4 girls and a rental car do Ireland
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| Our route (from the brochure I made) starting and ending in Dublin |
This was an amazing girls road trip through Central and Northern Ireland! I knew there would be narrow roads, but I didn't realize just HOW narrow and crazy they'd be! And the roundabouts! Seriously we must have gone through hundreds of them! As a very rough estimate, I'd say we traveled about 1000 km.
First off, I'll introduce you to "the band":
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| This shot was captured at the Giant's Causeway (more on that). Left to right: Colleen, Stephanie, Laura & I. This is our band's album cover shot! We actually did a lot of singing on this trip! lol |
Wow! There's so much to tell... how do I capture this wonderful girls road trip in Ireland? It all started a long, long time ago when three girls were drinking in a hot tub in Canada and were coming up with ideas for where to go for Colleen's 40th. Ireland was on her mind and she made it happen! I am so VERY happy to have been included in this celebration. I had an awesome time!
With 2 accidents on the road, it took me 1hr 45min to get to the airport and then my taxi driver couldn't seem to get to terminal 2, but all worked out. I arrived in Dublin the night before so I could meet the ladies at the airport early the next morning. All went fairly smoothly and I was excited to see them arrive and get this party started! We quickly got to our rental car and away we went.
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| Driver (on right - me) and navigator (on left - Colleen) - what a unique sensation operating a car from the right side of the car, on the left side of the road, with the stick shift in my left hand instead of my right! Here we go ladies! We're doing this! |
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First stop: Newgrange
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| Newgrange is the best known Irish passage tomb and it dates to c.3,200BC. The large mound is approximately 80m in diameter and is surrounded at its base by a kerb (curb) of 97 stones. www.worldheritageireland.ie/bru-na-boinne/built-heritage/newgrange/. The tomb consists of a long passage and a cross-shaped chamber. To construct the roof, builders overlapped layers of large rocks until the roof could be sealed with a capstone, 6 metres above the floor. After 5000 years, the roof at Newgrange is in its original state and still waterproof. |
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| Close up of the entrance way stone |
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| The entrance to Newgrange |
Next stop: Belfast
We had planned on seeing St. George's Market, but we arrived too late and finding parking was stressful, so we just headed to our apartment to meet up with our driver for the next activity.
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| Our "home" for the night in Belfast - Airbnb 22 Salisbury Court |
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| It was a really nice little apartment for us |
Next on the agenda:
Black Cab Political Tour of Belfast
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| Meet our driver for the tour, Steven Harper - that's what he said! I can't tell if he's joking or not, he is an Irish story teller after all! |
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| Our "black" cab, which, by the way, isn't black! |
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| One of the walls in Belfast that separate Protestant and Catholic communities. Some of the gate areas are open during the day, but closed at night to try and prevent violence from erupting after people have been drinking.The city suffered greatly during the conflict now known as "The Troubles", or "Northern Ireland conflict", but it has undergone a period of calm (18 years now) from the intense political violence of former years. The conflict began in the late 1960's. Protestants consider themselves "British" and generally want Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom. Catholics, who are mostly Irish Nationalists, consider themselves Irish and generally want to leave the UK and join a united Ireland. The conflict began amid a campaign to end discrimination against the Catholic/nationalist minority by the Protestant/unionist government. Violence broke out leading to the deployment of British troops and the war continued on. More than 3500 people were killed in the conflict that lasted over 3 decades. |
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| One of the many murals in these communities depicting their heros/murderers...I'm not quite sure what to call them on either side of the fence. |
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| This mural is on the Protestant side - he was a man who killed many Catholics and they wanted to depict him as a hero, so they changed his photo from a punk in street clothes to a man in uniform. |
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| This poster is creepy...the barrel of the gun follows you no matter what angle you are looking at it. It's meant to show that they're always watching you. |
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| One of the gates that closes at night between the two communities |
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| The peace wall on the Protestant side. The wall is 25 feet tall because there are houses just over the fence on the Catholic side and people would throw things over the fence. |
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| This is the "other side" of that high wall. Notice the houses have fences of their own built so they can confidently sit in their backyards without getting hit by anything flying over the wall |
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| We were a little surprised when our guide handed us markers and allowed us to write on the peace wall. |
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| Here's my message...hey, it was all I could think of. It's like when someone hands you a birthday card for your co-worker and you have to come up with something to write on the spot. This one was pretty surreal though - being a part of modern history. |
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| Now we are on the Catholic side. At this point we did not know which "side" Steven, our guide, was on. This is a memorial plaque to those who lost their lives in this conflict. |
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| Gorgeous Catholic cross at the memorial |
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| Our guide had this binder of photos shot during the conflicts. He showed us the actual plastic bullets shot to subdue people during the violence. Unfortunately, these bullets also killed people. He is one of those people shot - in the back - and he says to this day he needs regular cortisone injections from the pain caused as a result of being shot by one of those bullets. |
