3 Weeks in Scotland and Ireland
 

I have only recently started a travel log and writing trip reports to help improve my memory of our vacation in my old[er] age. This is one for a 20 day trip to Scotland and Ireland that my family (me, wife Erica, 16 yo daughter Isabel, and 10 yo son Ian) recently completed. We had a blast!

The planning and execution of the trip went quite well, and thanks to the Fodorites who gave advice and answered questions. This was our first time in either country so it was very much a first timers’ itinerary of seeing as much as possible. The idea is to someday go back as a couple or a family and focus on one country at a time now that we know what there is and what we like. We broke it up evenly with 9 nights in Scotland first and then 9 nights in Ireland. We planned it so the longest drive time (not including stops) was ~ 4 hours … this limit works well on our other trips. We got really cheap flights in and out of Dublin (open jaw tickets were running ~ $300 more at the time), so we did have to add two one way RyanAir flights between Dublin and Edinburgh to make it all work out. This ended up not being an issue, and actually forced us to pack more efficiently since I only paid for three 20kg bags for the RyanAir flights.

We knew there would be some iffy weather, so we packed appropriately with many light layers and waterproof jacket s and shoes. Unfortunately we got the brunt of the bad weather in Scotland, but fortunately we had amazing weather in Ireland with only one rain day out of nine. This definitely skewed the family’s (i.e., kids) opinion of the favorite of the two countries towards Ireland, but all in all it was still better than the 100F weather that Austin was experiencing while we were gone.

Here are some other general comments and observations:

1) We were usually out of the accommodation by 9:30-10am every morning and back in the room by 8-10pm, and in bed by 11pm-12am. This worked out well with everyone getting enough sleep and not being too rushed in the morning. The exceptions were plane travel days.
2) Google maps was great again (had a really good experience with 100% Google maps usage in New Zealand recently). Despite what some people say about optimistic travel times, we found that Maps was within 5-10% on every route, and more often than not I found that we beat the predicted drive time by about 5%. They have really done a good job with predictability and real-time traffic and hazard situations. I have the feeling that people who warn against Google maps time predictions either (a) have not given it a second chance in recent years, or (b) are just trying to be cautious because of peoples’ varied driving habits and skills. The only place we didn’t use it was the Trotternish Peninsula on the Isle of Skye where Three coverage was terrible, but we had the car’s nav system as a backup.
3) Roads and traffic were not as bad or problematic either as I expected them to be or as they were made out to be by some sites/reviews. Yes, they were narrow, but speeds are generally low and most people knew how to drive on them. The entire time I only had one close call with a bus flying around a blind corner in Ireland. And I didn’t feel that Ireland’s roads were any worse than Scotland’s, though Scotland probably had better pullouts on the single track roads. However, Ireland had a more developed highway infrastructure that made travel between cities very easy.
4) For this particular trip, the weather in Ireland was 10-20F warmer and much drier than Scotland, but that was just a bit of luck.
5) Ireland seemed to be “more developed” than Scotland, at least the parts that we toured. By this I mean more tourists, larger towns, bigger/better/faster highways, more convenient grocery stores and petrol stations (more on that later), etc. Not a good or bad thing, just an observation.
6) Every single one of the 8-10 castles we toured were unique and we (I) never got tired of them. I could have probably seen a few more.
7) Everyone we ran into was extremely nice (locals and tourists). It was really nice how fondly both the Scottish and Irish people we talked to, admittedly mostly involved in the tourist industry in one way or another, spoke of Americans. A lot of this seemed to be due to the strong immigration ties between the Scottish, Irish, and Americans. And the subject of Trump only came up a few times. 
8) Packing cubes are awesome! We will NEVER travel again without them. This was our first trip using them (we got an assortment of eBags small, medium, and large) and they made it so much easier, especially since we were moving around quite often.
9) “Three” cell coverage in Scotland was not very good, but it was quite good in Ireland. This may be true of all cell carriers, I’m not sure. We needed a SIM card that worked in both Scotland and Ireland, and the only option in the store we went to in the Edinburgh airport was Three (they didn’t have Vodaphone). The 12GB card was £30 and was only £5 more than the 4GB card, so we got three of the 12GB cards. We ended up using 2GB, 2GB, and 5GB (teenager) on the three phones over the whole trip.
10) We spent more on food than we had planned. We are of the eat-to-travel not travel-to-eat clan, but we found it hard to eat cheaply in either country, with most meals running 10-15£/€ minimum. We had planned to have picnic lunches, which we do quite often on other trips, but we were lazy and unable to find convenient grocery stores in Scotland and we also wanted to try more of the local foods.

Here are the accommodations we stayed at, and would recommend every one of them. We got either family suites or two separate rooms, depending on the availability.

Scotland:
1) Sherwood Guest House B&B – Edinburgh, near Arthur’s Seat, 3 nights
2) The Invernairne B&B – Nairn, on the waterfront, 1 night
3) Drumorell B&B – Portree, 5 min from town, 2 nights
4) Clachaig Inn – Glencoe, 1 night
5) Glendaruel B&B – Aberfoyle, 5 min from town, 2 nights
Ireland:
1) AirBnB apartment – Kilkenny, 5 min from High St, 2 nights
2) Ross Castle Lodge B&B – Killarney, 10 min from Ross Castle, 3 nights
3) Daly’s House B&B – Doolin, right above O’Connor’s Pub, 2 nights
4) Arranmore House B&B – Dublin, on Drumcondra, 2 nights


<B>Day 1: Travel to Edinburgh, Sunday 7/2 – Monday 7/3</B>

We flew from Austin to Atlanta to Dublin on Delta with a longer-than-desired 5 hour layover in Atlanta, but overall we had no issues. The food in coach was not great on the overseas leg, but the shiny new Airbus A330 was very nice. In DUB it took a very long time to get our luggage but immigration was super fast and we have a 3 hour layover before our RyanAir flight to EDI so there was no issue. In EDI the luggage takes even longer (~ 1 hr after landing) and people are obviously frustrated, but that’s where those push-button service review stands come in really handy.
We picked up our Three SIM cards in the airport before getting our rental car. Hertz did not have the intermediate car that we reserved (I’ll spare you the Seinfeld reference about the definition of reservation), so we got a large Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid SUV. I initially wasn’t happy given that it was larger than what we wanted for the small roads and that a plug-in hybrid seemed fairly useless on a vacation like this, but it turned out OK and was a very comfortable car. We never did plug it in, though there were a couple of charging stations in some car parks.

We arrived at the Sherwood Guest House in Newington around 5pm, which is a ~ 30 min walk from the Royal Mile and ~ 15 min walk from Arthur’s Seat. The free parking at the B&B was all full, so we circled a few times with no luck finding a spot. Erica jumped out and met with our hostess, Vivienne, who then moved her vehicle from the lot to make room for us. Vivienne was extremely friendly from the moment we met her, an experience that would be repeated throughout our travels, and we settled in to the smallish upstairs family suite before heading out for dinner. It was a nice evening (60F and sunny) so we decided to loosen the legs with a hike up Arthur’s Seat before crashing for the night. It was a great decision considering how the weather would behave for the rest of our stay. But first we grabbed dinner around the corner at The Apiary, a nice modern restaurant where we had tasty dishes of duck, lamb shank, and baked fish. We then got to Arthur’s Seat by 8:15pm and climbed up the steep face just south of the peak. Ian had a blast clambering up and down rocks and footholds in the dirt, and we had nice views of the entire city from the peak as the sun was getting lower in the sky. It was the perfect start to the trip. We got back to the B&B around sunset and crashed for the jet lag recovery.

<B>Day 2: Edinburgh, Tuesday 7/4</B>

It’s Independence Day, the 4th of July! We started the morning with a nice super-continental breakfast with 4 other couples (there are 6 rooms total). We’re not huge breakfast eaters, so the fact that there wasn’t a typical “English-style hot breakfast” was not an issue for us. We are also not coffee drinkers, but I, Erica, and Isabel were excited to start our 20 days of English tea drinking. It was a cold (50s F) rainy morning, so we bundled up in layers, donned our rain gear, and headed into town around 10am. We first went to the National Museum of Scotland, a great free museum with 6 levels and widely varying exhibitions and displays. The kids loved the science and animal wings, and we enjoyed the Scottish history wing as the start of our Scotland history lesson. We both knew some general information but not a lot of details. We spent 4 hours there, including a pretty disappointing lunch (bland soups and sandwich, dry burger, poor service) at the museum café, but we don’t expect much from museum cafes.

By this time, the weather had cleared up a bit, so we made the snap decision to see the Edinburgh castle, even though we only had a few hours until closing, since we didn’t know what the weather would be like the following day. It drizzled on and off for the 2.5 hours that we were there, but it didn’t affect our ability to see most of the outside and inside sights, including the Crown Jewels, Great Hall, and Queen’s apartment. The lady at the ticket booth recommended getting the 3 of 5 day Explorer Pass for £62, instead of one-time family charge of £54, and this ended up being a great decision as we used it for Stirling Castle and Urquhart Castle with large savings. Of course the castle was very impressive and the crowd got pretty small towards closing time.

