Ireland Trip Report - July 23 to Aug 5
Aug 22nd, 2007, 07:25 AM
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Ireland Trip Report - July 23 to Aug 5
I always find it a little overwhelming when writing trip reports – there’s so much that happened during our trip, I don’t know how to distill it down into a concise report! However, we had such a wonderful trip and went on sort of an opposite loop than the typical Ireland visit, so I wanted to contribute to the vast amount of helpful information here on Fodors. I wasn’t a frequent poster, but I was a very frequent reader of posts here as I was planning my trip.
Background:
J (age 29) and I (age 26) chose Ireland for our honeymoon destination. We both work in NYC (though we live in the leafy suburbs of CT now) and our previous European travel experience was a trip to Rome & Florence in December 2005. I began planning the trip in December 2006 and had all of our accommodations booked by the end of January. We chose to go along the North/Northwest/Western coasts (i) because I fell in love with the North Antrim coast once I started researching, and (ii) I wanted to avoid the swarms of tourists in the main tourist areas in the South/Southwest regions of Ireland.
Research:
When planning the trip, I spent a lot of time on this forum and in the forums at IrelandYes.com. I found both to be enormously helpful. I posted a couple of early itineraries on IrelandYes and received some very helpful feedback (I was a little over-ambitious with the first itinerary). I checked TripAdvisor, but found that there wasn’t a lot of information for the areas we were planning on going to. We also had the DK Eyewitness Guide to Ireland, which isn’t all that great for a lot of detailed information (i.e., admission prices, opening hours, restaurant recommendations) but has a lot of great pictures and good historical information on the various regions and sites in Ireland.
For those of you who want to skip the details and just see the pictures, I have posted the pictures to http://irelandtripjuly2007.shutterfly.com
I have written captions to almost all of the pictures explaining where they were taken, so they’re almost like a trip report in their own right
Photos were taken with a Kodak P850 and a Canon SD800.
Flights:
We found direct flights from JFK – DUB, returning SNN – JFK on Delta for $650. Neither of us had flown Delta for any long flights before, so we weren’t sure what to expect. Overall, we were very pleased and will definitely choose Delta if we have the option on future flights to Europe. There seemed to be an extra 2 inches of legroom between the seats compared to American (our usual long-haul airline), and there was frequent food and beverage service. The food was surprisingly good! I had heard about Delta’s new in-flight menus (and had read a not so glowing review about it by the NY Times food critic), but both of us were quite satisfied with the meals that were served.
Rental Car:
I requested quotes from a number of agencies, but found the best price through Kemwel. We reserved a 2 door automatic compact car (Toyota Corolla or similar) from 7/26/06 through 8/5/07, and were quoted and paid an upfront charge of $540. Both of us can drive stick shift, but we opted to go with the automatic because we figured it’d be one less stress while driving. I have a Diner’s Club card, so I waived the CDW coverage. Upon picking up the car at the airport (we spent a couple days in Dublin first, then went back to the airport to get the car), there was an additional charge of $280 that I was not expecting. I don’t remember the exact split, but $85 was for a full tank of gas (you return it empty – ours was just about on fumes when we returned it!) and I think about $115 was for theft coverage. Diner’s Club covers CDW, but does not cover theft. I probably could have waived it, but I didn’t want the risk. I think there was also a $40 charge for picking it up from the airport.
Our car was a 4 door Kia Cee’d which was almost brand new (only 14,000 km on the odometer). When I saw the car, I was relieved to see that previous drivers had already inflicted multiple dents and scrapes on it. I figured this meant that if we happened to create any new dents, they would be hidden by the old dents. J made sure that we went over the pre-existing damage to the car with the representative prior to driving away from the lot. We were very happy with our car – it was big enough that we didn’t feel cramped, yet small enough where we weren’t worrying every time oncoming traffic came by on a small road. We didn’t end up adding any additional dents or scrapes to the car and did not have any additional charges when we returned it.
Up next: First stop, Dublin.
Background:
J (age 29) and I (age 26) chose Ireland for our honeymoon destination. We both work in NYC (though we live in the leafy suburbs of CT now) and our previous European travel experience was a trip to Rome & Florence in December 2005. I began planning the trip in December 2006 and had all of our accommodations booked by the end of January. We chose to go along the North/Northwest/Western coasts (i) because I fell in love with the North Antrim coast once I started researching, and (ii) I wanted to avoid the swarms of tourists in the main tourist areas in the South/Southwest regions of Ireland.
Research:
When planning the trip, I spent a lot of time on this forum and in the forums at IrelandYes.com. I found both to be enormously helpful. I posted a couple of early itineraries on IrelandYes and received some very helpful feedback (I was a little over-ambitious with the first itinerary). I checked TripAdvisor, but found that there wasn’t a lot of information for the areas we were planning on going to. We also had the DK Eyewitness Guide to Ireland, which isn’t all that great for a lot of detailed information (i.e., admission prices, opening hours, restaurant recommendations) but has a lot of great pictures and good historical information on the various regions and sites in Ireland.
For those of you who want to skip the details and just see the pictures, I have posted the pictures to http://irelandtripjuly2007.shutterfly.com
I have written captions to almost all of the pictures explaining where they were taken, so they’re almost like a trip report in their own right
Photos were taken with a Kodak P850 and a Canon SD800.Flights:
We found direct flights from JFK – DUB, returning SNN – JFK on Delta for $650. Neither of us had flown Delta for any long flights before, so we weren’t sure what to expect. Overall, we were very pleased and will definitely choose Delta if we have the option on future flights to Europe. There seemed to be an extra 2 inches of legroom between the seats compared to American (our usual long-haul airline), and there was frequent food and beverage service. The food was surprisingly good! I had heard about Delta’s new in-flight menus (and had read a not so glowing review about it by the NY Times food critic), but both of us were quite satisfied with the meals that were served.
Rental Car:
I requested quotes from a number of agencies, but found the best price through Kemwel. We reserved a 2 door automatic compact car (Toyota Corolla or similar) from 7/26/06 through 8/5/07, and were quoted and paid an upfront charge of $540. Both of us can drive stick shift, but we opted to go with the automatic because we figured it’d be one less stress while driving. I have a Diner’s Club card, so I waived the CDW coverage. Upon picking up the car at the airport (we spent a couple days in Dublin first, then went back to the airport to get the car), there was an additional charge of $280 that I was not expecting. I don’t remember the exact split, but $85 was for a full tank of gas (you return it empty – ours was just about on fumes when we returned it!) and I think about $115 was for theft coverage. Diner’s Club covers CDW, but does not cover theft. I probably could have waived it, but I didn’t want the risk. I think there was also a $40 charge for picking it up from the airport.
Our car was a 4 door Kia Cee’d which was almost brand new (only 14,000 km on the odometer). When I saw the car, I was relieved to see that previous drivers had already inflicted multiple dents and scrapes on it. I figured this meant that if we happened to create any new dents, they would be hidden by the old dents. J made sure that we went over the pre-existing damage to the car with the representative prior to driving away from the lot. We were very happy with our car – it was big enough that we didn’t feel cramped, yet small enough where we weren’t worrying every time oncoming traffic came by on a small road. We didn’t end up adding any additional dents or scrapes to the car and did not have any additional charges when we returned it.
Up next: First stop, Dublin.
Aug 22nd, 2007, 09:12 AM
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Day 1: Dublin
We arrived at Dublin Airport at about 8:00 am (had taken a red-eye from NYC), rounded up our luggage, and then hit the ATM to get some euros. It was at this point the J first realized that he didn¡¦t know his PIN for the ATM card he brought. We were planning on using an HSBC account, since they charge the lowest foreign fees, and had transferred some money into that account in preparation. We normally bank with Citibank, but their fees are much higher (3.0% conversion fee, plus up to 3.0% for using a foreign ATM). The problems with the ATM card turned out to be a recurring theme/problem for the first half of our trip¡K.. We both had our Citibank ATM cards, so we could at least access cash, we were just annoyed that we were paying higher fees to get it. We finally left the ATM (he kept trying different PINs) and went out to find the AirCoach. It was very easy to find, located right outside the baggage claim area. We only had about a 5 minute wait, during which a very helpful man told us which stop to get off and then we purchased our tickets (12 euros each for round trip fare) and boarded the bus towards Dublin.
We tried to pay close attention to the roads as we were leaving the airport, as we knew we¡¦d have to exit the airport ourselves with our rental car in a couple days. In our half asleep daze, however, I don¡¦t think we really retained all that much ƒº We got off the bus at the Trinity College stop and attempted to find our hotel, the Brooks Hotel located on Drury Street (180 euros per night, http://www.sinnotthotels.com/brooks/). For future reference, it¡¦s probably not a wise idea to arrive for the first time in Dublin during rush hour when you¡¦re only half awake and are each trying to wheel a suitcase. I had printed out a map from the Brooks Hotel website, but it wasn¡¦t in a whole lot of detail. We asked a few people, but no one seemed to know where Drury Street was. We finally decided to just stop in the Tourist Office and buy a map. I purchased a small spiral bound map book of Dublin (6 euros) as well as the OSI Ireland Road Atlas (12.50 euros). It turns out Drury Street was just around the corner and we were there in no time.
