Sunday September 1st, 2019
We leave in the morning and land in the early afternoon. At the airport we eat something and then take the car we have rented. We head towards the center of Dublin. But we find a lot of traffic, it seems there is a match (we don’t know which sport), there are fans of both teams walking in the streets, maybe they are celebrating after the game. Once in the center we park near the National Museum. We visit it and spend most of the afternoon there. We would also like to visit the nearby National Library, but for some reason it’s not possible to enter today.
As we still have some time before the parking lot expires, so we go to the nearby St. Stephen’s Green park, where we walk a little. Back at the car, we go to the hotel, a bit on the outskirts. After getting some rest, we go back downtown for dinner. This time we park near Christ Church Cathedral and go to Temple Bar area. We eat in a restaurant with live Irish music. We walk a little more, then we go back to the hotel.
Monday September 2nd, 2019
We decide to go to the city center by public transport, so we take the bus near our hotel and continue to the center. It takes more than we thought. We cross the river and walk along a part of O’Connell Street and stop to take some photos of The Spire, then continue towards the Docks area. Then we cross the Calatrava bridge (it reminds me the bridge in Buenos Aires I had seen a few months ago).
We walk around a bit between old and modern buildings, we reach the Convention Center with its futuristic structure and then the offices of big companies like Google and Facebook.
Later we cross Merrion Square to get to Trinity College. It is the inauguration of the academic year, there are many students and many banquets that invite students to enroll in the various confraternities. We queue up to see the library and the famous Book of Kells.
We are a bit disappointed with the book, we see only 2 pages and not even the most decorated ones. The library, on the other hand, is very beautiful. After the visit, we stop in a pub for lunch (the worst of our trip), then we continue our visit passing by the castle (which we see only externally), Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Sunset and dinner in Howth
Since all the museums / monuments close pretty early, we decide not to see the Guinness factory. We had to choose between it and the cathedral. We take the bus and go back to the hotel. We’ve been around the whole day and we’re a little tired. We take the car and go to Howth for dinner, a fishing village at a short distance from Dublin. After dinner we walk a little along the harbor, where we see a fox watching us carefully. Then we return to the hotel.
Tuesday September 3rd, 2019
We leave Dublin and head south to explore Ireland landscapes. Tonight we will arrive in Cashel. The first stop for today is Glendalough, where there are the ruins of an ancient monastery and the near cemetery. Nearby there are also 2 lakes. We visit the ruins with tranquility, we are the first ones to arrive. When we are leaving a group arrives. We continue along the road and stop at Baltinglass.
Before departure, we had not scheduled this stop, but from the road we see the remains of an abbey. We see it and we also buy something for lunch. The next destination is Carlow, where there is a dolmen, the Brownshill Dolmen. The stone that lies horizontally is the heaviest in Europe, heavier even than those of Stonehenge. We have lunch here.
In Kilkenny we park near the castle, we enter the courtyard, but we do not visit it internally. We walk along the two main streets and arrive at the churches of St. Candice and the Black Abbey. Continuing, we make another unscheduled stop in Kells. Here too there are the remains of an abbey, surrounded by well-preserved walls.
As a last stop we visit the Jerpoint abbey. We visit it (inside there is a group of Germans who are celebrating a function). In the evening we arrive in Cashel. We would like to visit the rock (last entrance at 6.15 pm), we arrive at the entrance door at 6.17 pm, but they do not let us enter. What a pity. We visit the ruins of the Hore Abbey which is a short distance away, then we go to the B&B we booked, this is also a bit far from the center. We drive to the center for dinner and then we go to sleep.
Wednesday September 4th, 2019
Yesterday we thought we had been unlucky for not being able to enter the rock. Today, however, we discover that we have been lucky. Today is a particular day, the fortress can be visited for free, and in addition we have the possibility of visiting the chapel which is normally closed.
We continue our journey through Ireland and stop in Cork. We visit the English Market, St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral, and the Elizabeth Fort. The city does not seem particularly beautiful, we make a brief stop for a cake, then we continue to Drombeg to see the Stone Circle (ancient stones arranged in a circle, we will see others during this trip). We have lunch here (it is quite late). In the evening we should arrive in Kenmare. We stop in Bonane, here too there should be a Stone Circle and a Stone Fort, we see practically nothing. We go to the B&B and then we go out for dinner.
Thursday September 5th, 2019
In the morning we see the village church, then the Stone Circle. We continue and drive along the scenic road, the Ring of Kerry. Along it, we stop at several points to take pictures. We make a detour to see the Stone Fort of Staigue. Along the way we stop near some beaches, for example in Glenbeg and then in Abbey Island. Then we go to Valentia Island and decide to get by car (for a fee) on Geokaun Mountain.
The road is quite steep, from above we have a beautiful view. We stop here for lunch, even though there is a lot of wind. We make other stops: Cahersiveen and Inch Beach, near Ardroe. In the late afternoon we arrive in Dingle, where we will spend the night. After a break at the hotel, we go to Slea Head and admire the view. We go back to Dingle for dinner.
Friday September 6th, 2019
After breakfast we go to visit the Gallarus Oratory, an ancient church, completely in stone (even the roof). We are the only visitors. Today the weather is bad. We go up to Conor Pass (it is the fastest way anyway), we meet some cyclists, they are doing a charity race. Then we continue to Tarbert and take the ferry that saves us a good amount of time by cutting Limerick. We reach Kilkee to see its cliffs, here there is a beautiful sun.
