My photos from Ireland
 

Some photos from our July trip to Ireland are now posted online at
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/travfirst/my_photos

Among our favorite sites were:
• Mizen Head
• Glendalough
• Connemara
• Killarney National Park/Gap of Dunloe (I especially loved the boat part- the views from the lakes are breathtaking)
• Library at Trinity College
• Trim Castle
• Cliffs near Kilkee

Cliffs of Moher did not make our list because:
• there was construction there and some parts were not accessible
• too many people
• we expected too much after Cliffs of Kilkee
• On the positive side, after our return I saw really beautiful pictures from other travelers

I love your photos. Very nice. I have been toying with the idea of visiting Ireland and your pictures have gone far to make me consider the idea more seriously.

Could you post the intinerary you followed? I'd be interested. Thanks.

Your pictures are great! Thanks for sharing. Someday I hope to get to Ireland.

hi travfirst:

Really nicely composed shots. There are some shots that look amazingly familiar, especially the gap of Dunloe :-).

I too like the Cliffs at Kilkee. I think the only way to enjoy the Cliffs of Moher is to get there at about 7:00 PM afetr all of the buses are gone. It's really quite peaceful then. There will still be people around, but mostly photographers waiting for that perfect shot. Of course in July, it's likely to be very crowded throughout.

The Guinness shot is fabulous by the way. Why didn't I ever think of that?

Bill

Thanks for sharing your photos! The pictures at Mizen Head were beautiful...made me so happy we have it on our agenda for next spring!

Loved all the pictures! Thanks so much for sharing them. Now I want to go back that much more...

I second the request for an itinerary but I'll go further and request a full on trip report to go with the shots. :D

Thanks agian,

Wendy

Thank you for taking your time to view pictures.
tuscanlifeedit and waffle18, here is our itinerary with a few comments:
Day 1 10 am - arrived to Dublin 2 h later than planed due to the flight delay
Picked up a car at the airport
Powerscourt (gardens)
Glendalough (what a magnificent place)
Kilkenny (lodging)
Day 2 Kilkenny Castle just after opening; explored Kilkenny until 12:30 or so
The Rock of Cashel - remarkable tour
Cahir Castle - we arrived just 1h before the closing. With three more visitors it felt like we have the castle for ourselves.
Kinsale (lodging)

Day 3 Desmond Castle
Kinsale (morning tour)
Charles Fort
Jamison whiskey tour in Midleton (my DH was one of volunteer to taste six whiskies)
Kinsale (lodging)

Day 4 left Kinsale just after breakfast
Dromberg Stone Circle
Mizen Head (Signal Station, cliffs) - Loved it! Loved it! Loved it! I could not believe in our luck. Heavy rain stopped just for duration of our visit.
We missed lunch time and after stopping in number of pubs bought sandwiches in a tiny store.
Ilnacullin Garden on Garnish Island
Kenmare (lodging)

Day 5 Gap of Dunloe
Ross Castle
Muckross House and Abbey
Torc Waterfall
Ladies' View
Kenmare (lodging)
I was really happy that we had time to visit Ross castle and Muckross house that day. I enjoyed the guided tour of the house a lot.

Day 6 Kenmare - Ring of Kerry (until Killorglin) - Dingle (lodging)
To the last minute I hoped to convince my DH to skip ROK all together, but he wanted to do it anyway :-(. It was my least favorite days of the trip.

Day 7 Dingle
Dingle Peninsula loop
Conor Pass- the road was recently widened. It was easy and stress-free drive. This time weather didn¡¦t want to cooperate, we were trying to do our best imagining how beautiful it looks on the nice clear day.
via Tarbert (ferry)
Cliffs at Kilkee
Kilrush (lodging)

Day 8 Kilrush
Cliffs of Moher
Poulnabrone Dolmen
Galway
Salthill (lodging)

Day 9 Connemara Loop - What a beautiful day we had in Connemara.

Day 10 left Salthill
Clonmacnoise
Trim Castle
Returned the car at Dublin airport, took shuttle to our B&B
Dublin (lodging)

We planned to visit Newgrange after Trim Castle. When we arrived 1.5h before the closing all gates were locked.

Day 11 Dublin
Day 12 Early flight back home

Now I have to add few more places to my 'A' list:
The Rock of Cashel
Muckross House
and Kilkenny Castle (not a must, but I just love castles and Green room was something I didn't see before).

Food was amazing everywhere, so natural and fresh.

I previously posted short B&Bs and restaurants/pubs report.

At Glendalough we purchased Heritage Card which covered most of attractions
www.heritageireland.ie

Wow! Great pictures! Thanks for sharing. We are leaving Nov. 18 for six days. Did you plan everything yourself? Thanks for the itinerary. We have not planned anything yet, so this will help.

The Conor Pass road has been widened? Well that's no fun. Where's the constant fear of death? Oh well, all good things must come to an end.

Wendy: Have you figured out a web option yet for your journal. I just completed two more days of mine, with five to go. Then I have to start building.

Bill

Forgot to ask travfirst, did you stop in at O'Sullivan's in Crookhaven. I've had two of my best Irish experiences there. Great place for a pint.

Bill

bubbasrb, planning is chapter 1 of the trip for me. Unfortunately chapter 2, the trip itself, is always too short. Then re-reading the reports of other travelers, sometimes looking at the history books and pictures, pictures, pictures!
This board offers tremendous help. If you want I can email you some posts I collected here and on the few other sites.
Have fun planning!

wojazz3, too bad we missed O'Sullivan's in Crookhaven, I will put it on my list for the next time :-).
The Conor Pass – my DH was also disappointed with the new road; he would’ve enjoyed the drive and screaming wife to go slower, oh well…
Did you post your journal online? If you share it globally please send the link.