We knew we were really early for check-in, but were crossing our fingers that a room would be ready early. There were no rooms, however they kindly took our bags and showed us to the lounge downstairs. There was free internet access, so J decided to try to find an HSBC branch where he hoped to be able to get a new PIN for his ATM card. I relaxed in a big leather chair and started looking through the detailed Dublin map in order to get my bearings. J found an HSBC office in what seemed to be a business district (southern part of Dublin) and we headed out to start exploring the city.
First impression: It is a busy, crowded city. We walked down Grafton Street and were surprised at how many people there were ¡V not unlike midtown Manhattan, except the buildings were shorter and older. There were a lot of stores, but nothing really captured our interest as being all that unique or different from what we can get in NYC. If the exchange rate wasn¡¦t so horrendous right now, we may have been more interested in shopping, but that just added to our avoidance of the stores. We walked to the end of Grafton Street and crossed the street to head into St. Stephen¡¦s Green. This is a beautiful, well-kept, city park. We wandered through the park for awhile taking pictures and then went out the south exit of the park to attempt to find HSBC. We walked through a decidedly non-touristy area and found HSBC, but it turned out to be an investment office and not a regular bank branch.
We started trekking back towards the main section of the city and found Iveagh Gardens. There are beautiful fountains and a large waterfall in this park, which we liked more than St. Stephens. Seemed to be a lot of locals there walking their dogs or taking lunch breaks. We relaxed a little here and then headed back to our hotel to check on our room. Still not ready, so we decided to go get some lunch. Found a little place called The Bistro located in the Castlemarket pedestrian street. I had fish & chips and J had a glass of wine and a steak sandwich. Cute, modern place with a great outdoor seating area, and we were pleased with our food (though about to fall asleep since we still hadn¡¦t slept). We finished up lunch and headed back to Brooks where our room was finally ready.
We had reserved a standard room and received room 202. It was small, but had all the amenities we needed and was remarkably quiet considering we were in the middle of the city. The bed was very comfortable, and the best feature was a pillow menu from which you can choose what types of pillows you would like. We both fell asleep almost as soon as we laid down and had some much-needed sleep.
After a 2 hour nap, we showered, dressed and felt like new again. We set out with our newly found energy and went over to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. After spending some time walking through the courtyards, we made it to the library. Since the exhibit was closing in 45 minutes, they only charged us half price (4 euros each), and to be perfectly honest I wouldn¡¦t have wanted to spend any more. We were able to read all of the displays in the room before the book and found the history behind the book interesting, but the room that contained the actual book was so crowded that it was tough to get up to view it, and the light was so dim that it was tough to see. My sister is a museum curator and I understand the damage that light can cause, but I went to an exhibition of illustrated manuscripts at the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco a few years ago and they were able to display them with more light and visibility. We finally gave up trying to get to the front and continued on up to the reading room. This was worth the price of admission for me. I love libraries (I¡¦ve always dreamed of having a library like the one in Beauty & the Beast!), and this was an amazing room. I would love to have free access to go really be able to go through this room in detail. We descended into the gift shop, which was so packed we could barely get through, and tried to escape outside as quickly as possible. We continued to explore the courtyards and found a bronze sphere sculpture that was very similar to one we had seen at the Vatican.
We left Trinity and headed towards the Liffey where we encountered a rather odd man who emerged over the wall in his boxer shorts dripping wet, talked to a few tourists, and then descended back over the wall and down into the river. Not quite sure what his story was¡K.. The sun was out by this point and it was a pleasant walk along the river. We headed into the Temple Bar area and had our first pints in Ireland at The Temple Bar. We easily found a seat at the bar and enjoyed our drinks (me: Bulmers, J: Guinness). We left and continued to wander through the Temple Bar area. It is very quaint and picturesque, but I can imagine that it does get very loud at night and it may not be a great area to stay in if you actually want to sleep.
We went to a Spanish restaurant, Salamanca¡¦s, for dinner. It¡¦s located right next to the tourist office and has a great tapas menu. We ordered 5 tapas between the two of us, and it was just right. I would highly recommend the stuffed pepper. We also had some amazing garlic bread, which started my quest to eat garlic bread everywhere we went in Ireland (note to those that don¡¦t reach the end of this epic trip report, this was the best garlic bread I found!). I think the bottle of wine did us in, and we headed back to the hotel for some more sleep.
Day 2:
As breakfast is not included at Brooks, we decided to just find someplace to stop along the way. Found a great little coffee shop right near the entrance to Dublin Castle. After a quick bite to eat, went to explore Dublin Castle. I was fascinated by the architecture here and was curious to know more about it. Unfortunately, there was a 1 hr wait until the next available tour, so we didn¡¦t get to find out too much more. It is a great place to walk around even without a tour.
Next stop was Christchurch Cathedral (5 euros). Beautiful old cathedral. Interesting artifacts located on the underground level. Well worth a stop.
We then began our very long walk to the Guinness Storehouse (14 euros). I¡¦m going to add my vote to those who think this tour is a bit of a rip-off. One tip to get a bit of a discount: our ticket lady asked if we came on a tour bus, and I answered honestly and said no. Even still, she gave us the ¡¥tour-bus¡¦ discount of 10% off. The tour itself was only ok ¡V the most interesting parts for me were the architecture of the building and the Gravity Bar up top. There really is a great view over the entire city from the top. I tried again to like Guinness, but I just can¡¦t stand the stuff. So J ended up having both mine and his ƒº
We walked back to the main part of town and since it was getting late and starting to rain a little bit, so the next goal became finding somewhere for lunch. Stopped at The Blue Goose located right along the Liffey. Food was simple, fresh, and fairly inexpensive. After lunch we checked out the Four Courts building and the Old Jameson Distillery which is located just behind it. We opted not to do the Jameson tour as neither one of us is really a big fan of whiskey. Spent a little more time wandering the streets and then headed back to Brooks to rest our feet and figure out somewhere for dinner.
We ended up deciding on Cactus Jack¡¦s, which is located in a little ¡§Restaurant Row¡¨ area on the North side of the Millennium Bridge. Food was very good. So were the margaritas ƒº
Up next: We finally leave Dublin and head north along the coast
We arrived at Dublin Airport at about 8:00 am (had taken a red-eye from NYC), rounded up our luggage, and then hit the ATM to get some euros. It was at this point the J first realized that he didn¡¦t know his PIN for the ATM card he brought. We were planning on using an HSBC account, since they charge the lowest foreign fees, and had transferred some money into that account in preparation. We normally bank with Citibank, but their fees are much higher (3.0% conversion fee, plus up to 3.0% for using a foreign ATM). The problems with the ATM card turned out to be a recurring theme/problem for the first half of our trip¡K.. We both had our Citibank ATM cards, so we could at least access cash, we were just annoyed that we were paying higher fees to get it. We finally left the ATM (he kept trying different PINs) and went out to find the AirCoach. It was very easy to find, located right outside the baggage claim area. We only had about a 5 minute wait, during which a very helpful man told us which stop to get off and then we purchased our tickets (12 euros each for round trip fare) and boarded the bus towards Dublin.
We tried to pay close attention to the roads as we were leaving the airport, as we knew we¡¦d have to exit the airport ourselves with our rental car in a couple days. In our half asleep daze, however, I don¡¦t think we really retained all that much ƒº We got off the bus at the Trinity College stop and attempted to find our hotel, the Brooks Hotel located on Drury Street (180 euros per night, http://www.sinnotthotels.com/brooks/). For future reference, it¡¦s probably not a wise idea to arrive for the first time in Dublin during rush hour when you¡¦re only half awake and are each trying to wheel a suitcase. I had printed out a map from the Brooks Hotel website, but it wasn¡¦t in a whole lot of detail. We asked a few people, but no one seemed to know where Drury Street was. We finally decided to just stop in the Tourist Office and buy a map. I purchased a small spiral bound map book of Dublin (6 euros) as well as the OSI Ireland Road Atlas (12.50 euros). It turns out Drury Street was just around the corner and we were there in no time.
We knew we were really early for check-in, but were crossing our fingers that a room would be ready early. There were no rooms, however they kindly took our bags and showed us to the lounge downstairs. There was free internet access, so J decided to try to find an HSBC branch where he hoped to be able to get a new PIN for his ATM card. I relaxed in a big leather chair and started looking through the detailed Dublin map in order to get my bearings. J found an HSBC office in what seemed to be a business district (southern part of Dublin) and we headed out to start exploring the city.
