I am half Irish, but I have never been to Ireland until recently. We went to Ireland at the end of May for 2 and a half weeks, and we had a splendid time. It is a gorgeous country, with amazing, friendly people. And we had sunshine and warm weather throughout the trip! NOT – notice the raincoats in all the picture!. But rain is to be expected if you want to have such lush green countryside.
We followed Rick Steves’ recommendations. We picked up a rental car and traveled mostly in the countryside on the west coast. We spent nights in Kilkenny, Kinsale, Kenmare, Dingle, Galway, and finally (without the rental car), Dublin. Having said that, this is not going to be a travelogue, but rather photography with commentary.
After landing in Dublin, we picked up our rental car and drove to Powerscourt Estate Gardens. After a spot of lunch in a remarkably good café for a tourist destination, we toured the gardens. It was good to get outside and walk, especially as a means to limit jetlag. And a good place for photos.
Jetlag has not set in yet.
I don’t know what the demon is at the base of this statue…
Here is the Kenmare waterfront, and then Susan at the waterfront.
We stopped in a Tourist Information shop and picked up some local road maps. Some roads on the maps had a blue-and-white designation and the map legend said this represented the Wild Atlantic Way. What is the Wild Atlantic Way? A little research determined the Irish Tourism Board put together this set of roadways that follow the Atlantic Ocean, and that it starts in Kinsale. We quickly learned that these usually are small roads, two-lanes or even one-lane in parts. They are slow roads, so we would follow these roads for a while and then transition to a faster road to make time. The Wild Atlantic Way is signposted with a distinctive blue and white logo, that sort of looks like two W’s. Definitely a good decision to go on the small roads.
This is called The Old Head Kinsale.
We were driving in County Cork along a small stream that was picturesque. We came across a small road that crossed the stream on a bridge that was so pretty that I had to cross the bridge and get out of the car to take pictures. Nothing like a leisurely drive!
We stopped in a small town called Glengarriff in County Cork, and there was a walk down to something called the Blue Pool. It was very pretty, and at this time of year the rhododendrons were in bloom.
We went over the mountain pass between County Cork and County Clare that was fogged in, but when the fog cleared it was gorgeous!
We drove through Killarney National Park, which was gorgeous. In Killarney National Park we also toured Muckross House and Farms, and I will have pictures of these in a subsequent post.
We went to the Torc Waterfall in Killarney National Park. On the hike, I took lots of pictures, including this wild one of moss on a tree where I changed the zoom while I took the picture.
Obligatory photo in front of the waterfall.
We drove around the Ring of Kerry and had amazing views.
This was in Dingle. Great name for a town, and it was a really fun place!
Dingle Bay.
We drove north from Dingle into County Clare and visited the Cliffs of Moher, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ireland. The cliffs are amazing. For a stretch of five miles, these dramatic cliffs rise 650 feet above the Atlantic.
The Cliffs of Moher has an amazing visitors centre (how it is spelled), that was built into a hillside as one approaches the cliffs. The whole centre is really attractive as well as environmentally sensitive.
We went to The Burren in County Clare where there is Burren National Park. The name Burren comes from the Gaelic, it means “a rocky place.”
Some of this area is extremely desolate, with no trees growing. It wasn’t always this way. It was once a forested area, but several thousand years ago human settlers cleared the trees for farmland, and then the soil eroded leaving exposed limestone, sometimes called glaciokarst. It is an eerie and unsettling landscape, but startlingly beautiful.
This lake was in County Mayo.
When we were in Galway, we took a ferry for a day trip to the Aran Islands. The islands are a Gaeltacht area, meaning the islanders speak Gaelic among themselves.
The islands were populated during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in the mid-17th century when Catholics were forced to give up good land and had the choice of going “to hell or to Connacht,” when Connacht was the name of the western province. The soil was no good on the islands, and the people survived by harvesting seaweed and placing it, along with sand and animal dung, on top of the rocks to create fertile soil. This allowed them to grow vegetables and grass to raise sheep.
Historically, the Aran Islands economy was based on raising sheep. In every town in Ireland, we saw shops selling Aran Island Sweaters. There is even a Wikipedia page. on the sweaters. But they no longer raise sheep on the Aran Islands; now the economy is primarily tourism, as well as raising cattle.
There are several Bronze Age and Iron Age forts on the islands that serve as tourist destinations.
The Aran Islands have spectacular countryside, with more of the exposed glaciokarst limestone.
They build stone wall enclosures to pen the sheep, although today they raise cattle instead of sheep. We saw stone walls all over Ireland, but the stone walls on the Aran Islands are really pretty.
In Dublin, we stayed in the Ballsbridge neighborhood, as opposed to the tourist-oriented Temple Bar area. We were close enough to walk to the city centre, but we were in a “real people” neighborhood with good restaurants. We were in an area with canals, and my last landscape picture was taken as we walked after dinner. This far north it stays light until after 10 PM!
More pictures and stories to come!