Finding Leprechauns in Ireland
Having survived Iceland’s and Scotland’s roads, climates, and heavy Scottish accents for almost a week prior, we felt fairly ready for whatever Ireland could throw at us.
Since I had never been to Ireland before this trip and Jenna had, I walked about Dublin to St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Leinster House (Irish Parliament), National Museums of Ireland, through Trinity College where the Book of Kells is kept, up to "the Spire" which is a 120-meter tall metal pole symbolizing Dublin's regeneration, and all around St. Stephen's Green where I learned about the Easter Rising of 1916. This was started by Irish republicans against the British to gain their freedom, therefore establishing the Irish Republic, and occurred as Britain was engaged in WWI - a most opportune time for the Irish. Later on, I joined a free walking tour where we covered the rest of the interesting Dublin items such as the Dublin Castle, City Hall, Christ Church Cathedral, the River Liffey, and some little known stories, or possibly tall tales, of Dublin as our tour guide said the Irish are known to be the best at storytelling. Thanks to the tour guide as well, I was pointed to the Temple Bar area for dinner at Gallaghers Boxty House where I enjoyed their Irish coddle, which is a clear broth stew of broiled sausage, bacon (ham), and potatoes. Deeeeelicious. Jenna followed a friend’s suggestion and spent the day in a small fishing town called Howth about twenty (20) minutes north of Dublin. She did a hike around the peninsula the town is on that follows the water and enjoyed some authentic Irish seafood chowder. After heading back to Dublin she found a Celtic FC supporters’ bar to watch an important soccer match and met up with her friend, Alex, for dinner that happened to be in Dublin for work.
On our first legitimate travel day we embarked for the Mourne Mountains to hike Slieve Donard, the highest point on the island, drove through Belfast to the Northeast corner of Ireland to see the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, and ended by walking among some 40,000 interlocking, hexagonal basalt columns at Giant's Causeway while catching a sunset back to the West. About two-thirds of the way up Slieve Donard we were able to catch views back down over Newcastle, but everything above that was blocked out by fog/rolling clouds. We took solace in hiking to the summit regardless of the weather conditions, which turned out to be quite the workout. Giant's Causeway was a very unique sight enhanced by the sunset we were able to catch. Probably the best part of the day was our timing among the attractions as we saved around $15 USD each since the rope bridge was closed, but you could still walk up to its picture points, and Giant's Causeway's visitors center was technically closing as we parked so we didn't have to pay to park and see that as well. A sunset and free attractions - two (2) rarities here in Ireland!
After crashing at our hostel overnight in the cozy, vacationers’ town of Portrush, the next day we drove a few hours to the Northwest side of Ireland to Slieve League. This turned out to be a little disappointing to be honest as the trail was quite boggy and the views wouldn't get any better along the way so we jumped ship over to Muckros Head. Another unique attraction, Muckros Head is popular among climbers as layers of rock protrude further out the higher up you look. When the tide is low a bare rock platform provides perfect starting and access points for climbers. The rest of the day saw us finally hit the start of the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW) in Donegal and make the long journey down into Galway. For those of you wondering, the WAW is essentially Ireland's version of the Pacific Coast Highway as it winds along its Western edge from Donegal and ends in the South at Kinsale. Not to be forgotten, we both enjoyed some excellent Shepard's Pie from The Front Door bar in Galway, where I also happened to order my first pint of Guinness (Irish car bombs don't count). Unfortunately, Ireland had its daylight savings a week before the US and it was dark by the time we arrived in Galway so we were not able to see much there.
Continuing on with the rarities of Ireland, the next two (2) days gave us sunshine and rainbows galore. The Cliffs of Moher and the Dingle Peninsula are highlights of Ireland regardless of weather, but throw in sunny days to experience these attractions and it makes for absolutely beautiful pictures. Before heading to the Cliffs we hiked around Burren National Park which looked like a huge cinnamon roll essentially. I could describe it in another fashion, but I'll leave it at cinnamon roll. By the time we made it over to the Cliffs we unfortunately only had enough time to hike about half of the 14+ kilometer trail so we chose the Southern half which runs from the town of Kilconnell - near the attraction known as Hags Head - up to the visitor's center for approximately eight (8) kilometers as we read if we had to choose between a half of the trail, pick the Southern. It did not disappoint, especially with the sun out. At certain points if you were brave enough you could look straight down over a cliff edge to the Atlantic Ocean some 700+ feet right below you!
Driving the Dingle Peninsula along Slea Head Loop took about two (2) hours after reaching the starting point, adding another two (2) hours or so for stops along the way. Again by some luck, we managed to draw a mostly sunny day for our journey that created some epic views over nearby towns, islands, and beaches. Highlights of Dingle Peninsula included Inch Beach which seemed to stretch for miles (ironically), views from Eask Tower overlooking the city of Dingle, Dingle Harbor, the North Atlantic Ocean, and the peninsula, hundreds of years old ruins sites such as Riasc, the Gallarus Oratory, and Kilmalkedar Church, and of course views over areas where Star Wars has been filmed - don't ask me which film or anything related to Star Wars because I've never seen more than a preview. We spent the nights in Killarney, another small town, which is conveniently located for the drives we embarked on.