First impression: It is a busy, crowded city. We walked down Grafton Street and were surprised at how many people there were ¡V not unlike midtown Manhattan, except the buildings were shorter and older. There were a lot of stores, but nothing really captured our interest as being all that unique or different from what we can get in NYC. If the exchange rate wasn¡¦t so horrendous right now, we may have been more interested in shopping, but that just added to our avoidance of the stores. We walked to the end of Grafton Street and crossed the street to head into St. Stephen¡¦s Green. This is a beautiful, well-kept, city park. We wandered through the park for awhile taking pictures and then went out the south exit of the park to attempt to find HSBC. We walked through a decidedly non-touristy area and found HSBC, but it turned out to be an investment office and not a regular bank branch.
We started trekking back towards the main section of the city and found Iveagh Gardens. There are beautiful fountains and a large waterfall in this park, which we liked more than St. Stephens. Seemed to be a lot of locals there walking their dogs or taking lunch breaks. We relaxed a little here and then headed back to our hotel to check on our room. Still not ready, so we decided to go get some lunch. Found a little place called The Bistro located in the Castlemarket pedestrian street. I had fish & chips and J had a glass of wine and a steak sandwich. Cute, modern place with a great outdoor seating area, and we were pleased with our food (though about to fall asleep since we still hadn¡¦t slept). We finished up lunch and headed back to Brooks where our room was finally ready.
We had reserved a standard room and received room 202. It was small, but had all the amenities we needed and was remarkably quiet considering we were in the middle of the city. The bed was very comfortable, and the best feature was a pillow menu from which you can choose what types of pillows you would like. We both fell asleep almost as soon as we laid down and had some much-needed sleep.
After a 2 hour nap, we showered, dressed and felt like new again. We set out with our newly found energy and went over to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. After spending some time walking through the courtyards, we made it to the library. Since the exhibit was closing in 45 minutes, they only charged us half price (4 euros each), and to be perfectly honest I wouldn¡¦t have wanted to spend any more. We were able to read all of the displays in the room before the book and found the history behind the book interesting, but the room that contained the actual book was so crowded that it was tough to get up to view it, and the light was so dim that it was tough to see. My sister is a museum curator and I understand the damage that light can cause, but I went to an exhibition of illustrated manuscripts at the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco a few years ago and they were able to display them with more light and visibility. We finally gave up trying to get to the front and continued on up to the reading room. This was worth the price of admission for me. I love libraries (I¡¦ve always dreamed of having a library like the one in Beauty & the Beast!), and this was an amazing room. I would love to have free access to go really be able to go through this room in detail. We descended into the gift shop, which was so packed we could barely get through, and tried to escape outside as quickly as possible. We continued to explore the courtyards and found a bronze sphere sculpture that was very similar to one we had seen at the Vatican.
We left Trinity and headed towards the Liffey where we encountered a rather odd man who emerged over the wall in his boxer shorts dripping wet, talked to a few tourists, and then descended back over the wall and down into the river. Not quite sure what his story was¡K.. The sun was out by this point and it was a pleasant walk along the river. We headed into the Temple Bar area and had our first pints in Ireland at The Temple Bar. We easily found a seat at the bar and enjoyed our drinks (me: Bulmers, J: Guinness). We left and continued to wander through the Temple Bar area. It is very quaint and picturesque, but I can imagine that it does get very loud at night and it may not be a great area to stay in if you actually want to sleep.
We went to a Spanish restaurant, Salamanca¡¦s, for dinner. It¡¦s located right next to the tourist office and has a great tapas menu. We ordered 5 tapas between the two of us, and it was just right. I would highly recommend the stuffed pepper. We also had some amazing garlic bread, which started my quest to eat garlic bread everywhere we went in Ireland (note to those that don¡¦t reach the end of this epic trip report, this was the best garlic bread I found!). I think the bottle of wine did us in, and we headed back to the hotel for some more sleep.
Day 2:
As breakfast is not included at Brooks, we decided to just find someplace to stop along the way. Found a great little coffee shop right near the entrance to Dublin Castle. After a quick bite to eat, went to explore Dublin Castle. I was fascinated by the architecture here and was curious to know more about it. Unfortunately, there was a 1 hr wait until the next available tour, so we didn¡¦t get to find out too much more. It is a great place to walk around even without a tour.
Next stop was Christchurch Cathedral (5 euros). Beautiful old cathedral. Interesting artifacts located on the underground level. Well worth a stop.
We then began our very long walk to the Guinness Storehouse (14 euros). I¡¦m going to add my vote to those who think this tour is a bit of a rip-off. One tip to get a bit of a discount: our ticket lady asked if we came on a tour bus, and I answered honestly and said no. Even still, she gave us the ¡¥tour-bus¡¦ discount of 10% off. The tour itself was only ok ¡V the most interesting parts for me were the architecture of the building and the Gravity Bar up top. There really is a great view over the entire city from the top. I tried again to like Guinness, but I just can¡¦t stand the stuff. So J ended up having both mine and his ƒº
We walked back to the main part of town and since it was getting late and starting to rain a little bit, so the next goal became finding somewhere for lunch. Stopped at The Blue Goose located right along the Liffey. Food was simple, fresh, and fairly inexpensive. After lunch we checked out the Four Courts building and the Old Jameson Distillery which is located just behind it. We opted not to do the Jameson tour as neither one of us is really a big fan of whiskey. Spent a little more time wandering the streets and then headed back to Brooks to rest our feet and figure out somewhere for dinner.
We ended up deciding on Cactus Jack¡¦s, which is located in a little ¡§Restaurant Row¡¨ area on the North side of the Millennium Bridge. Food was very good. So were the margaritas ƒº
Up next: We finally leave Dublin and head north along the coast
Aug 22nd, 2007, 09:33 AM
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You certainly did Dublin up right! It sounds liek you made the most of every moment you had there. Interesting note about the swimmmer in the Liffey. I am not sure that I ever considered a margarita in Ireland, as I come from an area where excellent Mexican food is a norm.
Thanks for the concise report. I look forward to the rest.
Slan Beo,
Bit
Thanks for the concise report. I look forward to the rest.
Slan Beo,
Bit
Aug 22nd, 2007, 11:22 AM
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Day 3:
We packed up and reluctantly left the most comfortable pillows in the world at Brooks (I also thought the shower was the best in the world, but that was before we made it to Ashford...). The AirCoach stop to head back to the airport is conveniently located right outside the tourist office, which was very close to Brooks. Upon reaching the airport, J went and grabbed bagels and juice, and I went to get the car. We should have known better than to get bagels considering that we’re used to NYC bagels, but we figured they couldn’t be that bad. We were wrong. I would not recommend getting bagels from the Bagel Factory.
We had no problems getting the car and were soon on the road. J had no problems with the driving – biggest confusion was the wipers and blinkers, which were on the opposite sides from what we are accustomed to. The M1 is a large, wide, divided highway and a good introduction to driving on the wrong side of the road. We were initially planning on taking the M1 all the way up to Belfast and then hopping on the A2, but J discovered that there was an HSBC branch located in Portadown. We detoured to Portadown, where we found a large modern shopping center and an HSBC. HSBC could not give him a new PIN in person, they could only mail it to the address on his account (not exactly helpful since we weren’t home). So we hit the road again, taking the A26 to the A57 to the coast, with some minor scenic detours along the way.
The Coastal Causeway truly is a beautiful drive. There are gorgeous views around every bend and numerous areas where you can pull off the road for photo ops. We were getting hungry and decided to stop at the next town we reached, which turned out to be Glen Arm. Found a parking spot and began walking around. Very quaint looking town. However, it seemed to be deserted. We noticed another couple walking around, also looking for signs of life. We went into a pub, but there was nobody there. Not sure if the whole town was on vacation or what, but it was a little odd. Drove 10 minutes up the road and found the lovely town of Cornalough. This was a picture perfect town located right along the water. Had lunch at the Glencoy Inn, where the waiter patiently explained ‘champ’ and ‘goujons’ to us. After a very satisfying lunch, we walked through the rest of the town. There’s a beautiful little park right along the water and we found a great little shop with some absolutely delicious ice cream. The town didn’t seem real to me – you wouldn’t think it could exist in real life
We finally left Cornalough and continued with our drive north. We went out to Torr Head on the way up and I would definitely recommend a trip out there. The road is very steep, narrow, and windy, but the view is worth it. Of course, it started to rain as soon as we got there. Be warned, it is a steep grassy hill which gets quite slippery when wet.
We continued on and easily found our B&B, Crockatinney Guest House (55 GBP per night, http://crockatinney.ndo.co.uk/). Mary gave us a brief tour and showed us to our room, the Knocklayde room on the lower level. We had read that the upstairs rooms were preferable, but unfortunately these were already booked when I made my reservations back in January! The room was large, with 2 double beds and one twin bed. Very bizarre shower – it took me awhile to figure out that there is a switch outside the bathroom that you need to turn on in order to get the shower to start. The drain was clogged, which resulted in some minor flooding after each shower (we tried to keep the showers super short after we discovered this problem). Outside of the drain problem, we had no problems with Crockatinney. The bed was comfortable, breakfast was delicious (I particularly loved their soda bread!), grounds were beautiful, and it was in a very convenient location for exploring the North Antrim Coast.