We spent some time walking down the Royal Mile and enjoying the sights and sounds (yes, we love bagpipes) before finding a pub/restaurant on a corner (can’t remember the name and didn’t record it) where we had good fish and chips and mac n cheese, but a very overdone gammon steak. That would be the first and last gammon steak for Isabel.  We also learned for the first time that lemonade in Scotland is essentially Sprite, which was a big disappointment for my lemonade guzzling son.

At that time we also pre-booked a 7pm Ghosts and Ghouls underground tour with Mercat Tours, which we thought would be a good family activity. Our guide was quite funny and a good actor, and Isabel and I found ourselves mimicking some of his mannerisms throughout the rest of our vacation. The stories were neat, history was interesting, but to be honest the vaults themselves were quite disappointing. We had expected something more like underground crypts, but that was just a matter of lack of education on our part. All in all it was a fun time, and we ended the tour with a complimentary whisky (or “lemonade” for the kids, which our guide came right out and said was Sprite). After that we walked back to the B&B for an early turn-in.

<B>Day 3: Edinburgh, Wednesday 7/5</B>

Light rain and a high of 60F was forecasted for today, so we set out again after breakfast dressed the same as yesterday. The day ended up being mostly dry and partially sunny, so all-in-all it was a pretty good weather day. We headed back to the Royal Mile, where we were going to do some shopping, sight-seeing, and a free Harry Potter tour, via The Meadows park. Here we stopped for an hour or so for Ian to get his playground action on. He’s never seen a playground he doesn’t want to stop at. The zipline was the key attraction. We continued on to Grassmarket Street where we had lunch at a French café called the Petit Paris, where we enjoyed the nice weather outside and had good meals of onion soup, baked salmon, and sausage.

After lunch we headed up the steps to the entrance of Edinburgh Castle and made our way down The Royal Mile once again. We got side-tracked by a couple of shops and street performers, so we missed the 2pm Harry Potter tour. The tour sites were well documented online, so we decided to do our own self-guided tour anyway since the kids are such huge fans. We saw, in order, Greyfriar’s Kirkyard and Tom Riddle’s (Voldemort’s) grave, The Elephant Room café where Rowling first started the series, and Victoria Street which served as the inspiration for Diagon Alley. The graveyard was very cool and creepy, and we had nice French pastries as a bakery on Victoria Street, the same bakery that supplies the desserts for the Petit Paris café.

At this point we headed back to a couple of specific shops on the Royal Mile for two of Isabel’s souvenirs … a set of beginner bagpipes for herself (she’s loved bagpipes since a young girl going to numerous Renaissance Festivals and is a budding young musician on the oboe, so why not!) and a kilt for her boyfriend. With those in hand, we walked down to the Holyrood House, which we knew was closed all week as we had the luck of having the Queen, Prince, and Prime Minister Trudeau in town for official ceremonies. Earlier in the day, a royal procession had passed us quickly on the road, and Erica got someone in the back of a black Range Rover to give here the royal wave, but she was a younger lady so we’re thinking maybe she was a princess of some kind.

We made our way back along the side of Arthur’s Seat on Queen’s Drive, with Ian making a few quick bursts up the side of the hill, and grabbed Chinese food takeout from a local joint, which made Ian very happy as he cannot go more than a couple of days without Chinese food, being half Chinese and a bit picky. 

<B>Day 4: Edinburgh to Nairn, Thursday 7/6</B>

We said happy goodbyes to Vivienne and set out by 10am on our trip to Nairn up near Inverness, via Stirling. First stop was 45 min away at the Kelpies in Falkirk. This is the site of very cool looking 30m tall metallic horse heads thrusting up from the ground as if to suggest their bodies were below the surface of the surrounding waterways. There’s not much to do here but look and take pictures, but it was a worthwhile stop. We decided against the Wheel since we had a couple stops and a long drive to Nairn.

So on to Stirling Castle we went, another 30 min down the road. Weather was nice so far (60F, no rain), so it was a good time to tour the castle. We parked right up at the castle despite the slow traffic to get up there and into the lot, and then we got in immediately with our Explorer Pass (already saved £40 over the two individual Family tickets). The castle was very cool and we had a nice 1 hour free guided tour from a passionate and knowledgeable gentleman who was very animated with his BANGs and BOOMs while describing the battles. We learned of Oliver Cromwell’s history here, and it would quickly become a joke that every ruin or historical location we went to in Scotland and Ireland bore the mark of Cromwell (what a wanker indeed). The kids decided they liked Stirling Castle better than Edinburgh Castle (I would try not to make any such comparisons as I liked them all for different reasons) due to the beautiful, grassy grounds.

Next we drove the 3 hours (actually 2:50, 10 min faster than Google Maps prediction ) to Nairn, first on the nice A9 highway and then on some smaller 4-digit country roads, our first experience with the ultra-narrow roads. By 5:45, we arrived at the Invernairne Guest House, which was nicely situated right on a beach on the Moray Firth. This B&B is more of a small hotel or inn, situated in an 1800s era manor with multiple rooms and a bar and dining room. Very cool … too bad we only booked one night. After settling in, we got a dinner recommendation for a seafood restaurant down at the end of the beach on the other side of town, so we headed down to the beach for an evening walk.

A short walk through the lovely back yard got us to the very nice beach at low tide. Thus some really neat rock formations covered in seagrass and tidal pools were exposed, so we ended up spending about 1.5 hours enjoying the beach and collecting beach glass … we ended up with a small Ziploc bag full of mostly green pieces. The Sun Dancer restaurant was booked for a private event that night, so we got off the beach and walked back through the small town area where we found a small, local pub called Jacko’s. The portions of steak, pepper beef, and fish n chips were quite large, so we were fully stuffed. A fire at a house just down the street prevented us from walking back to the B&B through town, so we cut back to the beach and had another fun stroll, getting back around sunset.


More to come as I get time ...

Enjoying your trip report. Ireland and Scotland are on my bucket list. Is the weather typical for Scotland? Or was this unusual?

Well, I think others who have been more than once (or live there) can better speak to this, but based on talking to others and my research, it's pretty typical. What was maybe atypical was the fantastic weather we had in Ireland. I never thought we'd spend so much time on beaches in Ireland, but I haven't gotten to that part of the trip yet. ;) Plan on layers, invest in a good waterproof jacket and shoes, and don't let it stop you from doing things!

Wow (!) I'm not sure I could manage a hike up Arthur's seat on arrival day after overnight flights . . . Hardy souls :)

Glad you made good drive times - (Don't tell anyone or I'll lose all credibility ;) )

KarenWoo: You will not know what the weather will be until the day (or the day before if you are lucky) The weather in the UK and Ireland is changeable (VERY) and paulg was unlucky to have rain the whole time they were in Scotland, and VERY lucky to have sunshine the whole time in Ireland. It could have just as easily been the reverse -- or totally different.



(it is just Grassmarket -- not Grassmarket <i>Street</i>)

janisj, while not getting significant sleep on the plane (as nice as the new A330 was, the seats didn't seem to be as comfortable as some others), I guess it was enough and we were wired enough from just being there that the hike up the hill was the perfect way to end the day and then crash hard.

Re: drive times, Google is a pretty smart company. I think they have their Maps act together.

Thanks for the street name correction. I'm not a huge detail person, so you may be making more such corrections by the time I'm done.

Paul, I am loving your report and looking forward to more! You seem very upbeat about everything which is very nice indeed! Thanks for sharing.

<B>Day 5: Nairn to Portree, Friday 7/7</B>

We checked out early to start the long journey to Portree with several stops, the first of which was Culloden Battlefield. I had read good things about it, but even being a bit of a war buff I had my doubts since there wasn’t supposed to be much in terms of battlefield relics. Well it exceeded my expectations even though it poured for the entire 45 min drive and 3.5 hours that we spent at the battlefield. We did end up taking the free 45 minute outside guided tour, which was well done, but the bad weather forced us to spend most of our time inside and that is where all the goodies were. There was lots of nice history and information to absorb. We ended up with another average museum café lunch, but that’s OK because it was light and that’s what we wanted.

We were now off to Loch Ness, a necessary stop with kids in tow. Of course the Loch Ness Visitor Centre, which focused primarily on Nessie, was a bit dated and overpriced and underwhelming, but it was not the cheesiest road-side attraction we had ever been to. And the building it is housed in is very attractive. I was more excited to see the Urquhart Castle, so off we went down the road with the weather having cleared up for a bit. I feel this castle is under-rated, but I seemed to prefer some of the more ruined or less renovated/restored sites for their rawness. The grounds alone at this castle are quite stunning, and even something as simple as the large viewing window that reveals the castle after the 8 min introduction movie is a nice touch. We spent a good couple of hours here exploring the ruins and then set off at 5:30 for the Eileen Donan Castle (#4 of the trip).

The drive along the A87 was absolutely gorgeous. This was the most impressive scenery so far, and started reminding us of our last big trip to the South Island of New Zealand. We got to the castle around 6:30 so it was closed. Not a big deal because we hadn’t planned on going in anyway and really just wanted to view it from the outside. It was as picturesque a setting as the pictures make it out to be and my daughter was happy to see the Brave castle as this is one of her favorite Disney movies. There was a wedding happening in the castle that evening, so the guests and wedding party were starting to arrive.

