We stuck to the east coast of Ireland for this trip in June 2016, where we toured 4 countries in two weeks (see blog post "Two Weeks in Northern Europe"). The most time spent, however, was in Ireland, and I'm not sad about it. Ireland is, as you probably guessed if you haven't been there, absolutely breathtaking.
Here's the video of our whole trip, which is also included in other posts about this trip. It's chronological, so Ireland is at the beginning and the end (since we looped back around).
DUBLIN
We flew in to Dublin from Seattle, arriving mid-morning. We then picked up our rental car and headed into the city. The first stop on our list was the Brazen Head for lunch. The Brazen Head claims to officially be Ireland's oldest pub, dating back to 1198. Obviously this was a must! If you blink you may miss it if you're driving past, because you don't expect to see it wedged in between some regular modern shops.
It was dark and a little dungeon-y, but hey - it's old! The atmosphere was still awesome. I had the classic bangers and mash to start the trip off right, and a beer, of course. It was delicious, as expected. I highly recommend paying a visit (mostly so you can say you went to the oldest pub in Ireland)! Here's their website for pictures of the inside and their menu: http://www.brazenhead.com
Next stop was Trinity College in Dublin. It was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, so it too has a rich history. The library at Trinity is the most impressive thing about it, so I hear. We got there at an unfortunate time of day and the lines to get in were around the building. Saddened, and after much deliberation, we decided to pass and look around campus instead.
The campus still had lots of historical monuments and tidbits to see. I would recommend this stop if you like historical architecture, for sure!
We were exhausted from 10 hours of flying and had been up all day, so after this we headed to our hotel 35 mins south of Dublin to turn in early. We picked the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel in Killiney, an 18th-century, 4-star hotel. It was very affordable (avg. $110 per night), comfortable, and had tons of activities both in the hotel and the surrounding area. They have a full restaurant, bar, gym, indoor pool, and tea room. We were a little too exhausted to take part in all it had to offer, but we did do a couple things, including using the HUGE gym. https://www.fitzpatrickcastle.com
Adjacent to the property is Killiney Hill Park and the Obilisk monument. We woke at the crack of dawn (jet lag is weird) and decided to go for an early-morning walk. The fog made the scenery a little hard to see but gorgeous, and it was a fairly short trek to the monument. Apparently it overlooks Dublin Bay, but we couldn't really tell beacuse of the thick fog. The hotel provides a map for you so you don't get lost. There's also a tea room in the park which wasnt open in the morning, but looked super quaint and fun.
We left the hotel mid-morning to head south, our final destination being Wexford. On the way was my personal favorite part of our Ireland trip, the Bray Head Cliff walk. It's a 7km/4.3mile walk (not hike, the terrain is flat) along the Irish sea cliffside. We started in Bray and, at the end, took the train back to the beginning from Greystones. The walk is pretty long, but like I said, flat, so overall a fairly easy walk. It just takes awhile to walk 4 1/2 miles. Once we got to Greystones we had lunch (theres a TON of cute little cafes) and then bought tickets to hop the train back to Bray, which I believe were only a couple dollars a piece.
It's absolutely STUNNING. It remained a bit foggy that day (as I believe it is more days than not by the sea), but you could still see the sea and surrounding areas well. I took waaay too many pictures, but I couldn't help myself.
You can find more information about the cliff walk here: http://irishoutdoors.com/bray-greystones-cliff-walk/
WEXFORD
After the walk we headed to our B&B in Wexford. We stayed here and relaxed for several days, which turned out to be a perfect way to fully recover from the flight and time changes. Wexford is a moderately-sized coastal town in southeast Ireland. We picked it because of its review of a "chill" atmosphere and claims as a quintessential Irish town, which proved to be true.
We stayed at Killiane Castle just outside of town. Its the cutest farmhouse attached to an old castle tower. They have plenty of rooms in the farmhouse and a couple courtyard apartments. I'd highly recommend staying here for a quiet time. They also serve an excellent full-menu breakfast! In the video posted above you can see us playing tennis in the court alongside the castle and taking a walk on the nature trail behind the property.
