and shopped for a bit. We also stopped into the Dingle Brewing Co. For a self guided walking tour and pint. The beer they make there is called Crean’s, named after the famous Antarctic explorer, Thomas Crean. It’s a fairly new beer est. in 2012. It’s pretty tasty!

There was a great sunset tonight in Dingle and a super moon.

I just love this row of houses, they are so cute!

Tomorrow we head north to Galway and check out the famous cliffs of Moher along the way.

– Kari
9/8/14

Today we drove the Ring of Kerry.

We had been warned it was a difficult drive by many people on trip advisor and by word of mouth. There are narrow windy roads and large buses making it hard to maneuver around corners. We however found it was a piece of cake, maybe because it’s the off season now. We didn’t see what all of the fuss was about.

The sun was out and the sky was blue, not a typical sight for Ireland. We’ve had many overcast days on this trip so far.

We stopped here and there along the way to take photos.

Around 1:30 PM we made our way into the town of Portmagee and had a bite to eat.

( Kari’s first Baileys and coffee of the trip, delish! )

After lunch we drove to Dingle. Dingle is right on the water much like Kinsale. Lots of sailboats. The town is bigger than Kinsale though and just about every other door in town leads to a pub.

Tomorrow we will explore Dingle a little more and check out Slea Head drive, a loop around the Dingle peninsula.

Kari
9/7/14

Today we left our cozy Herons Cove B&B and drove the Wild Atlantic Way toward Kenmare.

We took some detours off some small roads and ended up high in the mountains. The roads are very narrow and it was tough to know if another car was going to be right around the corner.

We took our time stopping to take pictures. We ran into a lot of sheep and cows, many which were in an open range. The sheep are very skittish and don’t like people getting too close.

We finally reached Kenmare a few hours later and found our new B&B the Forgefield House. The best B&B in town according to trip advisor. This place is much more modernized than some of the others we’ve been in. There’s even a towel warmer in the bathroom.

Around 4:00 we headed into town to check it out. There are lots of pubs and the streets were swarmed with cars. We poked around a bit and bought a few souvenirs and had a bite to eat.

Alex had his first truly Irish Guinness here today, pictured below.

Then we headed back to the B&B to rest a bit before going out to Foley’s Pub to check out the local music scene. A couple guys performed on stage and sang some old Irish songs and even covered the Beatles.

After another long day it’s time to turn in and say good night.

More fun to come tomorrow!!

– Kari
9-5-14

Today we left Kinsale and headed down the N71 toward Goleen.
The drive is called the Wild Atlantic Way. It sure does live up to its name.

We spent a few hours on the road today and made some stops to take pictures here and there.

We came across Drombeg stone circle. This was very cool to see up close. Much smaller than Stonehenge but neater in a way because you could walk right up to it.

We finally reached our destination for the night about 4:30 PM. We are staying in Goleen at the Herons Cove B & B. The view from our deck is gorgeous. And yes, there are Herons out in the water fishing for dinner.

The best photos though were taken at Mizen Head.
The cliffs were outstanding. The fog was thick but made for some interesting photos.

– Kari
9-4-14

We woke up early today to catch the 9:15 Kinsale walking tour.
Our guide, Don was very knowledgeable about the city and gave us a great history lesson.

Later on we drove to Charles Fort just down the road from Kinsale.
We took lots of photos today of the Fort and the town.

( above photo Charles Fort )

( above photo Kinsale town )

In the evening we met up with a couple, George and Wendy from Canada. We had been bumping into them for days and decided to head to Kitty O Se’s for dinner and drinks. We spent a few hours chatting with them about traveling and then headed off for the 9 PM ghost walk.

Surprisingly enough our waitress was also a harpist and played a few songs for the crowd tonight. One moment she was taking our order and the next she was on stage. An unexpected treat. She was very good!

The ghost walk while a little gimmicky was entertaining and fun. I would say though, the York ghost tour in England was much more realistic and creepy than this one. Rick Steve’s did recommend it though and it was good for an hours worth of entertainment.

– Kari
9-3-14

Our second — and really first full — day was spent entirely in Kilkenny. We started with a hearty breakfast here at the B&B. Kari had a banana, eggs and some bread while I indulged in a full Irish breakfast. Well, minus the black pudding anyhow!

We then trotted up the street to Kilkenny Castle. This place has gone from private residence, to the seat of the Irish monarchy and back again over an 800 year period. After being basically left to fall apart, the inheriting member of the family which owned it sold it to the preservation society for only €50. After undergoing major renovations that restored it nearly an identical previous state, it’s a wonderful attraction.

We visited so early in the morning, there was nary a person around for most of our visit which allowed for some wonderful photos of the exterior. However, photos inside were not allowed.

From there, we visited St. Canice’s Cathedral on the other end of town. With the combo ticket, you get entry into the 13th century cathedral and the ability to climb the 100 foot tall, 12 foot wide tower outside. The views of town from atop the tower were wonderful.

We spent a little time wandering about town, looking in shops and stopped at St. Mary’s Cathedral for a quick look.

After a lunch at The Fig Tree, we had a little siesta. We hit the town again after that to visit Black Abbey, and poked our heads into a few other small places.

We finished up the day with an appetizer and some pints at a pub, while watching a little Irish music being played. The performer had folks from the crowd come up and help by playing small hand held drums. It was pretty fun and interactive!

– Alex
9-1-14

We began our Sunday morning landing at 8:00 AM in Dublin and hooking up with our Enterprise rental car. It was a bit chilly getting off of the plane. A refreshing change from the warm Seattle summer we had been having.

Still exhausted from the flights we trucked on and headed to Glendalough for a quick hike through the cemetery.

Alex adjusted quickly to driving on the left. He had some experience before in the UK a few years back.

This is Glendalough. It was an early medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century, only to be partially destroyed by British troops some 800 years later.

What still stands are a couple churches, a tower and an old cemetery here that we walked through.

Later in the evening after we found our B&B in Kilkenny we went out to eat.

We found a couple local beers — Smithwicks and Smithwicks Pale — that we liked.

Photo above: Kari’s Cajun chicken sandwich.

Photo above: Alex’s stew

– Kari & Alex
8/31/14

Ireland itinerary

Sat, Aug 30 – fly out to Dublin

Sun, Aug 31 – drive through Glendalough, stay the night in Kilkenny

Mon, Sept 1 – Kilkenny/Cashel, stay the night Kilkenny

Tues, Sept 2 – Blarney/Kinsale, stay the night in Kinsale

Wed, Sept 3 – Cobh, Charles Fort, stay the night in Kinsale

Thurs, Sept 4 – Wild Atlantic Way, stay the night in Goleen

Fri, Sept 5 – Wild Atlantic Way, Kenmare, stay the night in Kenmare

Sat, Sept 6 – Kilarney, stay the night in Kenmare

Sun, Sept 7 – Skellig Michael, Ring of Kerry, stay the night in Dingle

Mon, Sept 8 – Slea Head Drive, stay the night in Dingle

Tues, Sept 9 – Bunratty, Cliffs of Moher, The Burren, stay the night in Galway

Wed, Sept 10 – Connemara, Kylemore, stay the night in Westport

Thurs, Sept 11 – County Donegal, stay the night in Derry

Fri, Sept 12 – Derry

Sat, Sept 13 – Portrush

Sun, Sept 14 – Antrim Coast, stay the night in Portrush

Mon, Sept 15 – Stay the night in Cabra castle!!!

Tues, Sept 16 – Dublin

Wed, Sept 17 – Dublin

Thurs, Sept 18 – Dublin

Fri, Sept 19 – fly home from Dublin