The drive to Portree was also pretty, but the rain was setting in again so it didn’t make as big an impression on us as it did on our drive off of the island (day 7). We made it to our B&B in Portree around 7:30 and checked in with the very sweet lady named Catriona. Her mannerisms and voice reminded us so much of Mrs. Doubtfire that the kids now refer to her by that name when recalling the stories. The Drumorell B&B was situated above the town just a 5 min walk from the main street. The B&B was a cute little house decorated very old fashioned and we got the only two rented rooms which were upstairs. Based on Catriona’s recommendation, we ate at The Café in town and had nice meals of local seafood (langostino, scampi, and fish) followed by ice cream. Before heading back to the B&B we stopped by the local grocery store and grabbed snacks for the car.

<B>Day 6: The Isle of Skye, Saturday 7/8</B>

Catriona served us a nice, big, hot, custom breakfast at 8:30 and we hit the road after that to start our tour of the Trotternish Peninsula. The weather was clear this morning so we wanted to get to our first destination, The Old Man of Storr, quickly. We got to the parking lot around 10am, bundled up (it was probably 50F and VERY windy at this point) in 3 or 4 layers each, and started up the mountain. Let me just say WOW, what a nice hike. This was definitely one of the highlights of Scotland for me. The hike, the change in terrain half way up, the scenery, the views, the wind that could keep you upright when leaning downhill into it, Ian having a blast going off-piste, the dry weather, Erica having to find a hidden spot to “do her business” (don’t tell her I included this) … all really magical. We got up and down in a bit over 2 hours. We might have spent longer, but as we were on the peak enjoying the view, we saw the dark storm clouds blowing in, so we headed down and got to the car right as it started raining. Too bad for the slow pokes that planned on an afternoon hike!

Now 12:30, we drove up to Staffin in the pouring rain with a brief stop at the Kilt Rock car park to see the impressive cliff formation and waterfall into the sea. It ended up being a bit of a Chevy Chase Vacation Grand Canyon moment (Isabel and I reenact that scene all the time in our travels) just because it was so cold and wet out. We stopped at the Columba 1400 Café in Staffin because Catriona’s nephew was the head chef there. It seems like a very nice project, a way to help troubled young people find the right path in life, and the food was decent though not great.

We were back on our way around the top of the peninsula but didn’t make as many stops as we had hoped just based on the weather. We did make a brief stop at the Duntulm castle ruins (#5), but I was the only one that got out to view it. The scenery was incredibly gorgeous and there were lots of great “road sheep,” so it was still a nice drive. At this point we decided to high tail it over to the Dunvegan Castle (#6) to get out of the weather, so we continued around the west side of the peninsula and then cut over to the castle, getting there by 4pm.

The home of Clan MacLeod for over 700 years, this is still an active residence of the 30th Chief. We had 1.5 hours to explore the castle, which was just enough time. We would have needed more to include the gardens, but … well … weather. This is a nicely restored castle with a lot very interesting history, and it they had a key search activity set up for the little ones that kept Ian interested and searching all of the rooms for the 16 or so keys hidden around.

The drive back to Portree wasn’t too bad even with the rain and roads as the tourists (us included!) seem to be doing a good job with the driving. We ended up back at The Café for dinner after learning that our first choice (Café Arriba) closed at 6pm on a Saturday evening (???) and the other popular restaurant on the waterfront had a long line waiting out in the pouring rain. We got seated after a short wait and had tasty meals of mac n cheese, fish n chips, and burgers … too stuffed again for any dessert. Back to the B&B after a long day out. P.S. The WiFi in the Drumorell was very bad, so the kids had a hard time with their usual electronic device wind down.

Next up, Day 7, the road to Glencoe.

On for the ride!

Great report so far!

I laughed at the Cromwell being at every castle joke.

Our joke was that the Queen of Scots, "Mary slept here" was scratched onto every castle wall. That girl really got around!

Indeed, maybe she and Oliver had a thing.

Enjoying your trip report. Thanks.

<B>Day 7: Portree to Glencoe, Sunday 7/9</B>

Portree ended up being a good choice, with a decent sized town and easy access to the Trotternish Peninsula. But we said our goodbyes to another fabulous hostess and hit the road to our next destination of Glencoe. We had originally planned to take the ferry to Mallaig to get a change of scenery, but the ferry schedule that day was not conducive to getting to Glencoe at a reasonable time since we only had one night there, so we punted on that and backtracked the same way we came. The weather was clear until we hit the bridge, so the drive was much more scenic than upon our arrival to The Isle.

The change of scenery around Invergarry to a more forested area was nice, and this continued to be a beautiful drive down the Great Glen to Fort William and along Loch Lochy (we called it Lake Lakey and reminded me of Boaty McBoatface for some weird reason). For lunch we found a food truck at a pullover on Loch Lochy, so this was a welcome finding as it was the first food truck we had seen and we love the active food truck industry in Austin. Ian and I enjoyed some extra time to skip stones on the Loch as well … he has not yet found a body of water he doesn’t want to throw rocks into.

We arrived in Glencoe around 1pm and stopped at the Clachaig Inn to check on our room status. It wouldn’t be ready for another 2 hours, so we drove down the road to the Visitor Center. It was raining pretty hard again, so we weighed our options. The family was more in the mood for some walks than the MacDonald massacre exhibition at the Visitor Center, so I gave in and skipped it … I made sure we read the Wiki entry next time we were in the car. The 30min Woodland walk at the Visitor Center was not all that interesting, but the kids enjoyed finding a bunch of massive black slugs enjoying the wet weather.

After that we drove into Glencoe village where we parked at the trailhead for the Glencoe Lochan walk. We did the lovely lochan loop and the forest walk with about 1 hour total walking and 1 hour observing and feeding the ducks. There was a group of juvenile ducklings that were hanging out in a reed island, but we managed to coax them out with leftover bread that we had from breakfast (Erica has been taking all of the leftover breakfast toast every morning for the various bird and duck feeding encounters).

Next it was back to the Inn to check in, settle in, and grab an early dinner. The Inn is in a very nice location nestled among the surrounding mountains with great views everywhere you turn. The family room we got was in the Lodge section of the Inn, and let’s just say that it left a bit to be desired. It was quite dated and in need of repairs and renovation, and felt like a basic motel room … but with an epic view out the front door which made it worthwhile. Also, the WiFi was horrific in this section as there is no WiFi in the rooms, but even the WiFi in the common areas was super weak. Combined with a super weak cell reception in this area (though better than Skye) made for a bit of frustration when searching for things. The dinner at the Inn was very nice (hamburger, Cajun salmon, haggis/tatties/mash, pasta).

The rain had finally stopped, so while the kids went to relax back in the room, Erica and I took advantage and set off on a hike directly in front of the Inn up the Clachaig Gully. I didn’t know much about it, but when we pulled into the Inn earlier in the day, I saw that seam in the mountain across the road and declared that I was going to climb that. I later learned that this is where some Hagrid hut scenes were filmed in The Prisoner of Azkaban.

We started on a foot path that went up the right side of the Gully, but this quickly ended and turned into a thick fern covering of the underlying rock. It was pretty tough going the further up we went, so we decided to double back and head straight up the Gully where the water was flowing. Several other couples were attempting something similar but none made it as high up as we did. ;) Climbing up the large rocks in the Gully was much easier going, and we made it up to largish waterfall, beyond which we would have to be doing some more vertical rock climbing and that was not in the cards tonight. Getting down was pretty easy, but by this point, and with all of the rain we’d had in the past few days, my beloved 15 year old Columbia semi-water-resistant hiking boots were at their limit. It would take a couple days of radiator drying to completely dry them out. This was a good vacation to finally retire those old boots. Thoroughly tuckered out, we headed back to make sure the kids were still alive.

<B>Day 8: Glencoe to Aberfoyle, Monday 7/10</B>

There’s so much more I want to see in better weather in the Glencoe area that I’m pretty sure we’ll be back on our next trip to Scotland. But it was time to head to our next B&B in Aberfoyle for a two night stay in the Trossachs. We left Glencoe on a clear morning (this was the dominant weather trend for most of the Scotland trip, clear at night and into the morning, with rain most of the afternoons) and went straight to Glen Etive. This is a beautiful little single track 12 or 13 mile drive along the valley to Loch Etive. The scenery was incredible the whole way and the river gorge had some impressive rapids and gullies. Round trip took about 1.5 hours and we met very little traffic having done it in the morning.

The trek continued to the Southwest towards Inveraray as the rain started right after noon again and continued all afternoon. We got into town and found a pay spot right in the central car park across from the waterfront. There was a mobile carnival set up in the park on the waterfront, but it was completely empty in the pouring rain. The George Hotel was our lunch spot for the day, where we warmed up with hot chocolates and had a decent meal of pasta, chicken Caesar salad, split pea with ham soup, and mac n cheese. We started walking to the Inveraray Castle, but the walk up the drive was quite long and the rain was really coming down, so I ran back to the car park, picked up the car and picked up the family in route to the castle.

Inveraray Castle (#7) was beautiful both inside and out, with a green tint exterior and museum quality interior. It was slightly better appointed than Dunvegan but had a similar overall feel to it. The home of Clan Campbell, we learned about their checkered past with their roles in the Glencoe massacre and fighting on the “wrong” side at Culloden. Isabel and Ian enjoyed the castle quiz that kept them interested in the details and got them a prize in the gift shop (similar to the key finding exercise). Ian bought a stuffed sheep (“sheepy”) which became his new bed partner. Erica was happy that there were Highland cows in the pen across from the castle as she had been trying to find some to get up close to this whole trip.