Bill,

I'm still in the beginning stages of my journal though I *do* plan on doing it one of these days. Just need to sit down and actually write it out (gasp!) rather than bugging nice folks like you about how to do it. Sigh. There's always something, isn't there?

I'm very much looking forward to seeing your trip report and photos though. Always well worth the time!

Cheers,

Wendy

Well, I'll get the journal online sometime soon. I really use it to remind me what I did, so it's usually filled with stories that don't interest anyone but me, but if you read closely you can usually find something that might help in planning. Because I traveled with so many people this year, there are lots of useless stories. It's painfully long. The good news is that I'm about to start to set up the web site. I have enough pictures that it usually requires 3-4 Geocities sites. I link them all together so it's fairly transparent.

I'll let you all know when it's done.

I once drove conor pass in a fog thick as mud late at night. There was a great deal of screaming from my sister and wife. I just wear earplugs and nod my head.

Bill

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

You must be a pretty fearless driver. I was in Dingle the end of July and I thought the pass was still quite narrow and scary to drive.

Wonderful pictures...thank you so much for sharing them! My husband and I are planning a trip for next year, and the pictures make me wish we were going sooner! How was the weather?

Awesome pics, travfirst. I enjoyed them so much.

Thank you all for your warm replies!

Heymo, most of the days were gray with light rains from time to time; we had really heavy rain only once on the way to the Mizen Head, but rain stopped for short while, just for duration of our visit. We didn’t change or cancel any of our original plans and we saw the rainbow :-). We were very lucky to have beautiful day in Connemara and sunny, warm and gorgeous last day in Dublin.
Have a wonderful trip!

Travfirst,
Great pictures, thanks for sharing. Ireland was always on my list, but I think it will climb all the way to the top after seeing your pictures and reading a few reports on this board. Not sure if you mentioned, when did you go? What month of the year? How were the crowds?

just wondering how you fit in gap of dunloe, ross castle, muckross house and abbey in one day...that would be great!

we are planning on taking a jaunting cart from kate kearney's cottage thru the gap, boat to ross castle and hoping we make it in time to tour the castle...was told that gap took all day?!

also...what are your thoughts on garnish island? it is on our itinerary for next june.

thanks for sharing the pictures!

I see Ireland beckening to me.
Thank you for sharing.

Hi Chip. You can easily do Ross Castle on your return after the boat trip. I'm not sure about getting Muckross House and Abbey in also. You will arrive at Ross Castle between 3:30 and 4:00 where you can catch the tour there (it doesn't take too long if you are trying to squeeze it all in) and then catch the bus back to your car park. I don't think I would want to be that rushed. There is a chance, if the water is rough that day, that you will have gotten pretty wet.

Muckross closes at 5:30 in June and my understanding is that a tour takes about 45 minutes at a minumum. You can certainly enjoy the gardens after closing.

Bill

xyz99, we visited Ireland in early July for the main part, because it was the only time we could travel without kids; also, I truly enjoy the longest day hours; never had to drive in the dark. About the crowds, there were some at the most popular tourist attractions like Cliffs of Moher or Killarney (we stayed in Kenmare) or some pubs in Galway, but most of the places were not crowded at all. Only once we were in traffic - on the first day on the way from Dublin. We always had a table at the chosen restaurant without prior reservation. In some areas like Connemara, the Burren, the Cliffs at Kilkee, Cahir Castle, Charles Fort, even Mizen Head there were surprisingly few visitors.

Chip, as Bill posted, Gap of Dunloe tour ends around 4pm at the Ross castle. We heard some companies begin the tour at the Ross castle, but I didn’t find such company and we went from Killarney. We were planning to do it on horse back but decided to walk at the last minute. We ate our lunch at Lord Brendan’s and enjoyed a breathtaking boat ride back to the Ross castle where our tour bus was waiting.
I read one entertaining report from someone who got soaked on the boat ride and was drying everything he had on at the Ross castle restroom. So I packed full set of clothes for both of us ‘just in case’. I was among just a few soaked on our boat (and completely freezing shortly after).
Now, we are back at the car. I changed and we went to the Ross castle. I don’t know if you can visit the castle without the guide, but we waited a bit for the guided tour. It’s the part I liked a lot about most places, tours and sometimes informative videos were free with your admission.
Muckross House is open until 7 pm during July and August, so we had enough time and took optional guided tour and enjoyed grounds; the farm was closed, but we had a chance to see some animals.
About Garnish Island, it’s just a short boat ride(10 EUR pp) from the mainland; and you can see seals during your ride. The view from the island is beautiful; the garden is lovely and quite small. If you love gardens, definitely visit.

Ross Castle is Tour Only. Just FYI...

Wendy

Hi travfirst:

The account you mention sounds familiar. It may have been written by yours truly:

http://www.geocities.com/obeirne_ireland_2003_2/sneem2

Bill

Hi Bill,
That’s the one! I was so happy I read it before my trip. Thanks again!

absolutely beautiful... i find that you and I, (whomever you are nice to meet you!) take extremely similar pictures... check mine out from ireland as well... different places, similar styles in composition. Very neat...

www.jessrk.com/europepicts.htm

smiles!

meika2u2, thank you for sharing your pictures. I had to see them all:-). What an incredible trip you had!
Please share the list of your favorite places.
Smiles!