Up next was the Ring of Kerry and a 2.5-hour hike in Killarney National Park up the Torc Mountain trail where I saw two (2) Marnie look-a-likes along the way. The drive through the national park was gorgeous, but a little nerve-wracking as the two-lane road was barely wider than two (2) average size cars with not much room for error on either side. We probably could’ve spent a whole day, if not a few, hiking around Killarney National Park as it was beautiful, but we had to continue on around the Ring. Mixed in with passing through small Irish towns such as Kenmare, Portamagee, and Cahershiveen, a few castles (Ballinskelligs and Ballycarbery) and another historic site (Staigue Fort), we stopped off at the Kerry Cliffs. Basically a miniature version of the Cliffs of Moher width-wise, these cliffs provided us some cool pictures as well with the famous Skellig Michael islands in the distance. A major downer for the Ring drive was that Ballinskelligs’ Chocolate Factory was closed – maybe for the best for our wallets, however.
After a lovely long drive to make it to Cashel that night (night-driving in Ireland is a stressful task given the winding roads and extreme lack of lighting) we woke up to views of the Rock of Cashel and headed inside to venture around. The Rock, which is actually a castle made up of multiple buildings built on a hill, was pieced together over several centuries starting in the 12th and rehab work was ongoing as we walked around. Being able to walk past engravings of gravestones from the 18th century, St. Patrick’s cross, and other paintings and carvings was pretty eye-opening. Just Northwest of Cork we found Blarney Castle, its grounds, and the Rock Close. The fact that the grounds of Blarney Castle and the Rock Close were kept up so well, especially with the number of visitors each day, is remarkable. All the trees, shrubs, bushes, and flowers were vibrant with fall colors, the grass was thick and green, and there was no loose trash to be seen anywhere. We spent about twenty (20) minutes touring the castle before heading to the top to kiss the Blarney Stone and hope for the gift of eloquence to be bestowed upon us. I obliged, not knowing that you have to lay flat on your back and lower yourself downwards upside down to kiss the stone. Thankfully there are metal rails and a castle worker to help the process and ensure safety. I can’t say I feel the eloquence yet, but we’ll see in the coming weeks.
After heading down from the top we walked around the Rock Close which is a garden with a bunch of intertwined walking paths around smaller attractions such as the Wishing Steps, the Witches’ Stone, some smaller caves where monks are said to have lived, and Druids Circle to name a few. Definitely worth the twenty to thirty minutes of exploring since you’ll pay fifteen (15) Euro to enter the whole Blarney experience. That afternoon and night took us into Cork where we walked around for a little under an hour, finding the English Market, and then down into the small harbor town of Kinsale where our “B&B” was. The English Market was essentially open-air, tucked underneath and inside buildings and other businesses. After arriving in Kinsale Jenna headed out to explore the town while I stayed back to catch up on a few things and then we got dinner and a pint at an Irish restaurant.
Turns out the “B&B” didn’t include the latter B for breakfast so we either made sandwiches or ate yogurt we bought along the way and headed off for Kilkenny the next morning. This smaller town had what they deemed the “Medieval Mile,” or their central area of town with shops, restaurants, pubs, businesses, and some landmarks not far off. It is also the home of the Smithwick’s brewery. It was a nice, short pit stop of about an hour on our way up to Glendalough. At Glendalough we opted for one of the easier hikes for once – a mostly flat trail to the Upper Lake and then a one-kilometer hike up to a viewpoint that somewhat overlooked both lakes. We decided to take an I-L-L picture up top of course as the weather was more than cooperative again that day. The combination of the valley, lakes, “mountains”, and full variety of fall colors made the drive and hike in this area absolutely stunning. This essentially ended our Ireland tour as we headed back towards the airport to find a place to park and sleep the night away in the rental car again. Note to anyone traveling to Dublin – as with most major cities, try to avoid hitting the main roads anywhere from 2pm onwards. What was supposed to be our hour-plus journey to Howth turned into a 2.5-hour trip, it didn’t help that the train system was down that day due to a workers’ strike for higher pay. For dinner that night Jenna found an awesome seafood place named Crabby Jo’s where we had swordfish and prawn, and a huge crabcake burger – both delicious!
As I sit here writing this out only an hour into this seven-hour flight back to the States, I’m not quite sure how I’m going to make the 20+ hours of flying to the lands down under coming up…
P.S. No leprechauns were actually harmed or found, for that matter, during our travels.
Cliffs of Moher
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Temple Bar Area
Chris Church Cathedral
Howth
Views Back to Newcastle from Slieve Donard
Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
Sunset at Giant's Causeway
Muckros Head
Burren National Park
Cliffs of Moher
Hags Head at the Southern Tip of Cliffs of Moher
Inch Beach
Eask Tower
View from Slea Head
Irish Countryside
Gallarus Oratory
View from Torc Mountain
Staigue Fort
Kerry Cliffs with Skellig Michael in the Distance
Ballinskelligs Castle
St. Patrick's Cross at Rock of Cashel
Rock of Cashel
Blarney Castle
Kissin' the Blarney Stone!
Rock Close at Blarney Castle
Wishing Steps at Rock Close
Found This Beast at the English Market
Kilkenny Castle
I-L-L from Glendalough!
P.S. No leprechauns were actually harmed or found, for that matter, during our travels.
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