Wexford had DOZENS of cafes, restrauants, and pubs. I didn't have a single mediocre meal there. Cistin Eile was an EXCELLENT top-rated restraunt with modern updates on Irish classics like lamb stew. Also, with a pub on every corner, we had to spend one night out on a pub crawl. There's no lack of beer to be found here!
Our second day in Wexford was spent visiting Tintern Abbey. This ancient abbey was founded in 1200 and is (mostly) still standing! If you're a history geek, you'll love it! The abbey is also a museum and includes information about religious and royal figures from Ireland's past. You can also explore the grounds which includes an old church and even older graveyard! The dates on some of the tombstones were insane. Theres a delicious tea and sandwich shop attached as well, if you work up an appetite like we did.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g186643-d525400-Reviews-Tintern_Abbey-Wexford_County_Wexford.html
Leaving Wexford was a sad day indeed, but we were so looking forward to moving into England! Because we had a rental car (which is not the most peaceful mode of transportation in Ireland due to narrow lanes and one-way streets that are actually used as two), we decided to ferry our car on over to Wales. There's a ferry that leaves straight from Wexford to Pembrokeshire. It's relatively cheap and a few hours long, but be warned: it's not for the faint of heart or stomach. The ferry was crazy sickening. See my "Two Weeks in Northern Europe" post for more on this, because I don't feel like spending one more second fretting over it. OUT.
DUBLIN, again
So, although after Wexford we went to England (which will be another post), after leaving Glasgow, Scotland a week and a half later we ferried back over to Belfast. I'll include a couple things we did in the last few days in our trip in Ireland here.
First of all, the ferry from Glasgow to Belfast was MUCH better than our first ferry. So.... that was exciting. Maybe because we were expecting the worst? I don't know. Anyway, we really just passed through Belfast, staying for one night at a super normal-looking B&B in town. Nothing much to report or recommend there, because my sister Colleen was SUPER freaked out by our B&B. The landlady was pretty odd, and gave us the creeps a little bit. I told her she was overreacting, but she didnt like that there were locks on the windows from the outside. She thought we were going to get locked in our rooms by the landlady without a way to escape, and then subsequently get murdered.
Safe to say she was super OK with jetting out of Belfast as fast she could. In the morning after the B&B (and a super awkward breakfast at the B&B with the landlady staring at us the entire time as we ate), we headed south. On the agenda that day was a high ropes course just north of Dublin and a night out in the city.
All 4 of us got to pick one thing they really wanted to do the entire trip that everyone else had to as well, and this was mine. I LOVE ziplines and high ropes; I was a high ropes instructor for awhile at a summer camp I worked at, just filling in for someone else, and then I realized that it was absolutely my thing.
This activity park in North Dublin was AWESOME. It's nothing like the ones back home in Washington state because there's no trees; its a free-standing high ropes structure. It has not only high ropes, but rock climbing, archery, and paintball as well. You get more info here: https://www.courtlough.ie/adventures/the-courtlough-tower/
I was really too busy here to take a ton of pictures, but you can see the whole experience in the gopro video at the beginning of this post; trust me, you'll want to go after watching it!
After our ropes course adventure we headed back in to Dublin for dinner and drinks. We were planning on hitting the Guinness Factory but unfortunately, we didn't realize they are closed on Sundays. meh. So for dinner we hit the Church Bar (which actually has phenomenal food). Tip: get a reservation WEEKS in advance. We did because we had done our research and still had to wait quite a while for a table when we got there, at least half an hour. And they said they're almost always that busy. Yikes.
Anyway, totally worth the wait. It was an awesome atmosphere; its an 18th century cathedral turned restaurant and bar. The church stood empty and falling apart from the 60's to the 90's until an investor purchased it with the intent of restoration. It took 7 years, but it was finally reopened in 2005. There's tons of history in this place, which you can soak up as you're eating your meal. https://www.thechurch.ie
Well, that was our time in Ireland! Thanks for reading, and I hope these recommendations help you in your journey! Continue reading on to our journey in the UK HERE: https://www.bisconerstakeontheworld.com/post/england-wales
As our Irish friends would say, dia duit (may God be with you)!
Kaci xxx
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