After lunch we continue to Doolin. We stop at the famous Cliffs of Moher, one of the most visited places in Ireland. Parking is a little expensive (you pay per person, not by car). We walk a long way along the cliffs, first on one side, then on the other one. It’s the sunset now, the light is beautiful and there are few people, most of the tourists have already left.
We conclude the evening by reaching our hotel in Doolin and we go to dinner. We changed our itinerary the day before departure. The idea was to sleep on the Aran islands, but the last ferry was at 2.00 pm (while we thought there was also at 5.00 pm). We rescheduled deciding to sleep in Doolin and spend the next day on the islands.
Saturday September 7th, 2019
We take the first ferry of the day (at 10.00) to reach the main Aran island. As soon as we get off the ferry, we rent the bikes and begin to ride the coastal path almost to the end of the island (it’s about 15km). We stop at the Seven Churches and in many places to take photos. There are many things to see, so we don’t stop for lunch, we eat cookies during the various stops along the way.
We also visit the fort of Dun Aonghasa (where you can go up only by foot). Around 3.20 pm we are again close to the ferry (which leaves at 4.00 pm), we look at some shops and then we wait for the boat to return to the mainland. Even if I was in Ireland in my previous trips, I hadn’t the chance to see the Aran Islands. We continue towards Galway. As we arrive, we do not like the B&B, but we will stay there only this night. We go out for dinner, we see the center, with the pedestrian streets full of people.
Sunday September 8th, 2019
We continue our journey to Kylemore. On the way we stop at Aughnaure, where we see, only outside the castle. Then we reach Kylemore to visit the abbey (which is more a castle). We visit the interior, the nearby church, the Victorian gardens. It rains a little. Today we have several kilometers to go, we don’t make many stops.
We stop only at Carrowmore where there is a rather large megalithic cemetery. We stay there until closing time. In the evening we reach Tullaghan, where we booked our B&B. We go to Bundoran a short distance, we walk on the beach, then we go to dinner.
Monday September 9th, 2019
On the advice of the owner of our B&B, after breakfast we go to Mullaghmore, where there is a long beach. There are cows that are eating the algae left on the sand. We continue towards Slieve League. Here, thanks to the advice received in the morning, we reach a gate and instead of stopping at the parking lot there, we continue by car.
The gate must be kept closed just not to let the animals out to pasture, but cars are allowed to transit. Arrived at the end of the road, we continue on foot and in about half an hour we arrive at the viewing point, from which we enjoy a beautiful view: below us sheer cliffs, on the other side a bay with a beach, and still mountains. Really nice. Maybe less famous than other spots in Ireland, but surely worth. We spend the whole morning here and we have lunch near the parking lot where there is a van that sells hot dogs.
Giant’s Causeway
Then we continue towards Portrush, it is quite far, we stop at the B&B we booked and we leave immediately to go to the Giant’s Causeway. We go around a bit to find parking, here too you pay per person, we don’t want to spend £20 just for parking. So we decide to stop at the railway museum (very close to the Giant’s Causeway), parking costs only £8. After parking we try to get to the ticket office to pay, but it’s closing, they tell us to park without problems, and without paying.
Then we go towards the cliffs, we first walk on the path at the top, from which we see the cliffs much further down, then we go down towards the so-called “amphitheater”. The path is closed due to the danger of landslides, so we look from the gate where the path is interrupted to admire the beautiful panorama, and then we go down towards the most famous point with the hexagonal columns. We spend a few hours here, taking lots of pictures. When the sun goes away, a few hours have passed, we return to Portrush and have dinner.
Tuesday September 10th, 2019
It’s our last day in Ireland. After breakfast we go to the rope bridge nearby, but first we stop at Dark Hedges, a tree-lined avenue famous for the television series Game of Thrones. We continue towards Carrick-a-Rede for the suspension bridge. When we see it from above, we expected it to be a little longer, so we decide not to cross it and get to Belfast earlier.
In late morning we arrive and go straight to the hotel. We then head downtown on foot passing by the town hall, the cathedral and the square with the clock. Even today we have a late lunch. Around 16.00 we reach the Titanic Belfast, we begin the visit from the SS Nomadic and then from the Titanic museum, built where the Titanic construction site stood. We spend all the afternoon in the museum. Then we go to a neighborhood to see some graffiti, then we go back downtown, have dinner and go to sleep.
Wednesday September 11th, 2019
We leave Belfast (and Northern Ireland) and head to Monasterboice and Mellifont, two places where the ruins of two monasteries stand. In Monasterboice, one of the two most important Celtic crosses is surrounded by scaffolding to verify its state of conservation and there are technicians who are analyzing it. We are lucky here too and they allow us to go up and see the cross up close. In Mellifont we are the only tourists.
Last stop on our journey is Newgrange (I really liked this place in my previous trip to Ireland), where there is a megalithic tomb. Here, only in small groups at set times, it is possible to visit the inside (unfortunately it is not possible to take pictures). Really nice. After the visit, we take the car again and reach Dublin airport, where we have lunch (late even today) and make the last purchases before leaving Ireland.
You can read about my other trip to Ireland here.