We headed into Ballycastle for dinner, which is about a 5 minute drive from Crockatinney. We stopped at the harbor first. Ballycastle has a great harbor with lovely walkways, a fountain, a beach and playing fields. We decided to head into the town center to look for a bite to eat (we started to walk, but then decided to drive over – there’s a bit of distance between the harbor area and town center area). The town of Ballycastle is very quaint with lots of little shops and restaurants. It was evening while we were there, so most of the shops were closed, but it looked like they would have been nice. We ended up stopping at Central Bar for dinner. It looked like a typical Irish pub from the outside, but we were very surprised when we walked inside. The restaurant upstairs has been completely renovated and could easily pass for a NYC restaurant. It called itself a wine bar, and the wine we had was good, but it was a very limited menu for a wine bar. Though in general, we found the wine lists in all of the places we ate to be much more limited compared to what we’re used to here in the US. I started with the broccoli & cheddar soup (creamy & delicious!) had the grilled sea bass with a pot au feu of olives, chorizo, tomatoes and something else (I forget what, the olives and chorizo really stood out though). The bass tasted fresh, was cooked perfectly, and the pot au feu was a perfect accompaniment. We were very pleasantly surprised by this place and would highly recommend it if you are passing through Ballycastle.
On our drive back to Crockatinney after dinner, we decided to stop off at Kinbane Castle since it was still light outside (about 9:30 at this point, but the sun doesn’t set til late!). We pulled into the parking lot and immediately noticed the sign on the fence which read “Visitors are advised not to proceed past this point”. I initially obeyed the sign, but then noticed evidence of recent visitors on the other side of the fence. We went over the fence and down the path until we came around the corner and could see the ruins of Kinbane Castle. We reached another fence with that same sign, but again, it looked like there was a well kept path and it appeared that people had just recently been there (though it was deserted at this point). We went all the way down the very steep stairs placed in the hillside and up towards the Castle. We had read that access to the Castle had been closed to visitors due to the ruins becoming unstable, so we kept our distance from the actual ruins. We were able to witness an amazing sunset from there, which was one of our favorite moments of the whole trip. The climb back up the hill and all of those stairs was definitely not enjoyable, however.
Day 4:
We had a delicious breakfast at Crockatinney and then headed over to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (3.30 GBP per person). As an FYI, there’s about a 1 km walk between the parking lot and the bridge. It is a beautiful walk along the cliffs with the ocean right there, but it is something to consider if you are traveling with small children or elderly relatives. Neither one of us found the bridge all that exciting (it’s shorter than it looks), but it is beautiful scenery out there and well worth a stop.
Next stop was Giant’s Causeway (5 GBP per car). There were a ton of people there. There is a shuttle that will run from the visitors center down to the main formation area, but we opted to walk instead. The cliffs and the pillars and the oceans all combine for an incredible experience. It’s astounding to think that it’s all natural formations. We could have stayed there for quite awhile, but it started to rain and we were getting a little cold and damp.
By the time we reached the car and started driving, the rain had stopped and the clouds started to clear. We stopped at Dunluce Castle (2 GBP per person I think) which also turned out to be one of our favorite sites. The ruins are still standing enough to really give you a good idea of how the castle used to be. There are also numerous signs throughout explaining how the castle used to be. After exploring above the castle, we exited the main site and followed a path down below the castle. J found the ‘secret entrance’, which was a steep hill inside a cave, which led down to the ocean. I decided to stay safely at the top of the hill, while J navigated his way down the hill to the water at the bottom and successfully climbed back up again.
We left Dunluce and continued on to Bushmills. We parked the car and walked through the town looking for somewhere to eat – it was approaching 2:30 and we hadn’t had lunch yet. Found The Distillers Arms which was excellent! Again we were surprised – looked like a basic pub from the outside, but inside it was very luxe. I wasn’t terribly hungry (breakfast was very filling!) so I just had a bowl of their Broccoli & Gorgonzola soup. J had the steak & Guinness pie, which he claimed was the best steak & Guinness he ever had in his entire life. Again, I would highly recommend a stop if you’re passing through!
After lunch we headed over to the Bushmills Distillery for a tour (note: it is somewhat of a long walk from the town center, it would probably have been better to drive). Bushmills is still manufactured at this location, and I thought it was a great tour. The only disappointment was that the plant closes at noon on Friday, so we didn’t actually get to see the bottling process. Funny thing was that during the course of the tour, the way they describe the whiskey makes you really excited to try it at the end. But then we reached the bar at the end for our tastings, after the first sip we remembered that we really don’t like drinking whiskey straight. I went up and asked for some ice which they were happy to provide. Made it much easier to drink!
We headed back to Crockatinney to clean up before dinner and figure out where we wanted to go. We ended up going to Anzac Bar in Ballycastle. We were once again surprised at how good the food was. I think too many people had warned us ahead of time about the typical quality of food in the UK and Ireland, so we went in with low expectations, but we were very pleasantly surprised at the quality of all of the restaurants we went to.
Up next: County Donegal
We packed up and reluctantly left the most comfortable pillows in the world at Brooks (I also thought the shower was the best in the world, but that was before we made it to Ashford...). The AirCoach stop to head back to the airport is conveniently located right outside the tourist office, which was very close to Brooks. Upon reaching the airport, J went and grabbed bagels and juice, and I went to get the car. We should have known better than to get bagels considering that we’re used to NYC bagels, but we figured they couldn’t be that bad. We were wrong. I would not recommend getting bagels from the Bagel Factory.
We had no problems getting the car and were soon on the road. J had no problems with the driving – biggest confusion was the wipers and blinkers, which were on the opposite sides from what we are accustomed to. The M1 is a large, wide, divided highway and a good introduction to driving on the wrong side of the road. We were initially planning on taking the M1 all the way up to Belfast and then hopping on the A2, but J discovered that there was an HSBC branch located in Portadown. We detoured to Portadown, where we found a large modern shopping center and an HSBC. HSBC could not give him a new PIN in person, they could only mail it to the address on his account (not exactly helpful since we weren’t home). So we hit the road again, taking the A26 to the A57 to the coast, with some minor scenic detours along the way.
The Coastal Causeway truly is a beautiful drive. There are gorgeous views around every bend and numerous areas where you can pull off the road for photo ops. We were getting hungry and decided to stop at the next town we reached, which turned out to be Glen Arm. Found a parking spot and began walking around. Very quaint looking town. However, it seemed to be deserted. We noticed another couple walking around, also looking for signs of life. We went into a pub, but there was nobody there. Not sure if the whole town was on vacation or what, but it was a little odd. Drove 10 minutes up the road and found the lovely town of Cornalough. This was a picture perfect town located right along the water. Had lunch at the Glencoy Inn, where the waiter patiently explained ‘champ’ and ‘goujons’ to us. After a very satisfying lunch, we walked through the rest of the town. There’s a beautiful little park right along the water and we found a great little shop with some absolutely delicious ice cream. The town didn’t seem real to me – you wouldn’t think it could exist in real life
We finally left Cornalough and continued with our drive north. We went out to Torr Head on the way up and I would definitely recommend a trip out there. The road is very steep, narrow, and windy, but the view is worth it. Of course, it started to rain as soon as we got there. Be warned, it is a steep grassy hill which gets quite slippery when wet.
We continued on and easily found our B&B, Crockatinney Guest House (55 GBP per night, http://crockatinney.ndo.co.uk/). Mary gave us a brief tour and showed us to our room, the Knocklayde room on the lower level. We had read that the upstairs rooms were preferable, but unfortunately these were already booked when I made my reservations back in January! The room was large, with 2 double beds and one twin bed. Very bizarre shower – it took me awhile to figure out that there is a switch outside the bathroom that you need to turn on in order to get the shower to start. The drain was clogged, which resulted in some minor flooding after each shower (we tried to keep the showers super short after we discovered this problem). Outside of the drain problem, we had no problems with Crockatinney. The bed was comfortable, breakfast was delicious (I particularly loved their soda bread!), grounds were beautiful, and it was in a very convenient location for exploring the North Antrim Coast.
