Kimbert Storms the West of Ireland!

For all of my visits to the Emerald Isle, I haven't seen a lot of Rob's motherland. Most of our trips involve visiting family, going to Dunnes Stores of all places, and the airport. Sure, I've been to a couple of other places, like Dublin for a wedding (where all we did was the wedding), Sligo for a wedding (where most of what we did was the wedding), and have seen the Cliffs of Moher – that was during a very cold and windy Christmas, practically 30 minutes after the sun set where you couldn't really decipher much of what was in front of you.  I already loved Ireland (who wouldn't when you are surrounded by Rob's family and friends and their warm and engaging spirits?), but what I really, really, really wanted was to see this beautiful (and very green) country through the eyes of a tourist – with a local tour guide in my pocket, of course! 

Rob planned out for us a string of cities we would visit on this trip, and I got down to my touristy research to make all of my dreams of leprechauns, clovers and rainbows come true!

The first "issue" that we experienced even in the planning stages of our trip was finding a hotel room in Dublin for the last day of our trip.  It appeared that Dublin was being infested by some kind of festival, concert or sporting event, but for the life of us, we couldn't figure out what that might be. We were finally able to find a hotel very close to the airport, which wasn't the worst thing in the world.

We did finally figure out why the city was jam-packed that weekend, and we didn't connect the dots until we were firmly seated in our cramped and tiny coach class seats on the plane out to Ireland –  American football!  I remember boarding the plane and seeing many people wearing Notre Dame Fighting Irish ball caps, shirts, jackets, etc. I was thinking that these Americans were quite silly to be sporting all of this merchandise JUST BECAUSE they were going to Ireland – maybe they wanted to get in good with the locals?  Apparently, my first assessment was not correct, because there was actually a college football game between the Navy and Notre Dame happening in Dublin at the same time we would be there. Sigh... just when I was hoping to escape Americans and be with my “in-laws”, the Irish, for a week of tourism.  

Upon arriving in Dublin, we picked up our rental car (which ended up costing an arm and a leg once you factor in the steep insurance costs per day) and we were all set to start out on our adventure. 

First Stop: Galway

I've been to Galway before (once while driving to the wedding in Sligo) and didn't really think it was all that memorable to be honest, but it is the home of where my Claddagh ring was purchased, so it does hold a tiny place in my heart. We walked up and down “Shop Street”, which is full of shops, and had dinner in a place called the Spanish Arch Hotel. 

A shop...on Shop Street

We were hoping to catch some live music while we were out, but since we were famished early in the evening, and not late, and had some jet lag creeping into our bones, we were not successful in that respect. We had a somewhat quiet evening in the Spanish Arch, waiting for what seemed like hours –  I think it was actually 90 minutes for our food to arrive. While waiting someone came by at about 8:30pm and put a random sign on our table saying that at 9:15pm the table was reserved for the band. 

This struck me as odd, since we hadn't even gotten our dinner yet after waiting all this time. Luckily, our dinner FINALLY showed up and we were out of there before we needed to be thrown out due to our randomly imposed time constraint.

Second Stop: Inishmore!

Trap and "Pony" Rides

Rob had been wanting to take me to the Aran Islands for a while. He indicated to me that it was like “a whole different world there, like stepping back in time”. After being there, I wouldn't necessarily agree with that description, as it appears to have become a lot more commercialized since the last time Rob visited.  Everything you read says that renting bikes is the way to see the island, as it didn't appear that you could rent a car –  not that you would want to as the island is only 8.6 miles long and 1.8 miles wide. Or you could take a charming (yet surely over-priced) trap and pony ride.  

We opted for the bikes at a place right next to our Bed and Breakfast.  The tires on most of the bikes looked sun baked (does Ireland actually get any sun for this to happen?) and as if they would burst at any moment. Most of the seats were tiny and my backside was not looking forward to that meeting. I searched through several bikes and found one with a seat that looked a little more comfortable than the rest and tires that might explode only if I tried really hard to make them.

For every up there is a down, and this experience is up and down and up and down and up, up, up!  At times I couldn't even get up a hill, and needed to get off the bike and walk it up. Which suited me just fine considering I was sharing the road with oncoming vehicles and there wasn't a nice bike lane for me to feel breezy and "safe" in. Rob was much more athletic in this respect and never had to do the bike walk of shame like I did on many occasions.   

Cycling on Inishmore is not easy. This isn't Florida with our nice flat roads and "hills" which barely have your car trying to get over them. When you see signs like the below you can only imagine that going down hill will be a breeze, but your return trip is sure to put you in a whole lot of pain! 