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| Inside the cab |
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| Another one of the murals - this time of a Catholic hero named Bobby Sands, a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (the Catholic side). He started a hunger strike in jail and died along with 15 others. |
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| Using our selfie stick...we were all a little embarrassed to use it, but it came in handy for the group photos. Steve was an awesome guide, a great story teller and very personable guy. I think Steve has a thing for you Steph! That's the second time he's put his arm around you! :) |
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| At the end of the tour we were paying our guide and got a lesson in the different pound currencies. The British Pound and the one produced in Ireland. You can use the British Pound in Northern Ireland, but you cannot use the Irish produced Pound in England! I did not know that! |
That evening we wandered around Belfast and found this cute little alleyway in the Cathedral Quarter with pubs (Commercial Court). It was about 5 pm and people were drunk on the streets. Apparently it was pay weekend, so people after work must go out drinking. Finding food was a little more difficult, but we found this great restaurant called The Grill where we had fantastic burgers, wedge fries and fish & chips. SO delicious! After we ate we stood outside the Duke of York pub with everyone else having a drink and chatting with the locals.
They have a strange custom when meeting people...it's kind of like an interrogation. They ask where you're staying, where are you from, how long are you staying. Apparently back in the conflict days, strangers meeting in bars would ask personal questions (where do you live, where did you go to school, etc.) to get a sense of whether you were Catholic or Protestant and how affluent you are. The next morning we were off again for a very full and eventful day of touring.
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| This gives you a fairly good perspective on the driving in Ireland. Generally, there is NO shoulder whatsoever. That seemingly nice grassy knoll to the left isn't so nice as underneath it is rocks. The other side is a rock wall. Not very forgiving when you have to scootch over for a large truck coming towards you. |
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| I just liked this little tunnel |
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| Even worse were the roads with high bushes on either side because it felt even more closed in. Notice there are no lines on this road at all. Would you believe these kinds of roads have a speed limit between 80-100 km/hr??? Crazy! Occasionally I managed to get close to the speed limit on these country roads, but generally I was a good 20 km below the speed limit. The Irish countryside is absolutely beautiful though and these country roads are all part of the charm and the experience. |
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| This one just looks like a road to a cottage, but it's not. |
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| We had a little incident when we pulled over to the side of the road, misjudged the left hand side of the car and hit a large rock. At the time we just thought it popped the wheel rim off, but that was not the extent of the damage. Colleen got the hubcap back on, but it flew off again just around the corner, so we gave up and put it in the trunk. It's a long story that I will continue later on... |
Next stop: The Dark Hedges
from Game of Thrones
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| The Dark Hedges was a little tricky to find, but we managed. Unfortunately we arrived a little later than we expected and so there were quite a few tourists ruining our lovely pictures! lol |
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| I tried to take a picture above everyone's heads to get the effect of the trees. It kinda worked. |
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| Steph wanted to climb the tree - I didn't get a great shot of her straight on, so this is the shot that made the cut for the blog |
Next stop: Carrick-a-rede rope bridge
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| Beautiful scenery along the path to the rope bridge |
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| It was a wee bit of a hike to the bridge, but it was well worth it! |
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| As we approached the bridge. |
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| Great shot Laura! Thank you for taking it! |
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| The edge of the cliff looks much closer than it actually is. I find it funny that the purses look like they're elevated too! |
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| It's fun to be silly! |
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| Looking down as I crossed back on the bridge |
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| Stephanie did NOT like that I was stopping her progress
to take this picture! I think it was something like "don't you dare stop
me... keep moving!". You managed to do it without TOO much complaining Steph! |
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| Laura seemed pretty content on the bridge...all prepared for the worst in her Hunter boots that people often teased her about. Poor Laura. You looked good though! |
Next stop: Roarks Kitchen near Ballintoy
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| This stop was a surprise in our itinerary. This cute little house was our pitstop for lunch and another interesting feature |
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| Yummy homemade desserts |
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| Great shot Colleen! We should have taken more of these panoramas! |
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| Scenes from Game of Thrones were shot here |
Next stop: The Giant's Causeway
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| The Giant's Causeway was probably my favorite stop, although it's tough to choose because there were so many wonderful things on this trip. Excerpts from Wikipedia: Located in County Antrim on the Northeast coast of Northern Ireland, it is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal although some have varying number of sides. The tallest columns are about 39 feet long. According to the legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by an Irish giant who needed a way to get across the water to fight a Scottish giant. The tourists were out in full force, so again it was difficult to get a photo without another tourist in it, but we managed to get a couple. |