We headed into Ballycastle for dinner, which is about a 5 minute drive from Crockatinney. We stopped at the harbor first. Ballycastle has a great harbor with lovely walkways, a fountain, a beach and playing fields. We decided to head into the town center to look for a bite to eat (we started to walk, but then decided to drive over – there’s a bit of distance between the harbor area and town center area). The town of Ballycastle is very quaint with lots of little shops and restaurants. It was evening while we were there, so most of the shops were closed, but it looked like they would have been nice. We ended up stopping at Central Bar for dinner. It looked like a typical Irish pub from the outside, but we were very surprised when we walked inside. The restaurant upstairs has been completely renovated and could easily pass for a NYC restaurant. It called itself a wine bar, and the wine we had was good, but it was a very limited menu for a wine bar. Though in general, we found the wine lists in all of the places we ate to be much more limited compared to what we’re used to here in the US. I started with the broccoli & cheddar soup (creamy & delicious!) had the grilled sea bass with a pot au feu of olives, chorizo, tomatoes and something else (I forget what, the olives and chorizo really stood out though). The bass tasted fresh, was cooked perfectly, and the pot au feu was a perfect accompaniment. We were very pleasantly surprised by this place and would highly recommend it if you are passing through Ballycastle.
On our drive back to Crockatinney after dinner, we decided to stop off at Kinbane Castle since it was still light outside (about 9:30 at this point, but the sun doesn’t set til late!). We pulled into the parking lot and immediately noticed the sign on the fence which read “Visitors are advised not to proceed past this point”. I initially obeyed the sign, but then noticed evidence of recent visitors on the other side of the fence. We went over the fence and down the path until we came around the corner and could see the ruins of Kinbane Castle. We reached another fence with that same sign, but again, it looked like there was a well kept path and it appeared that people had just recently been there (though it was deserted at this point). We went all the way down the very steep stairs placed in the hillside and up towards the Castle. We had read that access to the Castle had been closed to visitors due to the ruins becoming unstable, so we kept our distance from the actual ruins. We were able to witness an amazing sunset from there, which was one of our favorite moments of the whole trip. The climb back up the hill and all of those stairs was definitely not enjoyable, however.
Day 4:
We had a delicious breakfast at Crockatinney and then headed over to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (3.30 GBP per person). As an FYI, there’s about a 1 km walk between the parking lot and the bridge. It is a beautiful walk along the cliffs with the ocean right there, but it is something to consider if you are traveling with small children or elderly relatives. Neither one of us found the bridge all that exciting (it’s shorter than it looks), but it is beautiful scenery out there and well worth a stop.
Next stop was Giant’s Causeway (5 GBP per car). There were a ton of people there. There is a shuttle that will run from the visitors center down to the main formation area, but we opted to walk instead. The cliffs and the pillars and the oceans all combine for an incredible experience. It’s astounding to think that it’s all natural formations. We could have stayed there for quite awhile, but it started to rain and we were getting a little cold and damp.
By the time we reached the car and started driving, the rain had stopped and the clouds started to clear. We stopped at Dunluce Castle (2 GBP per person I think) which also turned out to be one of our favorite sites. The ruins are still standing enough to really give you a good idea of how the castle used to be. There are also numerous signs throughout explaining how the castle used to be. After exploring above the castle, we exited the main site and followed a path down below the castle. J found the ‘secret entrance’, which was a steep hill inside a cave, which led down to the ocean. I decided to stay safely at the top of the hill, while J navigated his way down the hill to the water at the bottom and successfully climbed back up again.
We left Dunluce and continued on to Bushmills. We parked the car and walked through the town looking for somewhere to eat – it was approaching 2:30 and we hadn’t had lunch yet. Found The Distillers Arms which was excellent! Again we were surprised – looked like a basic pub from the outside, but inside it was very luxe. I wasn’t terribly hungry (breakfast was very filling!) so I just had a bowl of their Broccoli & Gorgonzola soup. J had the steak & Guinness pie, which he claimed was the best steak & Guinness he ever had in his entire life. Again, I would highly recommend a stop if you’re passing through!
After lunch we headed over to the Bushmills Distillery for a tour (note: it is somewhat of a long walk from the town center, it would probably have been better to drive). Bushmills is still manufactured at this location, and I thought it was a great tour. The only disappointment was that the plant closes at noon on Friday, so we didn’t actually get to see the bottling process. Funny thing was that during the course of the tour, the way they describe the whiskey makes you really excited to try it at the end. But then we reached the bar at the end for our tastings, after the first sip we remembered that we really don’t like drinking whiskey straight. I went up and asked for some ice which they were happy to provide. Made it much easier to drink!
We headed back to Crockatinney to clean up before dinner and figure out where we wanted to go. We ended up going to Anzac Bar in Ballycastle. We were once again surprised at how good the food was. I think too many people had warned us ahead of time about the typical quality of food in the UK and Ireland, so we went in with low expectations, but we were very pleasantly surprised at the quality of all of the restaurants we went to.
Up next: County Donegal
Aug 22nd, 2007, 12:42 PM
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I am glad that you enjoyed Crockatinney. I am sure had you mentioned the shower issue, they would have fixed it. I am surprised they didn't know about it, as they usually do a fine tooth comb check-off in between guests.
I am glad that you were able to see Kinbahn up close. It is a marvelous structure. Indeed, it is truly magical at sunset or sunrise. Did you get to see the famine cemetery there at Crockatinney?
Perhaps, like Brigadoon, Glen Arm only comes awakeonce every 100 years? HOw odd.
Slan Beo,
Bit
I am glad that you were able to see Kinbahn up close. It is a marvelous structure. Indeed, it is truly magical at sunset or sunrise. Did you get to see the famine cemetery there at Crockatinney?
Perhaps, like Brigadoon, Glen Arm only comes awakeonce every 100 years? HOw odd.
Slan Beo,
Bit
Aug 22nd, 2007, 12:42 PM
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Day 5:
We left Crockatinney and headed west towards County Donegal. We drove through Portrush, which was pretty quiet since it was still early in the morning, but it looked like a very popular beach town with tons of little shops and pubs, and a little carnival/arcade along the waterfront. When we reached Coleraine, we stopped at a Tesco since J was out of clean socks (males do not know how to pack….) and we wanted to find an internet café so we could transfer more money into our Citibank accounts (still hadn’t found a way to access the HSBC account). I’m not sure if this is true for all American ATM cards, but when we went to withdraw cash from the ATM, it did not give us the option of checking or savings, it would only withdraw from checking. I wasn’t planning on withdrawing a lot of cash from my checking account, so I hadn’t transferred much into it before the trip. We didn’t find an internet café, but the public library had computer terminals available for a reasonable fee (I think it was 1.50 GBP for 30 minutes).
We drove through Derry, but didn’t think we had time to stop given our detour to Coleraine. We continued on to Letterkenny where we stopped for a quick bite to eat, and then on to find Grianan Ailligh. J had spotted it in the DK guide and had made it one of his required stops. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of road signs directing towards it, and since it’s located somewhat off the main road, the OSI atlas didn’t help. We eventually found and traversed the very narrow, steep and windy road to the top. The views from the top are amazing – I don’t think any of my pictures fully captured how incredible the views were. We stayed up there for awhile enjoying the peace and quiet before getting back in the car to continue our drive.
Next stop was Glenveagh National Park. As we were getting closer to it, all we could think of was why on earth was there a national park located in the middle of such a desolate area. The landscape was very different than what we had experienced on the rest of our trip – seemed almost like a desert. We finally reached the park entrance and were surprised at how full the parking lot (had lost track of what day it was, didn’t realize it was a Saturday). We opted to take the shuttle to the Castle – it is a long walk and we didn’t really have the time for a walk. That, and we had seen what the landscape was like and didn’t seem like it would be a walk we would enjoy.
When we reached the Castle we signed up for the next available tour, which was in 45 minutes. While we were waiting for the tour, we used the time to explore the gardens behind the castle and the lakefront area. I’m going to sound very jaded, but I wasn’t that impressed with the gardens. Maybe it’s because the climate is similar to that in the Northeast, but the flowers were all flowers that I see in gardens over here. I guess the impressive part is that they were able to grow all those flowers and make the area around the castle so green, when the rest of the area looks more like a desert. I really enjoyed the tour of the castle. It has been left furnished exactly as it was when the last owner left it to the Republic of Ireland in 1979.
We left Glenveagh and headed toward the N56. Up until this point, we had been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the main roads (the N roads and the A roads). They were generally smooth, wide enough to easily handle 2 cars, and not too twisty. It didn’t take anywhere near as long as we thought it would to get from place to place. This section of the N56 from Dunglow down to Dunkineely definitely changed our minds! We didn’t want to check in too late at our B&B (had dinner reservations at 8), and had spent more time at Glenveagh than we were planning on, so we didn’t get a chance to stop in some of the cute towns we drove through. Glenties looked adorable and I wish we had stopped.
We made it to our next B&B – Castle Murray House (70 euro per person per night, http://www.castlemurray.com). First, a huge THANK YOU to chip for staying there and recommending it so highly in his trip report. This place is absolutely incredible! We had the Honeymoon Room located on the top floor of the building (warning – there are a lot of stairs to the top). Beautiful room, with a large deck located off the side (deck seemed almost larger than the room itself!). Bathroom looked very new and modern. Fantastic shower – we again thought we had found the best shower in the world. Incredibly comfortable bed. Absolutely zero complaints about the room. We showered and changed for dinner and headed downstairs.