The tourist attractions on Inishmore are sparse to say the least and there are not very many businesses around to lure you in with pomp and circumstance –  in that respect, it did feel like we were stepping "back in time"! The weather more or less cooperated with us, up until the time we needed to go on a 10-mile round trip bike ride out to the island's blockbuster attraction, Dun Aenghus. It rained fairly decent while we had our lunch, at a place called Ti Joe Watty's –  which was nothing to write home about on the food front, and eased up enough for us to venture out to the fort. 

Some nourishment before our bike ride!

One of the "attractions" on the way that we could see was a colony of seals – which didn't seem to exist, sadly, when we got to their look-out point. The bike ride was just brutal and I arrived at the fort exhausted, hot and sweaty. I was looking forward to a nice break before we had to ride our bikes back into town, but that wasn't necessarily going to happen because we then had a 15 minute walk/climb up to the fort. It was quite interesting once you got there, with cliffs looming 300 feet in the air, and no gate of any sort to keep you from being tossed over –  and with the wind whipping, I wouldn't be surprised!

Got wind?

 We also visited St Benen's Church while we were there. This 15 minute hike up to this ridge was interesting as we were trying to battle stones, giant cow patties and soggy mud. Once you were at the top, however, the view was beautiful and the rock just went on for as long as the eye could see!

St Benen's Church

Rock, rock and more rock!

View from half way to the top!

The only other sight we visited while we were there was St Enda's Church, which I just happened to stumble upon while taking pictures in a cemetery. Apparently St Enda is said to be buried here along with 125 other saints who flocked to Inishmore in the fifth century to learn from him.

St Enda's Church

I had never heard of this saint, and when trying to google it I kept typing EDNA instead of ENDA. Finally I found him (who i originally was expecting to be a "her"), so here is your history lesson for today...Wikipedia says:  "Enda was a warrior, and the King of Oriel. He visited his sister, Saint Fanchea, an abbess, who tried to persuade him to lay down his arms. He agreed, if only she would give him a young girl in the convent for a wife. The girl she promised turned out to have just died (apparently she knew the girl was going to die soon!), and Enda only saw his fiancée as a corpse. Greatly affected by this, he gave up fighting and went to study for the priesthood. He returned to Ireland, and built churches at Drogheda. He was given land in the Aran Islands by his brother-in-law, the King of Cashel. There he founded one of the first monasteries in Ireland, the monastery of Killeaney on Inis Mor, as well as several others across the island, and has since been known as the father of Irish monasticism."

Third Stop: Dromoland Castle via Newmarket-on-Fergus

There was lots to see and do between leaving the Aran Islands and arriving at Dromoland. Sights we saw upon the way included:

An Spideal Beach –  doesn't look too comfortable for a lazy afternoon in the overcast sun!

The Aillwee Cave was a highlight for Rob in his younger years on school trips. Having seen the Crystal Caves in Bermuda pictured below... I would have to say the Ailwee Cave wasn't nearly as beautiful. During the Ice Age, underground rivers carved countless caves such as this one. Brown bears became extinct in Ireland over 1,000 years ago, but found these caves great for hibernating, as it is a constant 50 degrees in the caves, regardless of the temperature outside.

Crystal Cave in Bermuda

The Burren comes from an Irish word “Boíreann” meaning a rocky place. The Burren region is internationally famous for its landscape and flora. A visit to the Burren during the summer months will leave a person amazed by the colorful diversity of flowering plants living together within the one ecosystem. Arctic-alpine plants living side by side with Mediterranean plants, lime-loving and acid-loving plants growing adjacent to one another and woodland plants growing out in the open with not a tree nearby to provide shade from the “sun”. It's amazing to see flowers and foliage everywhere in the middle of this almost rocky desert.  

The Burren

One of the additional attractions in the Burren that we were able to see is the Poulnabrone Dolmen, which looks like a stone table for a giant, but is actually a portal tomb standing 12 feet high. It dates back to the Neolithic period between 4200 BC and 2900 BC. In 1985, following a collapse of a part of the structure, it was excavated and under it were found buried between 16 and 22 adults and 6 children. An infant was also found, which was buried much later than the aforementioned. Personal items buried with the dead included a polished stone axe, a bone pendant, quartz crystals, weapons and pottery.

Portal Tomb

The Burren would have to be, hands down, my favorite place we visited on this trip because of the contrast between the harshness of the rocks and the delicateness of the flowers sprinkled within it.