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| The awesome rock formations. They make great stepping stones and great seats too! |
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| A good shot of the hexagonal shape of the rocks |
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| Laura striking her pose...wish I had gotten a shot like that too |
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| Colleen striking her pose in this awesome scene |
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| Stephanie striking her pose |
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| Looking comfy Laura! |
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| Some cool shots of Steph |
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| Another good one |
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| You're the Queens of the mountain |
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| LOVED all the sheep (rams?) in Ireland |
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| Sheep butts - for Steph - she thought they were cute |
Next stop:
Our Castle for the night - Lough Rynn
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| After a few hours of driving on very narrow roads and a couple of those hours in the dark, we arrived at our castle for the night. This shot was taken the next morning as we did a quick tour of the grounds. |
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| The room Steph & I shared |
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| Laura & Colleen's room - fit for the birthday girl! |
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| One of the sitting rooms within the castle. I said "Ok, give me your best princess pose" and this is what I got! lol Obviously Steph is the naughty princess, Colleen the well-behaved one and Laura, the max-relaxed one. |
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| Irish breakfast including white and black pudding. I didn't mind the white one. |
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| Our lovely breakfast in the castle - Happy Birthday Colleen! |
Next stop: Galway
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| About to try Guinness beer |
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| Ya, gross, never again! |
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| We loved the band Fred and James at Kings Head bar, they were awesome! |
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| Great music at the next pub...no idea what it was called. I have a video of these guys playing, but can't seem to get it on here. |
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| So Steph & Laura got a good chuckle over this...I guess I didn't turn the knob on the bathroom stall all the way and instead of it saying "engaged" it said this! Nice! No respect for your elders! |
So, the car story continued on our way to Galway. After the initial incident it said to "check tire pressure". The pressure seemed fine, so off we went. When we backed out of the parking lot of the castle Laura & I heard a "hiss" sound. Never good and in fact, the car was then telling us "STOP, puncture warning". We were in the middle of nowhere with a full itinerary. No little warning was going to stop us! Yikes! Off we went to Galway. Arrived in town and called the car rental place. They sent us off to a garage where we left the car for a few hours. When we returned the guy said "they never should have allowed you to drive this car, the tires are bald. I can't let you take it like this". They were great though because we learned the tire rim was dented in pretty badly (the reason the hub cap wouldn't go back on) and they fixed the dent, put the hub cap back on and didn't charge us anything. Unfortunately, that garage didn't have the tires in stock. They sent us off to another garage not far away where they changed the tires in about 15 minutes. Colleen and I sat and chatted with the guy while they changed the tires and we learned something about the Irish people. He said "ya, we Irish like the drink and crack".... I thought "What? Did I hear that right? Did he just say Irish people like crack"? We learned later that "crack" is just their way of saying "a good time"! lol So, no charge to us, we were all fixed up and the stress of that was over. Funny thing is though, when we arrived back in Dublin we realized we again had lost the damn hub cap!
Next stop: The Cliffs of Moher
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| Gorgeous! |
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| See that flat rock face? People go out there and sit on that edge! |
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| The Cliffs of Moher |
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| Betsy the cow right beside the path |
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| The cliffs receive approx. 1 million visitors per year. I'm not sure how many deaths there are, but if you do go out on the edge, there is a strong chance that could happen. |
Next stop: Leap Castle
Leap Castle is a castle located about 4 miles north of the town of Roscrea on the R421. It was not too easy to find, but we did manage it. This was another surprise in the itinerary. Colleen heard about it and wanted to put it on her bucket list because it is widely known as the world's most haunted castle. All she did was email him and arrange a time for a tour. From the website www.leapcastle.net it tells of the castles turbulent and bloody history. Said to have been built in the early 1500's by the O'Carroll clan known to be a brutally violent clan in their struggle for power. Many many people died in this castle. Many of them murdered. One of the O'Carroll's murdered his own brother (a priest) in the chapel. Also in this chapel is an oubliette - the original use thought to be a place to hide valuables, but the O'Carroll's used it for much more sinister purposes. It served also as a small dungeon where prisoners were thrown in, dead or dying. The entrance is just a small hole. The name is derived from the French verb "to forget". Legend has it that the O'Carroll's would hire other clans as mercenaries to kill off nearby threats. They would then invite the mercenaries back to Leap Castle for a celebratory feast. The feast, however, was poisoned and their throats cut. The corpses would then be thrown into the oubliette. 39 of the O'Neil clan were said to have been disposed of in this manner. Charles O'Carroll also killed members of the MacMahon clan in their sleep after a feast. This clan is said to haunt the castle. After the O'Carrolls, the Darby's ruled the castle and the oubliette was cleaned out - it is said it contained 3 cartloads of skeletons were removed and this, they say awoken many dormant ghosts. There are many others, but the history is far too long to retell here.