After the castle the trip continued down the bonnie banks of Loch Lomand where we stopped in Luss for some light shopping (Erica bought some local honey), ice cream, and duck and swan feeding at the pier. Ian got his fingers nipped a couple of times feeding from his hands. Next we went straight to Aberfoyle and checked in at the Glendaruel B&B around 6:30pm, a short < 5min walk from town. Christine and John were extremely friendly and continued to show the warmth of the Scots. John had just retired as the town postman for something like 35 years and was clearly enjoying “retirement” helping out with the B&B. We grabbed dinner at the Forth Inn in town at their recommendation (“the only good restaurant in town”). This pub was very “local” and warm feeling and Isabel and I had a fabulous Atlantic salmon dish for dinner. As per usual, we went back to the house after dinner and turned in early to recover after another eventful day of driving.

Next up, the Trossachs and departure to Ireland

'John had just retired as the town postman for something like 35 years"

OMG -- I know John! Didn't know he did B&B (I've stayed for weeks at a time down the road from Aberfoyle on Loch Ard and had lots of dealings w/ him)

Probably should have warned you about the 'rustic-ness' of the Clachaig :) Its all about the location, the views and the FOOD.

janisj, sorry I had his name wrong in my notes. It was actually Jimmy not John. I hope it's still the same guy (I think he was the only/main postman in town).

No worries about the Inn. It was a truly magnificent location, so the room really didn't matter, especially for one night. It would probably behoove them to fix those Lodge rooms up a bit, though.

OK -- probably a different guy. He lived down near the end of the loch in Kinlochard.

Paul - nice report with great obsevations. We visited Scotland earlier this month and were in Ireland 5 years ago. Agree with your comments regarding roads.

I've been meaning to write a report but work has been very busy.....maybe if I get started and keep it short....

Bookmarking. Thanks for the information.

Thanks, mnag. I'm forcing myself to do a bit every night, but I need to finish it up this weekend or the barrier to completing it will get too high. But forget about getting pictures organized with the report ... that's never going to happen.

No problem, Sberg. Good luck with your trip.

<B>Day 9: Trossachs, Tuesday 7/11</B>

After a very good hot breakfast, we had a nice talk with Christine and Jimmy (not John) about what we were doing today and about a lot of other things (tourism, B&B business, their travel plans, kids, etc.). What a really nice couple and very easy to talk to. Everyone has been really great with our kids as well, trying to engage them in conversation and always complimenting them on their good behavior (I had to explain that wasn’t always the case, of course, haha). Anyway, it was overcast but not raining yet, so we set out for Lake of Menteith at 9:40am. It was only a 10 min drive, so we were at the boat dock at 9:50am, 10 min prior to them opening, but the boat pilot let us enter early and hang out on the dock to feed the ducks.

He waited for another group to arrive, so at 10:05 we set out for Inchmahome Island and the Priory. The pilot was a nice guy and we talked about the history of why this was a lake and not a loch. After the short ride, it was nice being the first ones on the island as that made a very peaceful and quiet setting even moreso. It rained on and off while we were there, but we were still able to enjoy the very cool ruins of the priory as well as the grounds of the entire island. Isabel enjoyed spinning in Mary Queen of Scots’ tree circle, and of course, we fed the ducks with leftover breakfast toast. The attendant at the little office/store got excited when we learned we were from the US so that he could tell us the history of the California Redwood trees on the grounds.

As we got back to the dock, it was getting to be about lunch time, so we decided to drive to Callander before heading to our next and very exciting (for me) next destination of Doune Castle. We got to Callander and parked in a lot right next to the river where there were, you guessed it, ducks! So we stopped to feed the ducks once again. A few minutes after we joked about Ian needing to be careful to not slip and fall in, he slipped and fell in. The panicked look on his face as he scrambled to not go in was priceless, and Erica was stunned enough that she just stood there and watched him. Luckily the river at that point was only about 3 feet deep, so I hauled him up back onto the walk and he was only soaked from the waist down. Of course this would now become a joke for the rest of the trip anytime we got near water. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring a change of clothes in the car, so it was back to the B&B. This would ultimately cut short some of our plans, but it makes for a good story. Christine found it hilarious and gave Ian a good talking to. Then it was back to Callander where we had lunch at a sandwich shop and did some shopping and had ice cream and baked goods.

On to Doune Castle (#8) where we arrived around 4pm. Despite it being a pretty small and “less significant” castle, it was a great treat for me being a huge Monty Python fan. This is where all but one of the castle scenes was filmed for the Holy Grail movie. The castle itself was a really cool and classic high-walled rectangular structure with a large open courtyard. The best part, of course, was the audio tour narrated by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. It was a nice mixture of castle history and Holy Grail tidbits, including the sites of each individual scene in the movie. Apparently they lost permissions for their other filming sites at the last minute, so budget and timing constraints required them to shoot everything at Doune, utilizing all of the different rooms and angles for the varying scenes. Too cool! The only disappointment was that the battlements were under repair after structural issues were found so we couldn’t walk around the wall and hurl French insults down on the silly Engllish kinnnnnigits. It is also where some of the show Outlander is filmed, but we are not familiar so it had no interest to us. At this point I could go home a happy camper if necessary. Oh, and of course Ian played the coconuts in the gift shop.

Tonight would be an early night due to an early flight out of Glasgow, so we got back to Aberfoyle a bit after 6pm, walked around town a bit and visited the sheep at the Scottish Wool Centre, before going back to the Forth Inn. The salmon was so good that three of us got it this time and Erica tried the pork belly ribs, which were good but a bit overcooked (not uncommon in the UK we are learning). Then it was back to the B&B after 8pm to start packing. But honestly, packing is an overstatement because the packing cubes made it so easy to just keep a few cubes out and then throw them in a bag later.

<B>Day 10: Goodbye Scotland, Hello Ireland, Wednesday 7/12</B>

It was sad to leave Scotland with so much unexplored, but we were also excited to start the next part of our trip in Ireland. We had an 8:40am flight on RyanAir out of GLA, so we planned to leave at 6am to get there by 7am (or earlier) as we still had to return the car. Christine and Jimmy were so accommodating for us and actually got up to serve us a hot breakfast at 5:30 even though we would have been fine with a quick bit of yoghurt and toast. She would have none of that, however. We were off right at 6am, but this is where I committed my first and only gps blunder of the trip. I started typing in Glasgow International Airport, but I didn’t realize that Google Maps stopped at Glasgow International, which is some company or organization located in the middle of downtown. As we got about a mile from the destination and were in the middle of a dense urban area, I realized my mistake. Doh! Anyway, we were 20 minutes off course so got to GLA at 7:20am. Everything after that was super quick, and we got to the gate right as they were boarding the plane … no wait, perfect!

The flight was short and sweet, we had no issues through customs, and Dan Dooley had the exact car that we reserved. Say it ain’t so! We were on the road by 11:30 and absolutely flew down to Kilkenny in 90 minutes on the great M7 and M9 highways. Oh, did I mention that it was sunny and warm? This weather would stay with us for the next 8 days, so we must be doing something right. The original plan was to take our time driving through the Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough, and I still wish we would have done this, but I let the family vote on the long day out or getting to Kilkenny directly, and they chose the fast route because we had been up since 5am. This worked out for a reason I’ll explain later.

In Kilkenny we rented an Airbnb apartment specifically to get access to a washer and dryer so that we could do laundry for the rest of the trip since we only brought about 10 days of clothing. The location of the apartment was great, just about 2 blocks from High St and the Castle at the end of Ormonde Street, with free access to a large parking lot. The owner Catherine was going to meet us a bit after 2pm, so we walked down to High St, took in the sights and sounds and ended up eating pretty decent pizza at a restaurant on High St called the Italian Connection. It was 2:30 by the time we got back to meet up with Christine at the apartment and she checked us into the huge two bedroom second story unit. Though we do like B&Bs, it was nice after so many to just have our own place for a couple days.

Kilkenny Castle (#9) was right down the street, so that would be our first official Ireland destination. Weather at this point was amazing (68F and sunny) and this was the first time we had seen a lot of people in shorts and T-shirts … it felt like summer again. We got into the Castle around 3:30pm and toured it for about 2 hours. Funny enough, we met one of my co-workers and his family in one of the first round tower rooms of the castle. We knew we were having some overlap in our vacations in Ireland (they had been to Italy and Scotland before Ireland), and I had joked before we left that I’d see him over there, but we had never compared itineraries to see if there was a real chance. So it was just dumb luck. Anyway, we overlapped with them a bit as we toured the castle and then visited with them a bit more in the garden and fountain outside before going our separate ways. The castle was beautiful both inside and out, though it was mostly replica and renovations as much of the castle was in disrepair after many decades of abandonment. As we went to each of these majestic places I couldn’t imagine how many of them were just abandoned and ignored for so many years.