There was a large birthday party going on, so our meal was a little delayed, but we had some drinks in the bar and met a lovely couple from Ballycastle. Castle Murray is their favorite place, and they make a couple weekend trips a year to relax and to eat at the restaurant. They gave us some recommendations on what to order – we were having such a hard time deciding since everything looked so good! Castle Murray has a prix fixe menu that is 50 euro and includes an appetizer, main course, dessert and tea/coffee. I went with the Prawns & Monkfish in Garlic Butter as my starter (this is their special dish and was highly recommended by our new friends from the bar), Grilled Fisherman’s Platter (assorted local fishes with different sauces) and the Warm Belgium Chocolate Cake. J had the Pan Fried Foie Gras on Tomato Crouton, Rack of Lamb, and the Dessert Assortment (little tastings of almost all of the desserts). I enjoyed the prawns & monkfish, but J’s foie gras was to die for. It just melted as it hit your tongue and was so incredibly rich and velvety. It was the most amazing foie gras I ever had. J didn’t really like it that much (he’s not a huge fan to begin with, but he ordered it because he knew I really wanted it) so I had most of it. One of these days I will get him to love French cuisine! The rest of the meal was also outstanding, but the foie gras was definitely the highlight for me (though his lamb was also pretty incredible – 2nd best lamb we’ve ever had, and we’ve eaten a lot of lamb at a lot of different restaurants). We had a perfect table right in front of the window, looking out at the sunset over the bay. An incredible meal that we will never forget.
Day 6:
Breakfast at Castle Murray was far and away the best breakfast of the entire trip. I ordered the brioche French toast and J had scrambled eggs. They had a various cereals, yogurts, scones and fruit out as well. They had the best fruit salad – all very fresh. Many of the places we stayed at had fruit salad at breakfast, but it was of the canned variety. I need to stop talking about food so much, but the food here was truly fantastic.
Our big plan for the day was to head up to the Slieve League cliffs. The road to the top of the cliffs definitely won the award for the most terrifying drive. It just kept getting narrower, sheep would pop up in the middle of the road out of nowhere, there was minimal shoulder between the road and a 1500 ft drop to the ocean, and parts of the road were so steep that all you could see out of the windshield was the sky, let alone the road or any oncoming cars. Thankfully, we went up first thing in the morning, so we didn’t have to deal with any oncoming traffic! We had beautiful weather for the cliffs – the sun was shining, sky was blue, but it was incredibly windy. We didn’t venture too close to the edge! We hiked around for awhile, and then J spotted a small stone tower. He couldn’t leave any stone tower or castle ruin undiscovered, so our next mission was to try to find it. We drove partly down the road between the upper and lower parking lots and pulled off near where we thought this tower was. We started trekking through a field and miraculously ended up finding the tower. We have no idea what it is/was, but there were some great views from there.
We successfully managed to get down from the cliffs without hitting any other cars or falling off the edge, and headed up towards Ardara. We had driven through it on our way from Glenveagh, and it seemed like a cute town. Unfortunately, we had again lost track of what day it was (Sunday) and many of the shops were closed. We did find a great spot for lunch, and then walked through the rest of the town. There were a number of sweater shops and I was tempted to buy some sweaters as a typical souvenir, but I just couldn’t justify the price, especially since I’m not a big fan of sweaters to begin with.
As we headed out of Ardara back towards Castle Murray, we turned off at a sign for a waterfall. It was a lovely waterfall (see the pictures) and was worth the short detour from the main road. We headed back to Castle Murray, and went further along St. John’s Point to check out the beach. It was a lovely beach, but rather crowded and the road in and out of there is quite narrow. We were ok getting in, but when we were trying to leave there was a bit of a traffic jam that wasn’t resolved until a helpful bystander started directing traffic and getting people to back up so others could pass. We had driven almost all the way back to Castle Murray when we got stuck in another traffic jam – this one because a helicopter was landing to drop some people off for dinner at Castle Murray that night. The restaurant is really that good!
We headed into Killybegs for dinner. We just wanted to grab a small bite to eat and wanted to check out the town. It is definitely a fishing town – lots of boats in the harbor. We ended up stopping at the restaurant in the Tara Hotel. Great layout and view of the harbor, but the food was only ok. I just ordered a bruschetta appetizer and some garlic bread. The bruschetta was actually excellent – had goat cheese and caramelized onions. J had a chicken sandwich that was overcooked. Garlic bread was not up to par with others we had had on the trip. Service was pretty awful. Took forever to flag down a waitress, took forever for food to get there, when they finally gave us the bill, they had added 3 things on to it that we hadn’t ordered and then they couldn’t figure out how to get them off the bill. Killybegs supposedly has a lot of great restaurants, this was definitely not one of them. It did, however, fit our goal of finding a small, cheap bite to eat (though it wasn’t quick like we were hoping for).
Next stop: Westport
We left Crockatinney and headed west towards County Donegal. We drove through Portrush, which was pretty quiet since it was still early in the morning, but it looked like a very popular beach town with tons of little shops and pubs, and a little carnival/arcade along the waterfront. When we reached Coleraine, we stopped at a Tesco since J was out of clean socks (males do not know how to pack….) and we wanted to find an internet café so we could transfer more money into our Citibank accounts (still hadn’t found a way to access the HSBC account). I’m not sure if this is true for all American ATM cards, but when we went to withdraw cash from the ATM, it did not give us the option of checking or savings, it would only withdraw from checking. I wasn’t planning on withdrawing a lot of cash from my checking account, so I hadn’t transferred much into it before the trip. We didn’t find an internet café, but the public library had computer terminals available for a reasonable fee (I think it was 1.50 GBP for 30 minutes).
We drove through Derry, but didn’t think we had time to stop given our detour to Coleraine. We continued on to Letterkenny where we stopped for a quick bite to eat, and then on to find Grianan Ailligh. J had spotted it in the DK guide and had made it one of his required stops. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of road signs directing towards it, and since it’s located somewhat off the main road, the OSI atlas didn’t help. We eventually found and traversed the very narrow, steep and windy road to the top. The views from the top are amazing – I don’t think any of my pictures fully captured how incredible the views were. We stayed up there for awhile enjoying the peace and quiet before getting back in the car to continue our drive.
Next stop was Glenveagh National Park. As we were getting closer to it, all we could think of was why on earth was there a national park located in the middle of such a desolate area. The landscape was very different than what we had experienced on the rest of our trip – seemed almost like a desert. We finally reached the park entrance and were surprised at how full the parking lot (had lost track of what day it was, didn’t realize it was a Saturday). We opted to take the shuttle to the Castle – it is a long walk and we didn’t really have the time for a walk. That, and we had seen what the landscape was like and didn’t seem like it would be a walk we would enjoy.
When we reached the Castle we signed up for the next available tour, which was in 45 minutes. While we were waiting for the tour, we used the time to explore the gardens behind the castle and the lakefront area. I’m going to sound very jaded, but I wasn’t that impressed with the gardens. Maybe it’s because the climate is similar to that in the Northeast, but the flowers were all flowers that I see in gardens over here. I guess the impressive part is that they were able to grow all those flowers and make the area around the castle so green, when the rest of the area looks more like a desert. I really enjoyed the tour of the castle. It has been left furnished exactly as it was when the last owner left it to the Republic of Ireland in 1979.
We left Glenveagh and headed toward the N56. Up until this point, we had been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the main roads (the N roads and the A roads). They were generally smooth, wide enough to easily handle 2 cars, and not too twisty. It didn’t take anywhere near as long as we thought it would to get from place to place. This section of the N56 from Dunglow down to Dunkineely definitely changed our minds! We didn’t want to check in too late at our B&B (had dinner reservations at 8), and had spent more time at Glenveagh than we were planning on, so we didn’t get a chance to stop in some of the cute towns we drove through. Glenties looked adorable and I wish we had stopped.
We made it to our next B&B – Castle Murray House (70 euro per person per night, http://www.castlemurray.com). First, a huge THANK YOU to chip for staying there and recommending it so highly in his trip report. This place is absolutely incredible! We had the Honeymoon Room located on the top floor of the building (warning – there are a lot of stairs to the top). Beautiful room, with a large deck located off the side (deck seemed almost larger than the room itself!). Bathroom looked very new and modern. Fantastic shower – we again thought we had found the best shower in the world. Incredibly comfortable bed. Absolutely zero complaints about the room. We showered and changed for dinner and headed downstairs.
