Ireland 2024

Day One

We lfew into Dublin and got to our hotel around 1 pm local time, freshened up, and then walked to the older part of town. Lots of tourists out and about - we stopped at St Stephen’s Green, Molly Malone statue (opted out of getting a pic), and at Trinity College. Then we went to do the Guiness Storehouse tour, grabbed a pint at Temple Bar (we actually got a table!), and then dinner.

Day 2

Our second day in Dublin - we slept in, had breakfast near the hotel, then headed downtown for the hop on, hop off bus tour. The tour went all over, including stops at many places that we saw yesterday. We hopped off to the Little Dublin Museum which covered the history of Dublin/Ireland mostly from the early 1900’s-now. Hopped back on the bus for the rest of the tour ending it near the Jameson distillery. We went there and did a distillery tour and a cask pull (tasted a 19 year old whiskey). Grabbed a pint at O’Shea’s and listened to live music, had dinner and then back to the hotel.

Day 3

We had an early start for our train tour. Arrived in Cork at 9:30, then got on our tour bus and drove to Blarney Castle. We had 3 hours to explore the caste and grounds - our favourite spot was the Fern Gardens, we grabbed lunch in Blarney Village afterward. We then went to Cobh (pronounced Cove) in the afternoon, looked at a church and then went to the Heritage Centre and learned about the mass emigration and famine. We then took the train to Killarney, checked into our hotel, got dinner and then went to a pub for live music.

Day 4

We went on a walk through Killarney National Park before our tour - saw a lot of deer and ducks. We then headed out on our bus tour - the Ring of Kerry. Lots of pretty vista views of the mountains (hills really) and the ocean. The tour stopped at a few lookouts, a couple of stores, a restaurant overlooking a bay, and a waterfall a very short walk from the parking lot. We got back to Killarney pretty early (around 3 though it was getting close to sunset). We spent the rest of the day shopping and got dinner.

Day 5

We had an early start driving from Killarney to Limerick to pick up other people on the tour. We then went to Bunratty Castle dating back to the 15th century and renovated in the mid 1900’s so none of the decor actually belonged in the castle. We stopped at a surfing town for lunch and then made our way to the Cliffs of Moher. We spent a while at the Cliffs and walked all the available length of it (a lot was closed from previously windy days, and it’s the off season). We then made our way to Galway with a couple of stops for pictures.

Day 6

Our last scheduled tour day with a bus tour of Connemara. Another hilly region of the country, west of Galway. At this time of year, the bogs were more brown than green, but it was still pretty to see the mountains. The main stop was Kylemore Abbey - a manor turned into Abbey with nice grounds (including a walled Victorian garden). We had a few hours to explore and then continued the tour back to Galway with a couple of stops at scenic lookouts. We then took the train back to Dublin.

Day 7

We picked up the rental car and Andrew had his first experience driving on the opposite side of the road (so far so good!). We headed north from Dublin to Castlewellan - a long drive by Ireland standards at 1.5 hours. We grabbed lunch in a surprisingly large pub that had good food (and a solid amount of vegetarian choices). We then went to Castlewellan park for a hike and view of the castle. After climbing for around 2.5km, we reached the peak and saw the view of the Mourne Mountains in the distance. We then descended and entered the Peace maze - one of the largest hedge mazes in Europe. We had a lovely dinner at the hotel and had a relaxing evening.

Day 8

We drove through Belfast to head up to the Giants Causeway. We got our first rainy day, but according to a local, the weather was still pretty great for the area. We hiked around the Giants Causeway - first walking to the Amphitheatre and then down to the Causeway. After getting pretty wet, we headed back to the car and drove to a small town to stop for lunch. It was a nice little cafe with delicious chocolate caramel squares. We then drove to Belfast, did a bit of walking around, including the packed Christmas market. After having no success finding a restaurant to eat at, we got sandwiches from the grocery store and went back to the hotel.

Day 9

Our last day touring around. We started in Belfast and went to the Titanic museum. After a few hours there, we drove to Cabra Castle for our friends wedding and joined in the welcome dinner.