DRIVING AROUND IRELAND - WEEK ONE

MONDAY – We successfully navigated our way out of Dublin and drove to Glendalough through the Wicklow Mountains. It was a great drive into the country. As we drove out of Dublin there was a mist rising from the river which was really pretty. ‘Suppose it was like we call a sea mist. Glendalough is the site of St Kevin’s monastery which was founded after good old Kevin (a monk) went there around 498 AD to live as a hermit but soon other monks came to join him beside the two lakes in the mountains and a monastery was founded known as St Kevin’s. The walk around the ruins was interesting and the lake walks lovely. The day was really hot and we both got very sunburnt. Ian lost his hat in Dublin and I didn’t bring one. We had lunch in the restaurant at the site and both felt we had over eaten. The meals are huge and there certainly isn’t a potato shortage these days. We then drove south down through Wexford and bypassed Waterford to get to Cahir where we had booked into a B& B for the next few nights.


TUESDAY – Set off this morning to Rock of Cashell. Another monastery site sitting on top of a granite hill. Found our way easily and did the guided tour here which was extremely interesting. St Patrick baptized one of the Ancient Irish Kings here in 450AD. The site was originally a fortress built by King Connor in the early 5th century and later owned by Brian Buro (O’Brien Clan). Guess it was another battle for power – nothing has really changed has it. WE lunched in another Pub in Cashell before heading to Kilkerry. This is not our favorite place. No names on the little streets which were hard to navigate and no direction signs to places. We eventually found the Castle, parked the car and walked up the million steps but were happy to just walk around in the garden and look around. These places were all built near streams or rivers and the surrounding areas are pretty. We found our way out of Kilkenny and then drove through some great little villages back to Cahir stopping occasionally to look at various things. Had a walk around Cahir after a snack for dinner – another Castle here and we wandered around the park like grounds there.

WEDNESDAY – Neither of us felt inclined to go charging off to another city this morning so we drove up into the Knockmealdown mountains (over probably 20ks away) and found a lovely little stream that was hard to leave. It was so peaceful. Leave we did, and drove into Lismore just down the road, another b***** castle by a river. We then drove back towards the coast and into Waterford. After parking the car in a carpark we walked down to the harbor, found an Irish Pub and had some lunch before walking around the city. We managed to fill in the afternoon and drove back to Cahir along yet some other country roads.

THURSDAY - Driving towards Dungarvan this morning, saw a sign pointing to a waterfall so decided to take the little lane and have a look, both of us just laughed at the trickle of water falling down the mountainside. Bit different to the falls we saw in Iceland.  After a cup of tea in the car park decided to go to Youghal which was a very old port town with a nice harbour.  Had lunch here then on to Blarney Castle.  No, I didn't kiss the Blarney stone even though Ian tried to convince me that the attendant wipes it with antiseptic after each kiss. The gardens and parklands were lovely though. 
 
FRIDAY - Packed up and left the B&B at Cahir, it was starting to feel like home.  Had a quick look at an old thatched roof cottage before driving on towards Coachford where we had lunch in a pub owned by a Jim and Mary Cronin.  They were great and had a long chat to them both.  Mary would have taken me off for a game of golf if we had had the time.  We stopped at the Drombeg Stone Circle not far from Skibbereeh which is where the Potato Famine really hit the inhabitants at the time.  I went through the Heritage Museum whilst Ian went off to see a railway bridge and was devastated to discover it was a very ordinary looking iron bridge that now serves as extra space for customers of the nearby pub to sit on.  We then drove on to Glengarriff where we booked into a B&B for the night.

SATURDAY - Today was spent on the Beara Peninsular.  Everyone had recommended this as the best Peninsular to visit.  It was not what we expected however very interesting.  A very rugged area with huge mountain ranges like a spine up the centre.  It is often hard to see a lot as the hedges are quite high.  We drove up to Healy's Lake.  This was an incredible drive up the mountain on a very narrow road however the view once up there was fantastic.  The lake was lovely.  It has been very overcast all day so hard to take photos as the clouds created so much shadow.  We drove to Dursey Point which has a cable car to go across to Dursey Point however it was not running till later in the day so gave that a miss and started up the other side of the Peninsular.  The houses in the little villages are all painted in fantastic bright colours and they really stand out against the grey rocky covered mountains.  We are now on the Dingle Peninsular which, from what we have seen so far, is just as we imaged Ireland would look like.  Lovely rolling green hills running down to the water.  Although it was very overcast and rained tonight they still looked fantastic.