The Cliffs of Moher rise a whopping 390 feet above the Atlantic Ocean and reach their maximum height at 702 feet (take that Dun Aenghus!). With 1 million visitors per year, this attraction promised to be infested with my American countrymen, and it didn't disappoint! There are apparently an estimated 30,000 birds living on the cliffs, representing more than 20 species. I found this surprising considering I don't recall seeing any birds (especially the elusive Puffin) but I did see plenty of cows.

Cliffs of Moher

After our sightseeing flurry, we finally arrived at Dromoland Castle. I had always wanted to stay in a castle, so here was my chance!  We had booked both an archery and a clay pigeon shooting lesson while we were there, which promised to be the highlight of our stay. Our instructor was Pat, who had to be in his seventies and was apparently a local clay pigeon shooting champion. Having been using a gun and bow and arrow since the early age of ten, this guy seemed to know what he was talking about!  

The rain impeded on our archery lesson a bit, but it didn't hold either of us back from getting a couple of bulls eyes.... while I will admit, that Rob did get three bulls eyes on one of his turns, I was the first to get one. ;)

Just call me Katniss Everdeen!

The next day I was able to fire a gun for the first time – a 20-gauge shotgun no less, and we both did fairly well. I eeked out ahead on the shooting front, however. One with a bow, the other with a gun, I think the gun might have the upper hand, Rob!

Bang!

Me and my smoking gun!

The Castle in and of itself, was a let down. Totally over priced, not really castle worthy on the inside and just plain average, left me disappointed. The outside looks fab, and the Walled Garden was very pretty, but other than that it was a total waste of time and money. When we told Rob's mother that we were going to stay there for a night, her immediate response was "go to Ashford Castle”. After looking at the website, she might have been right!

Dromoland Castle

Entrance to the walled garden

Fourth Stop: The Dingle Peninsula

It took us quite a while to get from the let-down castle to Dingle. We made one stop along the way to another one of Rob's old haunts from field-trip heaven when he was younger- Craggaunowen. This not-so-popular attraction by the amount of visitors there when we arrived,  was supposed to let you relive  "the living past", however there was really nothing living about it, with the exception of a woman spinning wool, which was actually quite interesting to learn about.

Their website touts that it "features a stunning recreation of some of the homesteads, rare animal breeds and artefacts which existed in Ireland over 1,000 years ago." I saw some sheep, a donkey and the back of some kind of giant black pig. Were those the rare animals I was supposed to be "noticing"? There are plenty of sheep to be seen... Apparently when we did get to Dingle, the peninsula was home to 500,000 sheep, and only 10,000 people, so the sheep outside the Craggaunowen didn't seem like anything to write home about. Their website also makes it appear that there will be people there "living" like they would back in the day, the only person I saw along the way was the wool lady I mentioned, and she was at the first stop.  I just found out while getting the link to Craggaunowen, that they closed early this year, I'm not surprised. even if it was open, I would just give this a pass.

Craga-what?

Once we were close to Dingle, Rob wanted to take me on the "scenic route" via the Conor Pass. Which is a two way road (with one lane), snaking up a mountain. The view from the roads was supposed to be breathtaking, but with rain pounding down around us, clouds dangling in our face, the occasional stray sheep in the middle of the road, oh and the other cars zipping around blind corners straight at you, it seemed like we were in some kind of video game instead. People actually ride bikes on this thing too. I can't even get up a baby mountain in Inishmore, and people are trucking it on bikes. Amazing.

We stayed at a little B&B just outside the time in the Fungi the Dingle Dolphin room- Fungi is one of Dingle's claims to fame and is apparently a lone, hermit bottle-nosed dolphin who loves humans and has been hanging around the Dingle Harbor since 1984, We didn't see him while we were there, but there was a bunch of rain in my way, so I’m sure he was there looking for me too.

We were finally able to hear some traditional Irish music that night at a place called the Courthouse.  It was mildly ruined however, when an American family sat in the very front of the musicians, with their giant Sasquatch height and proceeded to yell over the music to each other. The daddy Sasquatch was very interested in his blackberry which involved taking pictures and showing random people pictures for most of the time, as well as standing at full attention (he was a Navy fan of course) where the likes of non-Sasquatch people like myself could only see him front and center. Of course it would be the Americans causing this amount of stress in my evening. ;)

In the morning, we were treated to a very lovely breakfast at our B&B which included the best and most interesting banana pancakes I've had as well as some hard boiled eggs nestled in the cutest "egg mittens" I have ever seen!