There was a large birthday party going on, so our meal was a little delayed, but we had some drinks in the bar and met a lovely couple from Ballycastle. Castle Murray is their favorite place, and they make a couple weekend trips a year to relax and to eat at the restaurant. They gave us some recommendations on what to order – we were having such a hard time deciding since everything looked so good! Castle Murray has a prix fixe menu that is 50 euro and includes an appetizer, main course, dessert and tea/coffee. I went with the Prawns & Monkfish in Garlic Butter as my starter (this is their special dish and was highly recommended by our new friends from the bar), Grilled Fisherman’s Platter (assorted local fishes with different sauces) and the Warm Belgium Chocolate Cake. J had the Pan Fried Foie Gras on Tomato Crouton, Rack of Lamb, and the Dessert Assortment (little tastings of almost all of the desserts). I enjoyed the prawns & monkfish, but J’s foie gras was to die for. It just melted as it hit your tongue and was so incredibly rich and velvety. It was the most amazing foie gras I ever had. J didn’t really like it that much (he’s not a huge fan to begin with, but he ordered it because he knew I really wanted it) so I had most of it. One of these days I will get him to love French cuisine! The rest of the meal was also outstanding, but the foie gras was definitely the highlight for me (though his lamb was also pretty incredible – 2nd best lamb we’ve ever had, and we’ve eaten a lot of lamb at a lot of different restaurants). We had a perfect table right in front of the window, looking out at the sunset over the bay. An incredible meal that we will never forget.
Day 6:
Breakfast at Castle Murray was far and away the best breakfast of the entire trip. I ordered the brioche French toast and J had scrambled eggs. They had a various cereals, yogurts, scones and fruit out as well. They had the best fruit salad – all very fresh. Many of the places we stayed at had fruit salad at breakfast, but it was of the canned variety. I need to stop talking about food so much, but the food here was truly fantastic.
Our big plan for the day was to head up to the Slieve League cliffs. The road to the top of the cliffs definitely won the award for the most terrifying drive. It just kept getting narrower, sheep would pop up in the middle of the road out of nowhere, there was minimal shoulder between the road and a 1500 ft drop to the ocean, and parts of the road were so steep that all you could see out of the windshield was the sky, let alone the road or any oncoming cars. Thankfully, we went up first thing in the morning, so we didn’t have to deal with any oncoming traffic! We had beautiful weather for the cliffs – the sun was shining, sky was blue, but it was incredibly windy. We didn’t venture too close to the edge! We hiked around for awhile, and then J spotted a small stone tower. He couldn’t leave any stone tower or castle ruin undiscovered, so our next mission was to try to find it. We drove partly down the road between the upper and lower parking lots and pulled off near where we thought this tower was. We started trekking through a field and miraculously ended up finding the tower. We have no idea what it is/was, but there were some great views from there.
We successfully managed to get down from the cliffs without hitting any other cars or falling off the edge, and headed up towards Ardara. We had driven through it on our way from Glenveagh, and it seemed like a cute town. Unfortunately, we had again lost track of what day it was (Sunday) and many of the shops were closed. We did find a great spot for lunch, and then walked through the rest of the town. There were a number of sweater shops and I was tempted to buy some sweaters as a typical souvenir, but I just couldn’t justify the price, especially since I’m not a big fan of sweaters to begin with.
As we headed out of Ardara back towards Castle Murray, we turned off at a sign for a waterfall. It was a lovely waterfall (see the pictures) and was worth the short detour from the main road. We headed back to Castle Murray, and went further along St. John’s Point to check out the beach. It was a lovely beach, but rather crowded and the road in and out of there is quite narrow. We were ok getting in, but when we were trying to leave there was a bit of a traffic jam that wasn’t resolved until a helpful bystander started directing traffic and getting people to back up so others could pass. We had driven almost all the way back to Castle Murray when we got stuck in another traffic jam – this one because a helicopter was landing to drop some people off for dinner at Castle Murray that night. The restaurant is really that good!
We headed into Killybegs for dinner. We just wanted to grab a small bite to eat and wanted to check out the town. It is definitely a fishing town – lots of boats in the harbor. We ended up stopping at the restaurant in the Tara Hotel. Great layout and view of the harbor, but the food was only ok. I just ordered a bruschetta appetizer and some garlic bread. The bruschetta was actually excellent – had goat cheese and caramelized onions. J had a chicken sandwich that was overcooked. Garlic bread was not up to par with others we had had on the trip. Service was pretty awful. Took forever to flag down a waitress, took forever for food to get there, when they finally gave us the bill, they had added 3 things on to it that we hadn’t ordered and then they couldn’t figure out how to get them off the bill. Killybegs supposedly has a lot of great restaurants, this was definitely not one of them. It did, however, fit our goal of finding a small, cheap bite to eat (though it wasn’t quick like we were hoping for).
Next stop: Westport
Aug 24th, 2007, 12:53 PM
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Glad you got to enjoy a little slice of Donegal heaven at Castle Murray House. Just this past weekend my uncle said he was ready to go back there anytime we wanted. It was definately our best find.
Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!
Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!
Aug 29th, 2007, 08:07 AM
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Theresa..Excellent report and your photos are awesome!! You take me back to our NI trips, Donegal, and--one of my favorites, Achill Island (where we spent 3 wonderful days in May, 2007). I also found my way down to Kenbane Castle, wasn't it fun?
Eagerly awaiting the rest of your journey!
Helen
Eagerly awaiting the rest of your journey!
Helen
Aug 30th, 2007, 11:03 AM
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I am throughly enjoying your trip report! Leaving on my 12th trip to Ireland in 2 weeks...taking 26 folks on a custom CIE tour with us!!
I admire your patience to write this all down...I can't seem to do that on my trips. I hope to do a trip report this time but yours is really outstanding!!
We will be staying at Ashford Castle and this will be my first time staying there..I've been to it but never have stayed...and, since we'll have folks with us I am hoping it will be a wonderful addition to our trip! So, am looking forward to what you have to say about it.
Again, thanks for the great trip report and glad your honeymoon trip was wonderful!!
Shadow
I admire your patience to write this all down...I can't seem to do that on my trips. I hope to do a trip report this time but yours is really outstanding!!
We will be staying at Ashford Castle and this will be my first time staying there..I've been to it but never have stayed...and, since we'll have folks with us I am hoping it will be a wonderful addition to our trip! So, am looking forward to what you have to say about it.
Again, thanks for the great trip report and glad your honeymoon trip was wonderful!!
Shadow
Aug 30th, 2007, 12:10 PM
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Sorry for the long delay in the rest of the report - these really do take forever to write! I'm going to attempt to finish up this afternoon....
Day 7:
We had another incredible breakfast at Castle Murray and took our time leaving. We did not want to leave. It really is one of the most beautiful spots I’ve ever been to. We stopped in the town of Donegal which was a great town to walk around and had the best shops we’d been to. We did quite a lot of shopping while we were there, and I’m glad we did. The further south we continue to travel, the more expensive everything seemed to get. We also took a tour of Donegal Castle (1.70 euro), which is located right in the middle of town. We opted for the self tour rather than the guided tour, and they provide you with a detailed printed guide which you return when you’re done. The most interesting part for me was on the top floor of the castle, they had a very good history of how the castle changed hands over the centuries and the changes that were made by the various owners. Definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area.
We continued south towards Westport, stopping in Sligo along the way. We found a parking lot across from the Sligo Abbey and walked into town. The main town areas were very nice and geared towards pedestrian (there’s one main street that’s been turned into a large pedestrian mall), but there were parts of the town we walked through that seemed a little old and run down. We stopped at an Italian restaurant on the pedestrian mall, where I had a panini and J had a pizza. Was good, filling, something different than what we had been eating the rest of the trip, but nothing special. There were so many restaurant options, and we probably could have found something better. We continued exploring the various shops and found a great gourmet food shop called Kate’s Kitchen where we purchased a whole bunch of jams, jellies, and miscellaneous other (non-perishable) food items to bring home.
We reached Westport and attempted to find our B&B. When initially making the reservations, Westport turned out to be the most difficult. I tried to book with a couple of the B&B’s that were highly recommended both here and at IrelandYes, but they were already fully booked (and this was 7 months ahead of time!). I ended up booking at Boffin Lodge (50 euro per person per night, http://www.boffinlodge.com) located on the Quay Road between the harbor and town center. I was told that it was in the middle and easily walkable to both. We had a bit of a hard time finding the Quay Road (kept getting turned around and heading in the wrong direction), but eventually made it there. Boffin Lodge is technically walkable (probably about 1.5 km) to town center, but it seemed a little too long for us to walk back after dinner/drinks. It was very close to the harbor area, and we ended up walking there for dinner both nights.
Boffin Lodge itself is very nice. The hostesses are very friendly and accommodating. Everything is clean and well kept and they have free internet available. We stayed in room 5, upstairs with the 4-poster bed and fireplace. Breakfast was good and we were overall very pleased. Only downside is that it’s not really that close to the town center, but we ended up preferring the harbor anyways.