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| Internet photo of castle...awesome with the clouds like that! |
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| Leap Castle - it certainly looks haunted complete with creepy birds flying around! |
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| The ladies looking a wee bit anxious as we knock on the castle doors |
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| Can you see anything unusual in this photo? In the right panel of the glass front door you can see my shadow (black figure) and there appears to be a face just above that white dot - it's not any of us! |
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| Getting a bit of a history lesson before the tour. |
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| The three of them together in one of the very tiny bedrooms. |
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| The stone staircase |
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| This is the chapel area where the O'Carroll brother was murdered. Those white spots are said to be "orbs". For the skeptical mind, they are dust particles captured on film, for those who believe, they are the energy being transferred from a source to the spirit so they can manifest. The others took the same photo and didn't get these orbs. I'm not sure what I believe, but with the history of this castle, I am inclined to believe. As we were walking up the staircase (and I was last in a line of 5 people) I heard a door closing a couple of times - and there was no one in the castle except us. Poor Laura, I ended up very close to her after I heard the doors! |
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| Part of the stairs and this area where they apparently would pour tar down on their enemies (where the holes are on the left). Very, very cool. This castle experience is something I will always remember. At the time I was very anxious and jumpy, but it was a unique and memorable part of our great trip. |
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| A very appropriate door knocker on the entrance door to the castle |
Next stop: Dublin
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| Photo bomb! |
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| Steph & Colleen having a little fun |
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| The Famous Temple Bar - pretty touristy, but we are tourists after all, so we enjoyed it |
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| Lots of weird beer on tap - some other bar we were at..don't recall the name |
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| It must have been beer delivery day...we saw lots of beer being delivered to pubs while on the Hop-on-hop-off bus! |
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| A beautiful fall coloured building |
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| A mess of wires on a pole - taken while on the bus |
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| From the double-decker bus you get a unique perspective - and see all the chimneys with trees growing out of them. |
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| We hopped off the bus at the Guinness factory, but it's a rip off. We wanted to just go into the gift shop, but you had to pay your 20 euros just to get in the door, so back on the bus we went. |
Next stop: Kilmainham Goal (jail)
(excerpts from Wikipedia) First built in 1796, it was the site of public hangings. There was no segregation of prisoners and people were incarcerated up to 5 per cell with only a single candle for light and heat. Each cell was approximately 28 square meters in area.
Children were often arrested for petty theft and the youngest incarcerated was said to be 7 years old. I believe they told us 5 on the tour.
The jail was decommissioned as a prison in 1924. As it was seen as a site of oppression and suffering they didn't at the time intend to preserve it as a monument to the struggle for national independence. It is here in the prison yard that the leaders of the 1916 uprising were executed. The Kilmainham Restoration Society was founded in 1958 and the restoration was complete by 1971.
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| Door from one of the cells of the original part of the jail. If it looks old and weathered its because it is - the door was exposed to the elements - as were the inhabitants inside. |
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| Inside one of the old cells - picture taken through the peep-hole |
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| The newer cells |
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| The newest cell area. I know it wasn't at all pleasant, but it had that feeling with the nice architecture and the natural light. |
My wonderful husband upgraded my seat to business class from Dublin to Paris because I had a very short connection, but unfortunately it didn't work out as my flight was 1 hour late leaving and I misssed it anyhow, waited 3 more hours in Paris, got to Moscow with a HUGE customs line and then missed my train by 30 seconds and had to wait another 30 minutes until the next one. Not my best travelling day, but it all worked out.
That's the end of the post. I must have grown tired of taking pictures because I don't have many from around Dublin or in the great pubs we were in. Drinking, dancing and listening to the fabulous music around town.
I highly recommend an road trip of Ireland.
What stands out the most for me is the absolutely friendly people all over the country, the fresh air, the great music scene and, of course, the gorgeous scenery.
Ireland will be missed.