We did a driving tour of the Dingle Peninsula, which started out rainy and bleak, but ended with some sunshine. Along the way, we stopped at the Blasket Island Center where we learned about the small population of people who lived on the nearby Blasket Islands until the 1950's, drove along Slea Head Road, which reminded me of driving on the Conor Pass- just mildly less frightening, or maybe more frightening because giant tour buses toted American and British tourists along its narrow road.

View of Blasket Island from Slea Head Road

We made a quick stop at the Gallarus Oratory, in Irish: Séipéilín Ghallarais, literally means "The Church of the Place of the Foreigners, was built about 1,300 years ago and is one of Ireland's best-preserved early-Christian churches. 

Gallarus Oratory

And we also visited the ruined church of Kilmalkedar, which was a Norman center of worship for the end of the peninsula on which it stood. It dates back to the 12th century and is surrounded by a densely populated graveyard and also has an ogham stone in front of it.  This stone stood here for 900 years before Kilmalkedar was built. It marked a grave indicating that it was a pre-Christian holy spot. A hole was drilled through the top centuries ago as a place where people would come to seal a deal while standing on the graves of their ancestors, in front of the house of God where they would then "swear to God" by touching thumbs through this stone.

Overall, the Dingle Peninsula is quite beautiful, and I would definitely recommend it!

Fifth Stop: Glenflesk

“Glenflesk? What’s in Glenflesk?” you might ask. Well, I will tell you what’s in Glenflesk – Kennedy’s Pet Farm!  I came across this pet farm while doing some research, and knew that I had to go!  My hopes of getting to play with many animals, was only mildly subdued, due to the fact that a.) Not all of the animals wanted to let you pet them b.) Looked mildly mean (Shetland ponies) or c.) Were behind a fence and out of reach.  The ones I did get to pet were very cute – with the exception of a giant black pig, which I thought was expecting piglets, only to see later she had already had them. She snored as loud as my dog, and if you’ve ever heard Dexter snore- that’s pretty loud! For anyone wondering, Rob kept his arms crossed the whole time, refused to touch any animals and then scrubbed his hands furiously when we left. So if you were thinking he was a "changed man" in regards to animals because of me, guess again!

Bambi!

Baby chick!

Sixth Stop: Cork and Cobh!

Finally, a place to lay our heads for more than one night!  We were able to have Rob’s brothers Barry and Alan join us at his parents’ house for an evening of Spaghetti Bolognese and banter on our first night.

The next day, Rob took me to Cobh, where his parents are originally from and own a house on this “island”.  Cobh was the major port of Irish emigration in the 19^th century. Of the six million Irish who have emigrated to America, Canada and Australia since 1815, nearly half left from Cobh. Cobh was also the last port of call for the Titanic before she sailed out for her maiden and incomplete voyage, however at the time, Cobh was actually named Queenstown.  

Me and Annie Moore- the first irish immigrant processed through Ellis Island.

Due to its naturally protected harbor Cobh has historically been important as a tactical base for naval military bases. For instance, Cobh was of major tactical military importance as a naval base during the Napoleonic wars between France and England. The Napoleonic Wars meant the town became a British Naval port with its own admiral and much of the present day buildings were built at that time. Cobh very much reminds me of Bermuda, and all that makes sense, since Bermuda is a British territory!  It wasn't until 1922 that the name was changed from Queenstown to Cobh, to celebrate their new independence from Britain.

I didn't take this photo, but it's a beautiful example of the charm and Bermuda-like structures that stand today in Cobh.

While in Cobh I was able to see the place where Rob took a leap of faith as a young boy under his fathers encouragement to join him in the water at  Whitepoint Beach and he jumped off the pier into the "freezing cold temperatures" of the sea. As the story goes, he was gasping for air when his head finally came up from the icy fingers that wrapped around his leprechaun body. It's no wonder he likes swimming with manatees, in a wetsuit, in the 72 degree water of Florida in his adulthood!

Cork Harbor- Whitepoint Beach

St Colman's Cemetery

St Colman Cathedral

Seventh Stop: Back to Dublin!

We headed back to Dublin with a heavy heart having had a really great trip, but were eager to meet up with Rob’s aunt Angela and Uncle Tony for a “traditional night out”. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the Navy v. Notre Dame game was happening the next day the pubs were slammed with Americans, and the one we were at was blaring traditional pop/rap/rock music through its speakers all night long (where we had to scream over to each other to be heard) even though I believe they advertised traditional Irish music nightly. I guess they must know what us Americans really want!

We drove over 800 miles with our trusty Qashqai rental car on this trip and made it back in one piece with many memories, and just under 1300 photos. Not too shabby!

Feel free to check out more of my photos below- with Irish music at no additional charge!