We toured the massive park outside the castle grounds and the kids played in the playground for a good bit, enjoying some of the contraptions that we don’t have in our parks. Ian was in the mood for Chinese again, and we were all in the mood for something different, so we grabbed Chinese to go from a place called Lotus (not bad), stopped by the huge Dunnes food market (we became big fans of Dunnes while in Ireland) on St. Kieran’s Street to pick up food supplies (car snacks, picnic lunch for tomorrow, breakfast, drinks) and headed back to the apartment for dinner and an evening of chilling. Erica started the laundry but we would soon learn that the tiny dryer was more of a wet clothes warmer. So we actually converted the apartment into a large drying rack for the two days we were there. The dining room table became what we called the “Underwheel” (all of our underwear was placed around the round table) and all windows had clothes handing on or by them.

Next up, a day in Kilkenny and Waterford

Glad you enjoyed it. The Lake of Menteith was my parents very favorite place in all of Scotland and their ashes are scattered in the lake

Did you borrow the Coconut shells and take them out into the castle? Almost every time I've been there folks are clip-clopping around the courtyard.

Never trust a GPS ;) The drive to GLA should have been a doddle . . .

You are not the first to be frustrated by European dryers.

janisj, we didn't take them outside the castle, but I know that a lot of people like to do that. Actually I had hoped there would be more Monty Python related souvenirs in the shop, but they were mainly focused on Outlander right now ... blasphemy.

Re: gps, this was pure user error, so never trust a gps user.

<B>Day 11: Kilkenny and Waterford, Thursday 7/13</B>

Erica was really interested in seeing the Waterford Crystal factory and as an easy trip from Kilkenny we decided to do it in the morning. So we set out in the morning after our simple store-bought breakfast and got there and got there in less than 45 min down the super fast M9. After parking in a public lot very close to the factory, we got in there with a few minutes to spare before the next tour … perfect timing. Erica and I found the ~ 1 hour factory tour very interesting and informative (I knew close to zero about Waterford Crystal other than the name) and it was pretty cool seeing how almost everything is done by hand by master craftsman. I asked at several points along the way about potential places for automation, and the guide stressed how the reputation of the brand is based heavily on the handiwork … makes perfect sense and it’s great that this craft still exists.

The final display room was really cool as it held some very unique and interesting pieces. And the gallery contains the largest display of Waterford Crystal in the world. Waterford Crystal also has a fairly checkered recent financial past which has impacted this struggling city and many of its inhabitants. Dean, our tour guide, spoke with me for about 15 minutes after the tour and told me how his father was a master craftsman in the old factory in heyday of the 70s and 80s when thousands of people were employed, and then about the economic hardship on the city when the company started struggling and thousands of people lost their jobs. It was a unique perspective on this narrative. All in all this was a worthwhile trip and unique experience for us.

After Erica bought a few ornaments in the gallery and we did some other souvenir shopping in a local shop, we grabbed our picnic lunch and walked over to The People’s Park, where we enjoyed our sandwiches and chips, the kids played on the playground for a bit, and we fed the birds. We wanted to get back to Kilkenny to do more there, so we headed back in mid afternoon and spent a bit of time back at the apartment resting and doing some more laundry. Then it was back to High Street for some shopping and more ice cream eating. I swear Ian must have asked for ice cream about 4 times a day on this entire trip since it was everywhere.

We decided to check out the Medieval Mile Museum because it was fairly new (opened in Feb) but was getting good reviews and we wanted to get some of the history of the city. On Thursdays they stayed open later and ran the guided tour every hour until 7pm. We got there around 5:15pm so we signed up for the 6pm tour and checked out the museum on our own for the 45 min. It is housed in the old St. Mary’s Church, not to be confused with the larger and more famous St. Mary’s Cathedral. I have to admit that it is a bit underwhelming and pricey (€30 family) at first. There’s the main room as you walk in, several side rooms or corridors, and a small upstairs room. If you don’t get the guided tour, I think it’s harder to appreciate what they have there and to get the full history of the city. After the tour I was very impressed and would recommend it, by tour only of course.

Since we were the only ones there that evening, we got a personal 1 hour tour from the curator and archaeologist who was involved in some of the excavations and findings. How cool is that? Naturally, she was very passionate about the museum and the city’s history. It housed some very neat artifacts, mostly of the burials that were in an around the church, and also the Liber Primus, the medieval Book of Kilkenny dating from 1231. I would say this is more for adults as our kids had a bit harder time appreciating what they had, but some of the stories they enjoyed.

After learning about Dame Alice Kyteler, who was a pub owner and was tried for witchcraft in the 1300s, we naturally had to have dinner at the famous and historic Kyteler’s Inn. We were seated upstairs right by the trad band playing area, and got to enjoy some beautiful traditional music (three piece band with guitar, mandolin, and accordion) while eating our very tasty dishes of chicken wings, Irish stew, bangers and mash, and chicken pot pie, and of course, a pint of Guinness. After spending quite a bit of time listening to the music, we made our way back to the apartment with another stop at the Dunnes to pick up more snack and picnic foods.

<B>Day 12: Kilkenny to Killarney, Friday 7/14</B>

We started the day with another light breakfast in the apartment and then left around 10am (all we had to do was leave the key under the door mat) for the Rock of Cashel. It would be another beautiful weather day (high 60s F and sunny). It took about 1 hour to get there and the view from the R639 as you round the bend and see the Rock BOOM right there in your windshield is fantastic. We were able to park in the main lot below the Rock and get up there before too many of the tour buses started rolling in. The whole grounds and ruins were very impressive. Ian was in a bit of a mood, so he decided to sit on the soft green sloping lawn facing the Hore Abbey while we toured the place on our own before the official guided tour started at noon. He would cheer up and join us again for the tour. We spent about 2 hours in total there learning all of the history (including the a-hole Cromwell and his massacre of hundreds of men, women, and children taking refuge in the church) and seeing the very cool paintings on the original cathedral roof from the 1200s.

After we left we had a very hard time finding a park to have our picnic. We were kicking ourselves at this point for not just bringing the food into the Rock and eating on the beautiful grounds, but everyone was very hungry so we just stopped in a nearby parking lot and ate our food there. Off were were now to Killarney for the 90 min drive. We got to the Ross Castle Lodge B&B near right down the road from, you guessed it, the Ross Castle, where Rosaleen greeted us into her cute little house right on the edge of the Killarney National Park. It was literally one of the last houses on the road into the park and had a very pretty garden out front, side and back. The clippety clop of horses pulling their jaunting cars was a welcome sound outside the B&B all weekend long.

We settled in briefly but then quickly drove into the Park to the Torc Falls car lot. Little did we know that there were three Torc Falls lots, and we chose the first and furthest one from the falls. This was OK though as we got a nice long hike out of it as opposed to just walking to the falls and back to the car. The falls was very pretty, not huge but not small either. Ian wanted to climb up to the bottom of the falls, so we all started climbing the rocks and got there with little problem. Next we continued on the yellow trail to the edge of the Muckross Lake where Ian would enjoy some more rock throwing/skipping. We continued on the yellow and then blue trails back to the car park for a total of about 90 min of up and down hiking.

Everyone was hungry after a light breakfast and lunch (and no ice cream!) so we drove into town where we unsuccessfully tried a few placed that were all booked or very busy. Ian was happy that we ended up at the Golden Chopsticks Chinese restaurant, which was pricey for Chinese but we thought was pretty good. We also found it amusing that you could order your dishes with steamed rice or chips. Yes, it seems almost every meal in Scotland and Ireland is served with chips. Haha. We finally learned our lesson with the huge portions we’ve been getting and ate family style off of three dishes. After dinner we got back to the B&B around 9pm and started the wind down.

Next up, Killarney and the Ring of Kerry.

I just wash the clothes and hang to dry now. I have never gotten my clothing dry except once and they became permanently wrinkled. I am a fan of quick dry clothing. But you have clean clothing. Every trip I have to figure out each machine.

First time we visited Waterford was when it was fully operational. 2000 I think. It was wonderful. I think most of their crystal is now made in Poland.

I'm really enjoying your trip report, Paul.

I've just returned from my 3rd trip to Ireland but there's still much I haven't seen. When I got to Kilkenny Castle I was met with a massive downpour and got drenched to the skin for the second time that day. Missed pretty much all of it :(

Macross, yeah, we learned how most of it is made in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, and Slovenia now. I think they employ < 100 people in the Waterford factory now.

margo_oz, thanks much. Yes, I'm so thankful we got amazing weather in Ireland ... I think we spent a total of 12-14 hours on beaches (detailed in future postings), which I had never dreamed of when planning this trip.

We are looking forward to a trip to Oz sometime in the next 2 years, so I'll be back on here looking for advice. :)

Scotland had never been on my radar, for some reason. I don't know why but I feel its mountain scenery is just OK compared to Switzerland. Also it strikes me as too rural and unsophisticated. But I could be wrong.

Could be :-)

Potatoes; I once went for a meal out in Northern Ireland and was offered baked, mashed and chipped potatoes, all on the same plate.

"But I could be wrong." . . . Ya think!????

Oh - yes - you are much too sophisticated for Scotland.

Allow me to interrupt this interesting little conversation.