We walked down to the harbor and decided to try the Harbour restaurant for dinner. It is nicely situated on the water and is a neat old building. Food was good (and very abundant!), but not all that special. After dinner we walked along the harbor and out to a point where we watched a beautiful sunset. There was also a great view of Croagh Patrick from that spot. We headed back to the harbor area to have a couple more drinks and then walked back up to Boffin.
Day 8:
We woke up to a very grey and dreary day. Had a warm and filling breakfast, and then decided to head out to Achill Island. It may have just been the weather (very cold and overcast), or that we just had reached a burn-out stage on the sightseeing, but we just weren’t overly impressed with Achill. We drove down to Keem Strand, stopping at viewpoints along the way, but it was so grey and overcast that there wasn’t much to see. I can imagine how beautiful Keem would have been on a bright and sunny day though! There were a few brave kids who were swimming, but it was otherwise deserted.
We next went to the Deserted Village. Again, it may have just been because of the weather, but this was a very eerie site. Have to wonder what caused the whole village to leave. It is a beautifully situated spot though – at the base of the mountain, with views to the ocean. And there were sheep everywhere – definitely had to watch where you stepped! Achill also had the terrain that we saw up in County Donegal – more rough, rocky and scraggly. Not as green and lush as other areas of Ireland. We continued to make our away around Achill and stopped briefly as Grace O’Malley’s tower, which I didn’t think was worth a stop.
We headed back into Westport for a late lunch and to walk around the town. It is a great town to walk around and we stopped in a lot of shops. We did notice that prices in the gift shops down here were noticeably higher than they had been up in Donegal. There were also a number of people on the sidewalks trying to stop passers-by to fill out a survey or something. I maintained the NYC persona and just walked determinedly right by. J had apparently been softened by too much time in Ireland already and managed to get stopped by almost every one of them.
Dinner that night was at the Lemon Peel restaurant down in the Harbor area. This used to be near the Octagon, but apparently just moved down into the Asgard Hotel at the harbor. It is a beautiful space and we had heard that this was one of the best restaurants in Westport. Our appetizer was incredible (an amazing Mediterranean spring roll), but neither one of us was overly impressed with our main courses. Dessert made up for it though – a strawberry rhubarb crisp.
Next stop: Ashford Castle
Day 7:
We had another incredible breakfast at Castle Murray and took our time leaving. We did not want to leave. It really is one of the most beautiful spots I’ve ever been to. We stopped in the town of Donegal which was a great town to walk around and had the best shops we’d been to. We did quite a lot of shopping while we were there, and I’m glad we did. The further south we continue to travel, the more expensive everything seemed to get. We also took a tour of Donegal Castle (1.70 euro), which is located right in the middle of town. We opted for the self tour rather than the guided tour, and they provide you with a detailed printed guide which you return when you’re done. The most interesting part for me was on the top floor of the castle, they had a very good history of how the castle changed hands over the centuries and the changes that were made by the various owners. Definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area.
We continued south towards Westport, stopping in Sligo along the way. We found a parking lot across from the Sligo Abbey and walked into town. The main town areas were very nice and geared towards pedestrian (there’s one main street that’s been turned into a large pedestrian mall), but there were parts of the town we walked through that seemed a little old and run down. We stopped at an Italian restaurant on the pedestrian mall, where I had a panini and J had a pizza. Was good, filling, something different than what we had been eating the rest of the trip, but nothing special. There were so many restaurant options, and we probably could have found something better. We continued exploring the various shops and found a great gourmet food shop called Kate’s Kitchen where we purchased a whole bunch of jams, jellies, and miscellaneous other (non-perishable) food items to bring home.
We reached Westport and attempted to find our B&B. When initially making the reservations, Westport turned out to be the most difficult. I tried to book with a couple of the B&B’s that were highly recommended both here and at IrelandYes, but they were already fully booked (and this was 7 months ahead of time!). I ended up booking at Boffin Lodge (50 euro per person per night, http://www.boffinlodge.com) located on the Quay Road between the harbor and town center. I was told that it was in the middle and easily walkable to both. We had a bit of a hard time finding the Quay Road (kept getting turned around and heading in the wrong direction), but eventually made it there. Boffin Lodge is technically walkable (probably about 1.5 km) to town center, but it seemed a little too long for us to walk back after dinner/drinks. It was very close to the harbor area, and we ended up walking there for dinner both nights.
Boffin Lodge itself is very nice. The hostesses are very friendly and accommodating. Everything is clean and well kept and they have free internet available. We stayed in room 5, upstairs with the 4-poster bed and fireplace. Breakfast was good and we were overall very pleased. Only downside is that it’s not really that close to the town center, but we ended up preferring the harbor anyways.
We walked down to the harbor and decided to try the Harbour restaurant for dinner. It is nicely situated on the water and is a neat old building. Food was good (and very abundant!), but not all that special. After dinner we walked along the harbor and out to a point where we watched a beautiful sunset. There was also a great view of Croagh Patrick from that spot. We headed back to the harbor area to have a couple more drinks and then walked back up to Boffin.
Day 8:
We woke up to a very grey and dreary day. Had a warm and filling breakfast, and then decided to head out to Achill Island. It may have just been the weather (very cold and overcast), or that we just had reached a burn-out stage on the sightseeing, but we just weren’t overly impressed with Achill. We drove down to Keem Strand, stopping at viewpoints along the way, but it was so grey and overcast that there wasn’t much to see. I can imagine how beautiful Keem would have been on a bright and sunny day though! There were a few brave kids who were swimming, but it was otherwise deserted.
We next went to the Deserted Village. Again, it may have just been because of the weather, but this was a very eerie site. Have to wonder what caused the whole village to leave. It is a beautifully situated spot though – at the base of the mountain, with views to the ocean. And there were sheep everywhere – definitely had to watch where you stepped! Achill also had the terrain that we saw up in County Donegal – more rough, rocky and scraggly. Not as green and lush as other areas of Ireland. We continued to make our away around Achill and stopped briefly as Grace O’Malley’s tower, which I didn’t think was worth a stop.
We headed back into Westport for a late lunch and to walk around the town. It is a great town to walk around and we stopped in a lot of shops. We did notice that prices in the gift shops down here were noticeably higher than they had been up in Donegal. There were also a number of people on the sidewalks trying to stop passers-by to fill out a survey or something. I maintained the NYC persona and just walked determinedly right by. J had apparently been softened by too much time in Ireland already and managed to get stopped by almost every one of them.
Dinner that night was at the Lemon Peel restaurant down in the Harbor area. This used to be near the Octagon, but apparently just moved down into the Asgard Hotel at the harbor. It is a beautiful space and we had heard that this was one of the best restaurants in Westport. Our appetizer was incredible (an amazing Mediterranean spring roll), but neither one of us was overly impressed with our main courses. Dessert made up for it though – a strawberry rhubarb crisp.
Next stop: Ashford Castle
Aug 30th, 2007, 12:30 PM
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Thanks all for the kind responses - definitely needed encouragement to keep going!
Helen - we may have to go back and try Achill again. It was really such a miserable weather day (cold, windy, rainy, grey) that it probably influenced our opinion a little too much.
Helen - we may have to go back and try Achill again. It was really such a miserable weather day (cold, windy, rainy, grey) that it probably influenced our opinion a little too much.
Aug 30th, 2007, 01:12 PM
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Whether a grey day or a brilliant day of sunshine, the Deserted Village is always eerie. That is partially because it is the most intact of the empty villages. It was mainly a Booley, a village inhabited during the summer season to facilitate the grazing of cattle before the herds were moved to winter pastures somewhere else.
Achill island inhabitants were the last to give up the nomadic practice of Booleying, hence the better preserved state of its Booley Villages. The families of those harbour villages still used the village for Booleying up until, I believe, the mid 1940's.
It was, for the most part, abandoned during the Great Famine, around 1845, when the families either migrated further inland, imigrated to other lands or moved to the harbour villages on Achill, where they were not dependent upon root crops for their dietary needs.
I am glad that you were able to experience it on a Grey day, as I think that is when it is at its atmospheric best. I am sorry that Achill didn't make a better impression. It is one of my favorite places to just get "lost" and listen to the voices on the winds.
Thank you for your most enjoyable trip report thus far. I appreciate the time and detail you have put in to it.
Slan Beo,
Bit
Achill island inhabitants were the last to give up the nomadic practice of Booleying, hence the better preserved state of its Booley Villages. The families of those harbour villages still used the village for Booleying up until, I believe, the mid 1940's.
It was, for the most part, abandoned during the Great Famine, around 1845, when the families either migrated further inland, imigrated to other lands or moved to the harbour villages on Achill, where they were not dependent upon root crops for their dietary needs.
I am glad that you were able to experience it on a Grey day, as I think that is when it is at its atmospheric best. I am sorry that Achill didn't make a better impression. It is one of my favorite places to just get "lost" and listen to the voices on the winds.
Thank you for your most enjoyable trip report thus far. I appreciate the time and detail you have put in to it.
Slan Beo,
Bit
