My sister wants to go & is arranging the details. Bread & breakfast accomodations for a driving tour. She wants to stick to small towns & villages as opposed to urban areas, which is fine w/ me, I guess. I’m not sure where we’d fly into.
I would like to see some ancient Celtic stuff. Any noteworthy places fitting that bill?
Anything we MUST see?
Details, please.*
Keeping in mind that, typically for an American, I really know nothing about Ireland.
And definitelythe inside of a Dublin pub (smoke-free by then so your wee American lungs won’t be offended ;)).
Seriously, I recommend the historic parts of Dublin - Kilmainham Gaol is very interesting. The Book of Kells (though small) and Trinity are well worth seeing.
Outside Dublin, Kilkenny’s a nice city, and then anywhere on the West Coast: Galway is cool, the villages of Connemara are worth visiting, as well as the Burren in Co. Clare, and the Dingle Peninsula in Kerry (my favourite part of Ireland) is simply stunning. In Northern Ireland Belfast is great craic, the Glens of Antrim are beautiful, and the Giant’s Causeway is fascinating.
And why not kiss the Blarney Stone? It’s at the top of a nice castle in some lovely gardens, and you may as well do it while you’re over here!
And don’t forget West Cork - anywhere there is stunning (my favourite part of Ireland)… you couldn’t go wrong being there; its like being alive in Heaven!
I visited for a couple weeks last March/April. We did the B&B thing and drove ourselves. Beware, Irish roads are narrow and it takes a lot longer to get anywhere than it does in the US, we spent a lot of time in the car.
The highlights for me were:
The Dingle Peninsula, a beautiful area. The town was nice, the bars were fun, all around my favorite part of the trip. Take the Conor pass, the veiw up there is great.
The Aran Islands. Hike up to the fort on the bluff, it’s a long walk but worth it. There was a herd of cattle and the cutest little cow dog up there when we hiked it. The tour is also interesting, take the horse carts or bike, if the weather is nice.
Glendalough. The area is gorgeous and I got such a sense of history there.
Newgrange. Very, very old.
Cliffs of Moher. Impressive, and a great backdrop for your photos.
The town of Cobh. The houses are so colorful, and they have a great museum.
The Burren. Totally, weirdly beautiful.
I have listed mostly touristy places, but that’s what we did.
There is a lot to see and do, we could have easily spent another couple weeks there and not hit it all.
PS - don’t visit the Blarney Castle if you’re hung over. The stairs up are narrow, and spiral, I almost didn’t make it up. I was not in the mood to kiss the stone, but the view from the top of the castle is great.
How long will you be there for? I was there in May for 10 days. We ended up doing this. We stayed in Limerick for the first day, I did a semester in Limerick years ago so I knew my way around. The next day we made our way to Cork as I had a swim meet there.
Stayed two days in Cork, did Blarney and roamed around the city. Then we went to Dingle, stayed there for two days and saw the roads around the area. There are lots of older ruins in the area including Beehive huts and older megalitic tombs. I also played some links golf there, but be warned, if you do play I got every type of weather you can imagine in those four hours. I also lost every ball I took and had to quit on the 16th.
Next we made our way to Dublin for two days. I didn’t like this as much, the city is f’ing huge. Didn’t do much, wandered around Trinity college, no book of Kells for me, and some of the parks. Did some drinking etc. Also, while my B&B book listed a lot of places, most were pretty far out of the city.
We also stopped at Newgrange, you have to stop there, it’s about an hour north of Dublin. You can take a tour of both Newgrange, where you go in the tomb, and Knowth, where you can only walk around the outside. If you like old things this is it. Very impressive.
Next we stopped at Galway for two days. We went to the Cliffs of Moher and through the Burren. There are a number of tombs in the burren. We then headed back to Limerick for our flight out of Shannon.
I would also suggest Lough Gur, about 15 miles south of Limerick. It’s a large archaeological site that not many people goto. There was a lot of activity there, and it’s cheap to get into.
Another vote for Dingle via the Conor pass (Bring a lump of coal and stick it where the sun don’t shine, you’ll have a diamond by the time you reach Dingle) The views on that road are terrific.