<B>Day 13: Killarney, Saturday 7/15</B>

We started with a very nice hot breakfast, one of six choices that Rosaleen offers each morning. Today was a day that we had pre-booked a 2 hour pony trek in the National Park, so the morning was free to visit the Ross Castle (#10). The 10 minute walk to the castle along the park road sidewalk was very nice and we saw several deer along the way. We would later find that there are huge herds of a couple different types of deer in the park that have no real predators. We got to the castle a bit after 10am and explored the grounds a bit (you can actually get inside the outer wall and walk the grounds without having to pay yet) before entering the castle for the tour. The structure is a handsome tower house castle with a great postcard view from the bridge crossing a small creek. We had planned to take the lake boat tour first, but they weren’t running yet and didn’t have any departure times posted, so we signed up for the 10:30am guided tour as this was the only way to view the castle.

The tour was nice and inexpensive and explored the 4-5 floors of the tower house. The tour finished at 11:20, but now the next boat trip wasn’t until 12pm and lasted one hour. With having to be at the stables at 1:15 for our 2pm pony trek, this wouldn’t have left enough time to grab lunch and get over there so we had to skip the boat. In hindsight we should have waited for the first boat trip and then seen the castle second, and we didn’t need to get to the stables that early as they really only spent 15 min with us before the ride. Oh well, lesson learned.

So we drove into town and had lunch at a small French bakery with a limited soup and sandwich selection, which was perfect for a light lunch. We did about 15 min of souvenir shopping before driving the 10 min to the Killarney Riding Stables. We got there at 1:20, and got fitted on our horses around 1:50. The four of us were grouped with a young couple and two young girls, so it made for small nice small group of 8 riders plus two guides. The horses were good, though a bit lethargic in riding their routine route, the guides were great and very talkative providing lots of good riding information. The scenery of the ride, however, was less than spectacular as most of the 2 hour ride was through fields, woods or high brush. At the very beginning there was a nice view of the tallest mountain in Ireland, Carrauntoohil (3400 ft), across the lake, and we did see several huge herds of the deer, but the rest was not really worth it. All-in-all the ride was fun and well organized, but I think we could have spent our time and money (very expensive!) better in the Park.

After the ride we drove back into town and did some more souvenir shopping (how are we going to get all of this home?) before having an early dinner at O’Connor’s Pub. My shepherd’s pie and Guinness were spectacular and Ian liked his wings, but the beef stroganoff was an odd, overcooked dish and the steak sandwich was pretty terrible … a bit like chewing on a leather shoe. After dinner we spent some more time in stores and grabbed Ring of Kerry picnic food at the local Dunnes store. The kids again decided to wind down at the B&B while Erica and I walked backed to the Ross Castle to enjoy the evening views over the lake and feed more ducks.

<B>Day 14: Ring of Kerry, Sunday 7/16</B>

Before the trip we were deciding on whether to do the RoK, Dingle Peninsula, or Beara Peninsula. Given our location, we decided to stick with the easy choice of the RoK, leaving the other two road trips for a future vacation. Against my initial plan, Rosaleen advised strongly to drive the Ring clockwise. She recommends this to all of her guests for two reasons: (1) most of the good stuff (her opinion) is in the first half of the Ring going clockwise, so you spend the early high energy hours doing fun stuff rather than driving a lot, and (2) you get down to the Skellig Ring where the tour buses can’t go before you start to pass them on Ring of Kerry, thus you never encounter the buses coming at you on the narrow roads and you never get stuck behind them. I bought it and it was very good advice. It worked out perfectly. We spent 11 hours on the Ring from 9:15am to 8:15pm and only encountered three buses and very little traffic the entire time.

After leaving Killarney through the NP, we stopped first at Ladies’ View for a beautiful view of a lake and the Gap of Dunloe among other sites. A bit further down the road after Kenmare Ian was getting a bit car sick in the back (thus started the “Ian gets to ride in the front seat” part of the vacation), so we stopped to take a break at a pullout that had a “Holy Well” sign pointing into the woods. Why not? It was a short 5-10 min walk down to the holy well, which was a trickle of a spring coming out of the ground under a tree with some small shrine items placed around it. Oh well, not worth it, but no harm as Ian still needed to recover a bit.

Next we drove straight to O’Carrolls Cove beach, which was right off the side of the road. What a little gem of a beach. It was not crowded yet, so we found a parking spot right down at the entrance to the beach and restaurant. This was our first Scotland/Ireland beach experience, but I already knew the water would be too cold for me and Erica, and it was. We are too used to warm Texas and Gulf waters at this point, so anything below 75F is freezing. But the kids don’t care of course, so they were out wading in the beautiful clear, turquoise water. This is also where Isabel started her limpet collection … she has always like limpets for some reason, and this beach was covered in them. Big and small, but all completely intact, the kids filled a medium ziplock bag with them. The rock formations off to the south end of the beach were really neat, too, so we all went exploring for a bit. Ian managed to slip into a tidal pool and get his second pair of shoes wet. C’est la vie.

After spending about 2 hours at that beach, we drove 10 min down the road to the next beach at the Derrynane house. Now this was a serious hidden gem that had the look and feel of a tropical beach, including the amazing water clarity and color. This beach was huge (probably over a mile from end to end) and had fantastic rock formations down in to the water that looked almost like petrified wood. We had skipped the Derrynane house completed because in this weather (70s and sunny and warm) we were ALL about the beach this day. We probably could have stayed here all day, and would have been happy doing that and just heading back afterwards, but alas, there was still so much to see. We had our picnic lunch on the rocks in the middle of one end of the cove and then did more tidal pool exploration, which were filled with large limpets, snails, and anemone, and clambering among the rocks. Even the expansive grass-covered sand dunes between the House and the beach were a beautiful sight (Isabel still bugs me today about being obsessed with nice grass).

After another 2-3 hours here, we continued down the road, stopping at several scenic overlooks, and entered the Skelling Ring past Waterville after passing only three buses on the way. Next we stopped at the Ballinskelligs Blue Flag beach, but this one would be not nearly as nice and 10 times more crowded than the Derrynane beach. There was a nice little craft/good fair set up in a grassy area near the parking lot with a live band playing as well. We spent very little time at this beach except to go explore the small Bellinskelligs, or McCarthy’s, Castle (#11) that was situated right at the end of the beach. It’s not really much to speak of as it’s really just a small tower house ruin and we wouldn’t have stopped for it had it not been right on the beach, but it was completely open to climb on its walls and walk around the top of the “battlements.” I’m surprised it’s not protected a little bit more than this, but otherwise it wouldn’t be worth seeing.

Next up was the Skellig Chocolate factory where we got the 10 min chocolate tasting “tour” (there was no production going on at this time), Ian bought some strawberry flavored chocolate, and then we tried a very nice hot chocolate made with milk and the Skellig milk chocolate. A short way down the road were the Kerry Cliffs. There was a small fee (€ 12 for a family) but it was well worth it as the cliffs are very majestic and the two overlook spots from points jutting far out from the cliffs, give you a great vantage point to see both sides of the formations. Some people had said they were as good or better than the Cliffs of Moher … I wouldn’t go that far, but they were certainly worth the drive and stop and money. They also offered a decent view of the Skellig Islands. We decided against a trip to the Islands because of the time commitment involved, but maybe another time.

We decided to go to Valentia Island, but for the main purpose of getting Valentia Ice Cream and not much else. Unfortunately we got there 10 min after they closed at 6pm. I really wished places like this would stay open later in peak tourism season, but oh well, Ian will have to get ice cream somewhere else. So we continued on to Knightstown where we had dinner at (a closed) Pod creperie. The savory crepes that we enjoyed at the outdoor seating were really good, and they were nice enough to serve us the crepes and ice cream past closing time. After this meal we made our way back to the peninsula on the cute litte €7 ferry with about 6 other cars. Thus ended one heck of a fun day on the Ring of Kerry and one that we would not soon forget.

We drove straight home from here with no other stops and got back to Killarney at 8:15, where we went straight to Ross Castle so that the kids could feed the ducks one last time with the remaining bread we had. Someone had let loose their annoying little dog to run all over the place and chase the ducks into the safety of the reeds, so we waited until they left and got our duck feeding on. Back to the B&B to prepare for another long day en route to Doolin and the Cliffs of Mohair, as Erica called them.

Next up, Killarney to Doolin

"Allow me to interrupt this interesting little conversation."

Sorry :>) - Loacker just sets me off

"with a great postcard view from the bridge crossing a small creek"

I know that exact viewpoint - were there swans? I have a photo there w/ two adults, 5 cygnets trailing behind and one riding on the mom's back.

Your RoK day was AMAZING - who'd a thunk you'd have beach weather????

Regarding wet clothes, which is often a problem in Ireland and Scotland,if the hot towel racks in the bathroom are working, ( sometimes difficult to figure out how to turn them on ) they do a great job of drying out almost anything overnight. I've been in a few B& B's that have drying rooms.


You really do seem to have made the most of your tour of Scotland and Ireland.

Still along for the ride and a mighty fun one it is!

No swans this time, janisj, only ducks. And yup, I can't say enough about the amazing weather. Up near Doolin we would have near 80F and so ~ 6 more hours of beach time were had. We had no plans for the beach on this trip (only Ian brought a swimsuit hoping for a hot tub at one of our accomodations), so it was a pleasant surprise.

historytraveler, yup, did that, too. They did wonders for our soaked shoes/boots also.

irishface, thanks. I am enjoying reliving it again. We're already planning our next 3 trips as well, so staying busy with vacation stuff.

<B>Day 15: Killarney to Doolin, Monday 7/17</B>

After another nice breakfast and talk with Rosaleen about our RoK trip (she agrees that spending all day at Derrynane beach is her idea of a perfect day, too), we set out at 10am for Doolin. A compromise for not staying in Dingle or doing the Dingle Peninsula was to make short drive through Dingle on the way to Doolin. Given the drive time and other stops we wanted to make on the way and the weather (projected to be the warmest day of the trip so far, near 80F), we decided to skip Dingle and go straight up. We got to Limerick by lunch time and stopped for a nice light lunch of toasties at Nellie’s Corner Café. Then 20 min up the road was our next planned stop at Bunratty Castle (#12) and Folk Park.

The little village set up in the Folk Park was cute and educational. Ian fell in love with the mini goats in the pen at the center of the village, so we agreed to let him hang out there while we explored everything else (I guess 11 castles was enough for him). As we were walking away, one of the goats got out of the pen so Ian stayed with him and tried to keep him in the area while we went and informed a park staff. Anyway, after checking out some of the village buildings we went in to the castle for a self-guided tour. This would be the best example of a classic Tower House castle that we had seen, with 4 spiral staircases all the way up to the battlements (great views up there!) and including all of the rooms in between. In total we spent about two hours in the castle and park.

With this crazy warm weather, the next obvious destination was the beach at Lahinch. After the 45 min drive, I was unprepared for what I saw. This town was absolutely bursting at the seams and the beach was packed. The car lot at the beach access was full, so we ended up parking around the corner closer to the Lahinch Golf Club. Certainly the warmest weather of the year so far (I checked the weather for June and July afterwards and indeed it was the warmest at 77F) and low tide (it’s a very deep flat beach so high tide around noon brings the water right up to the sea wall) brought everybody and their grandmother out. It was great fun. We got ice cream just off the beach before doing down. Ian had his USA flag swimsuit on (wear it loud and wear it proud! Haha) and we did a bunch of exploring on the rocks and pools on the south end of the beach. Unfortunately, there were a billion jellyfish all over the place in the water and on the sand. I read later that this was not uncommon at this beach, but the locals didn’t seem to care. We talked to a local lady and she said their stings don’t bother much, but it did limit the amount of swimming that Ian and Isabel would do.

I committed to Susan Daly at our B&B in Doolin for a 6pm arrival, and I was having a hard time getting in touch with her from the beach, so I decided to make the 20 min drive to Doolin and leave the family at the beach since they were having so much fun. Now that was a fun single track drive on Ballyellery Road from Lahinch to Doolin, up and over the peninsula of the Cliffs of Moher. The best thing was coming up over a ridge and then BOOM, right out of the front window was the almost fake-looking round tower house Doonagore Castle and the ocean behind it. This was one of three castles built along the cliffs, though this one is privately owned so no viewing was possible. But what a way to arrive in Doolin. I checked in on time with Susan, got all of the bags inside our two room upstairs family suite, and then headed back to Lahinch to pick up the family.

I picked them up after the had played at the playground for a bit and we headed back to Doolin. I know, this seems like a lot of senseless driving, but the scenery was so great that I didn’t care one bit. The Daly House B&B is a less than 5 min walk from the cute little area of town on Fisher St, pretty much right above Gus O’Connor’s Pub, and a short walk from the pier. We couldn’t have asked for a better location. Oh yeah, the profile of the Cliffs of Moher were visible from our bedroom window. After everyone settled in, we walked down to O’Connor’s Pub for dinner where we had good dishes of beef and Guinness stew, mussels, salmon, and pasta. Oh, and my pint of Guinness was tasty as always.

After a long day out and at the beach, the kids walked back to the B&B to go to bed early, and Erica and I walked down to the pier for sunset. We were treated with a beautiful sunset over the Atlantic and with a very playful and show-off of a dolphin named Dusty. Apparently he’s the local dolphin that has been playing around the pier and Inis Oirr for many years and divers come specifically to the pier here to swim with him. This night he decided to do all kinds of flips, slaps, and jumps right up next to the rocky shoreline. What a treat for our first night there. We got back to O’Connor’s at 10:15 for some trad and then back to the B&B by 11pm.

<B>Day 16: Inis Oirr and the Cliffs of Moher, Tuesday 7/18</B>

We had booked the full day combi trip to the Aran Island of Inis Oirr (pronounded Inisheer) which left from the pier at 10am and returned at 4:45pm. But first we had what was probably the best breakfast of our entire vacation so far. Susan’s sister was the cook, and she served a variety of fixed hot breakfasts (probably 10 choices or so) or any custom breakfast order, plus a full array of home baked goods and fancy yoghurt parfait cups. We all ate way too much on this morning. Because we had to arrive by 9:30am and the pier was a 15 min walk away, we decided to drive there and park the car so that we had an easy way back after a long day. We got to the Doolin2Aran ferry booth right at 9:30 and they rushed us onto the boat like we were late. This was a bit off-putting, but this was smaller boat (several other companies run a similar service) and everyone else was already on the boat so they wanted to leave early and get to the island first. We pushed off 20 minutes ahead of schedule, the ride was very pleasant (calm waters and already pretty warm, it would be the second warmest day of the year today) and we were the first ones on Inis Oirr, so it wasn’t so bad.

We arrived at the Inis Oirr pier at 10:15 and immediately rented a pony trap to tour the island with a guide. The ride was €30 for the family, and we shared the cart with another family of 4 where the wife was from Ireland and husband from Florida (they lived in Florida now). I don’t know if this was a good or standard price as we didn’t price shop, but it was a nice way to see the island. I wanted to rent bikes as I’m a cyclist, but I left it up to a family vote. Our driver was an older gentleman, born and raised on Inis Oirr. He was a bit hard to understand and was not a big talker, but was willing to blab a bit about this and that if you questioned him. After learning this both of our families took turns asking questions. We got a nice tour of the crazy stone walls used to separate private plots all over the island, the 1960s era shipwreck, and then he dropped us off below O’Brien’s Castle (#13) as it was too steep for the pony to climb up.

The castle ruins itself were kinda neat and the views of the town, pier, and beach were stupendous. But I only wish they had invested in some signage around the castle giving some of its history. As it was it was more of a stone playground that you could climb up the walls of. On our way down from the castle we stopped at a little café and got a couple of milkshakes for the kids. Then we made our way down to a really fun little playground in the sand that had a great zipline, tire swing, and tightrope walk. We spent a good hour there while Ian became the first person of about 10 trying to make it across the tightrope without falling off. After that a little Chinese girl there with a big family showed off her gymnastics skills and proceeded to cross the rope without falling numerous times. Good times!

Much to Ian’s chagrin, we passed the beach en route to lunch at Ned’s Pub at Susan’s suggestion. We had a nice light lunch of toasties and chips, and then grabbed some ice cream on the way back to the beach. This is where we would spend the remainder of our 3 hours on the island. What another nice little beach with beautifully clear and turquoise water. Ian quickly befriended what we determined to be an “island dog,” a sheepdog who would fetch a plastic coke bottle from anyone he could find to throw it in the water. Ian spent the better part of the 3 hours playing with the dog and learned that the dog was going among the various beach blankets and stealing other bottles (and shoes!) from the unsuspecting beach goers. Too funny. I also got Ian to do one jump from the rocks off to the right side of the beach, but the tide was pretty low show it was very shallow. More limpets were collected to finalize Isabel’s Irish limpet collection. We ended up with a large pasta sauce jar full of them.

We went back to the pier around 4:30 where there were hoards of people either waiting for their last rides, or having missed their earlier appointments were trying to find another ride back. It was rather chaotic and a bit of a mess, but luckily I asked a guy in the crowd which boat we needed and he pointed us to the right one as there were 4 or 5 boats there already. We were boarded first since we were combi tickets holders, so we got the best seats on the top of the boat. We left right at 4:45 and went straight back to the Doolin Pier to drop off the hitch hikers and pick up people only getting the Cliff cruise. Despite the great weather all day, the skies started getting overcast as rain was predicted for the next two days. However, by the time we got to the Cliffs of Moher, a hole opened up in the clouds and sun shown on the Cliffs once again.

They were indeed glorious and massive. I wish I could have seen them from the land as well, but in committing to the all day island trip and spending so much time at both beaches, that was not in the cards for this trip. The guide on the boat gave us some information about the cliffs for about 10-15 minutes, but I felt it could have been better and more interactive. I’m not sure how the other companies do it, but Doolin2Aran only gets a mediocre grade in my book. Fortunately, the Cliffs of Insanity (Princess Bride reference) kind of spoke for themselves.

We got back to the pier and then to O’Connor’s Pub for dinner at about 7:30pm where we had a very tasty dinner of mostly fresh seafood, including mussels, crab, chowder, baked hake, and prawns. Like the previous night, the kids went back to the B&B and we walked back to the pier to see if Dusty was entertaining again. He was there swimming around but not really performing, so we headed back afer about 30 minutes and before sunset as it was getting cooler on this evening.

Next up, Dublin and our last two days.

Well, I finally got around to finishing this trip report, so thanks for your patience, whoever is still out there reading this.