Doolin can be fun as well. Nice place to stay if you want to see the cliffs of Moher.
Galway is fun, certainly worth a stop. Aran Islands are cool. The Burren is a wild looking, but because of it’s location it can be solid fog depending on the season, still trippy looking and eery, but rather fog like. Be sure to stop by Rossmuc and say hi to my great aunt Kate, if you want to see the salt of the Earth types that make Ireland so great! (good luck finding that town on any online map! It’s in Gaelic country, so beware, some of those seaweed farmers* don’t know English)
*yeah, I know some consider that an insult, same as muck farmers, but it’s my heritage.
Disagree on walking to the fort atop Inishmore. You gotta bike it…as soon as you step off the ferry, the first thing you’ll see is a bike rental shop. You’ll exhaust the hell out of your legs going up that hill, but it’s worth it. (Plus, you’ll go pretty damn fast going back down the hill…I’d guesstimate 50-60 mph.)
Right now we’re thinking we’ll fly out Thurs., April 22nd and fly back Sat., May 1st. I have to float it by the bosses–but since it’d be unpaid vacation and since they’re really not losing production by me being gone for a week or so, I’m thinking that it wouldn’t be a big deal.
I just got an email from sis, and Shannon may be where we land. How long is the drive from Shannon to Dublin? Can we make a more or less circular driving tour with Historic Dublin at the midpoint and without the whole trip being the inside of a cramped in a car?
My guess is that we’ll want to do a little driving, hopefully hitting interesting sites along the way, leaving time for an afternoon nap and the going to the pub. Alternatively, we might drive to someplace interesting, visit, then go to the pub. Probably our three main orders of business will be pubs, history, and strolling around towns. That’s my guess, anyway.
Keep me posted w/ good ideas. You can email me if you want.
May I bring back a souvenier? (Will you reject it if it is misspelled?) We probably won’t have a layover in NYC; will they let me drop it from the plane?
Shannon => Dublin is about 2.5 hours. I know that sounds like a hell of a long drive, but it’s all the way across the country you know!!!
Seriously, the distances can be deceptive - e.g. Dublin => Galway is only about 150 miles, but the roads are really bad, so allow 4 hours. Dublin => Cork is nearer 5 hours or more.
By the way, for driving around Ireland (or anywhere else in Europe for that matter), I can’t recommend ViaMichelin highly enough. Maps, driving directions, route recommendations, hotels, restaurants, etc. etc. Absolutely brilliant site.
I didn’t think the roads were really bad, they were…different. Very narrow, and they had people walking, biking and pushing baby carriages, so you have to slow down. Other cars pull over wherever, and many roads have no shoulders, so you need to slow down to go around them. Getting lost is very easy, so plan on having to turn around a lot for missed turn offs (maybe this was just me).
It is hard to get above 45 MPH. You need to slow down more often. There are a few of what we call freeways here, but even the main routes between largish towns can be narrow (but very scenic), and you have to drive directly through many towns, that causes further slow downs.
I’ve just gotten back from Dublin (yesterday) and made my second trip there. Spent the guide’s talky-times reading the graffiti carved into the walls. (I also explained to him it wasn’t a personal insult, I just knew who Eamon DeValera was already. ) I also went up to Glasnevin cemetary- take the tour there! I love the tour there, too. The guy who gives it is fantastic and has the keys to the bottom of the O’Connell tower. You, too, can poke at the mortal remains of the monster meeting man and get fun stories!
If you fancy animal bones, see the giant (and extinct) Irish deer at the Natural History Museum. And the Millenium wing of the National gallery. The National history museum is also good. Bog bodies, viking gold, Tara Brooch and Michael Collins’ coat. Speaking of which, the Decorative Arts museum is also nice and has a pair of gloves belonging to William of Orange and some samurai armour.
Skip the Writer’s museum, as well as the James Joyce Centre. The Joyce Museum, however, at Sandycove is very nifty. Use it as the opportunity to stand on the top of a really cool old thing.