<B>Day 17: Doolin to Dublin, Wednesday 7/19</B>

It was raining this morning for the first time since we’d come to Ireland, which slightly impacted our plans for the day, but we couldn’t complain with what we had up until now. We took our time getting ready today, had another epic breakfast with Susan, and got on the road by 10:30 to get over to the Caherconnel Fort in time for an 11:15 sheep dog demonstration. They only have two a day, so it was important to get to this first one. We had originally planned to tour more of the sights in the Burren, but the weather convinced us to just do this dog show and get to Dublin.

At the fort, they had planned to delay the start of the dog show to hope for a break in the rain, but when that didn’t happen, they pushed on. The viewing area is covered, which is really nice. However, the high winds blowing directly in from the sheep herding pen meant that you were going to get soaked anyway, so we sucked it up and stood up front so that we could see and hear. The demonstration itself was really cool and so much fun. The trainer was also a cool guy who kept calling one of the dogs a brat for constantly leaving her position (creeping up on the sheep) when he turned his back … I wondered if it was a gimmick. Regardless, it was very cute. The dogs performed magically to both voice and whistle commands and moved the sheep around the course as instructed.

Ian befriended the 20 year old (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 20 year old dog) retired lead dog as she watched the show with interest. The trainer also showed us all of the different types of sheep in Ireland and talked about their features. Afterwards, skipping the fort, we drove through some scenic portions of the Burren on the way to Kinvara where we had decent pizza at an Italian café and wine bar situated on the quay.

We drove the remaining 2-3 hours to Dublin without stopping and got to the Arranmore B&B in Drumcondra by 5pm. The free parking lot was full, so the owner Anne gave us a 2-day parking pass for the closest side street where we would leave the car until the Friday drive to the airport. We got the family suite at the very top of the “brownstone” style 4-story house, which was basically a renovated attic. The room was quite large for the 4 of us, but the quality left was a bit below average for this trip … perhaps not to be unexpected for a big city like Dublin. The door didn’t really close without being deadbolted, the mattresses were a bit old and hard, there were broken tiles in the bathroom, the electric water pump (haven’t experienced one before) that was needed because we were in the attic was extremely loud. I can only imagine what it must have sounded like to the rest of the house every time we flushed the toilet or took a shower. But it served its purpose and Anne was very nice and helpful, so no real complaints.

For dinner we simply went around the corner to Anderson’s Creperie (we tend to eat crepes whenever we find creperies) and had some very large and tasty dessert crepes. I guess everyone had a sweet tooth tonight. No one was in the mood for pubs and trad tonight, so we turned in early and just hung out in the room.

<B>Day 18: Dublin, Thursday 7/20</B>

Today was projected to be raining on and off all day, but we never got more than a sprinkle for a few minutes, so it turned out rather nice. At the recommendation of TripAdvisor and my co-worker who had been here earlier in their trip, we booked a 10am guided tour (the only way to see it) of the Kilmainham Gaol jail. This was completely on the opposite end of town, so Anne advised us on what time to get on which bus to get there in time. So we go on the #13 bus at a convenient bus stop right down the street (across from Fagan’s Pub) at 9am. There was a poorly executed driver change in the middle of town that took over 10 minutes, but we still managed to get to the jail by 9:45 for the tour which had about 15-20 people on it.

I didn’t know much about this jail or tour, but it became quickly apparent that it had a very political and nationalistic slant to it, which was great because up until now I didn’t know a lot about the modern fight for independence other that what everyone knows about Sinn Fein and the IRA. Our tour guide was a very passionate and knowledgeable Irish lady who kept 90% of the tour focused on Irish Independence. The jail itself was fairly interesting, especially the large Victorian-era east wing, but the stories and history are what makes the place unique.

After the tour, we took the bus back to the city center near Trinity College and had lunch at The Bank on College Green, a very impressive looking old bank building turned into a bar and restaurant. Some of the old vault doors were still in place in the basement near the restrooms. We had a very friendly French waitress who served us pretty good food (fish n chips, shepherd’s pie, pasta x 2) in the upstairs area overlooking the expansive bar. We finished lunch with a 3-flavor ice cream dessert (more ice cream!).

Next we walked down Grafton Street for some window and last-minute souvenir shopping. We finished getting our last bits at the huge Carrolls Irish Gifts shop in the area. We could have saved all of our standard souvenir shopping for this one store as they had basically everything we saw everywhere else for even cheaper. Then we made our way to the nearby museum area to check out what would be the first of three free (the best kind) museums.

National Museum of Ireland, Archaeology – small but packed with artifacts from Ireland’s history, mostly from the Bronze Age to Medieval times. I absolutely loved the large Viking section as I had no idea exactly how large the Viking influence on Dublin and Ireland was. Included in this was a special area on the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, commonly billed as the Irish battle for independence from the Vikings, though this has been grossly over-embellished over time in the name of nationalism. I learned a lot about the Irish king Brian Boru from this exhibit … very cool history.

National Museum of Ireland, Natural History (“The Dead Zoo”) – Wow, what a cool place for adults and kids alike. I don’t know if it is, but this is the largest and most diverse collection of animals and skeletons I have ever seen. And it’s housed in a cool Victorian-style central room with 4 or more floors all packed with animals. We were wondering what percentage of all known animals can be found here. It’s also an eerie reminder of the British Colonial past when trophy hunting for the sake of collections was a common practice. This was no more apparent than with the lone tiger they have on display, which was killed by King George V and donated to the collection in 1913.

National Gallery art museum – We got lucky as they stay open until 8:30pm on Thursdays and it was already after their normal closing time. Though we are not huge art fans, the collection of paintings was rather nice, especially (for our tastes) the massive wall paintings of the 16th-17th century European collection. Erica is a particular fan of Dutch paintings, so we sought those out as well.

After our fill of museums (oh, Ian sat outside the art museum, enjoying the weather and eating his newly purchased chocolate souvenir, which was much more palatable than art) we walked back through the Trinity College campus. The Book of Kell display was already closed, but that was OK as we had decided that being herded into a room to catch a glimpse of an old book was not worth our time and money … I checked it out online instead.  We ended up at the same bus stop we got dropped off at and waited a long time to catch the #16 bus back to Drumcondra. We had a very good dinner at Fagan’s Pub at Anne’s suggestion (beef and Guinness pie, bangers and mash, wings, pasta). The beef and Guinness pie was the best one I had on the trip, and the pint of Guinness was excellent as usual! We walked back home after dinner to start packing and planning for an early morning.

<B>Day 19: Flight home, Friday 7/21</B>

We had a 10:50am flight, and Anne recommended that we get there 3 hours early due to going through US customs in DUB. That meant leaving by about 7:30am and Anne wasn’t really wanting to get up to prepare breakfast that early, so she kindly gave us €20 back on our rental fee. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, so we graciously accepted. Getting a family of 4 out of a place with baggage by 7:30am was never really going to happen despite all of my nagging, so we ended up leaving by 8am and getting to DUB with about 2.5 hours to spare.

The 3 hour recommendation, which is the same that the DUB website recommends, is pretty much right on as we got to the gate just as they started boarding. Granted part of this time was used to find and execute the VAT tax refund process. This didn’t give us time to get any real food, but that was OK as they served us our first meal on the flight fairly quickly. The flights were uneventful and we got back to 100F Austin by 8pm and were crashed in our comfortable beds by 10pm.

We had an amazing time, and I still can’t believe it’s over, but I’ve enjoyed reliving all of it by writing this report. Thanks for reading along, and I hope there are some useful tidbits for other first time and maybe even repeat Scotland/Ireland travelers. And remember, "If it's not Scottish, it's craaaaaap!"

You guys sure did plan out a great itinerary. It sounds like the kids were real troupers.

Hey, I'm still here and looking forward to your last installment but too late tonight for me. Will catch up with it tomorrow. Thanks for taking the time to write such a comprehensive and interesting trip report.

"I didn’t know much about this jail or tour, but it became quickly apparent that it had a very political and nationalistic slant to it, which was great because up until now I didn’t know a lot about the modern fight for independence other that what everyone knows about Sinn Fein and the IRA. Our tour guide was a very passionate and knowledgeable Irish lady who kept 90% of the tour focused on Irish Independence."

We did this tour a few years back. As Brits we thought it might have been a bit one sided but, our guide steered a central path pretty well (maybe they picked up on our accent).

Unlike the Icelandic guide who explained how much they hated the Americans and British for the invasion. :-)

I stopped buying anything till I get to the airport. Anything you see in Ireland including Carroll's gift shop is there in duty free.

Glad you did the combo ticket for the cliffs. I was happy the puffins were flying the day we did the tour.

If you have netflix watch "The Rebellion" great four part series.

janisj, thanks, and yes, the kids were really easy. They are pretty good travelers in general. As long as I keep Ian pumped full of Chinese food and ice cream, and don't limit his propensity to fall into water too much, he's a happy camper.

Bilboburger, we had that same thought during the tour, that Brits might be a bit offended, but perhaps that's why our guide asked where we were all from before the tour started (no Brits). I had to look this up, but the Americans didn't invade with the British as we were still neutral at the time, but they were involved in the later occupation. However, if they needed one more reason to hate Americans, then so be it. ;)

Macross, there were quite a few puffins out during our trip, but most of them were of the floating variety. And thanks for the tip on the series ... I'll check it out.