Cheers for following along from home. We hope to share some of the trip with all of you, and in turn have writing we can go back and read when we’re eventually back home.

To avoid a massive read, and to make your reading experience a little nicer, we’ve broken up our past month of travel into two posts. This post covers our time in Ireland, and the next one coming soon covers our trip through Scotland. Enjoy!

Dublin

Our last post saw us swapping the heat, hustle and bustle of Madrid for the cool and rowdy Dublin. We arrived to an overcast day, running a brisk 16 degrees celsius. As much of a shock this was, we almost missed the cold weather after having spent the last month and a half in 30+ temperatures. Dublin was to be our last city-stop for a while, and we made the most of everything it had to offer. We packed in tours galore, museum visits, and the obligatory traditional pub or five.

Our first port of call after a quick rest in the hotel was the old Jamesons distillery for a tour and tasting. This ended up being the first of many whiskeys we tasted throughout Ireland and ended up being the perfect introduction, teaching us about the making of the stuff, where it’s now produced, and how it differs from bourbon and scotch. For dinner that evening we went to Murrays (not the one in Feilding), where we got our first taste of the hearty Irish cuisine we’d be living off for the next couple of weeks. Baylee had the chowder with Guinness soda bread, while I had a beef pie with mash. Both remained some of the best food we’d have all trip!

The following day found us visiting a few other big tourist stops. First up was EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum, where we learnt all about the early protestant reformation, the famine, and other social, political and economic factors that had contributed to Irish citizens relocating abroad over the past several hundred years. This would go on to be useful knowledge in other places we’d go to, as these factors combined had quite the impact on the country as a whole, and still remained relevant to the lives of Irish today.

Another must-do was the Guinness Storehouse visit, which we did the following afternoon. This was huge, and clearly a larger draw for tourists than Jamesons. We found it pretty good but not hugely insightful, however the Guinness itself was absolutely fantastic - worth it if you ask me.

Our final tour in Dublin was a foodie tour through bars in the older side of the city. This ticked off a bunch more quintessential items of Irish cuisine, including fish and chips, more chowder, bangers and mash, brownie and Irish coffees! Our guide was great, and offered us up a great pub crawl itinerary for finish off our evening. To sum it up, here’s a tier-list:

Jamie’s Bar Tier List - Dublin edition:

Gin Palace - 6/10
A place for a tipple before heading home for the night. Pretty average G&T given the name.

Mulligan and Haines - 7/10
A spot on the tour, good fish and chips and pretty cosy.

Brannigans - 7.5/10
A great old-school pub with some tasty lamb stew.

Darkey Kellys - 7.5/10
Originally host to a “witch” who was burned at the stake, innocent of witchcraft, but later labelled as Irelands first serial killer after bodies were found in the floorboards. Interesting history, great atmosphere.

The Brazen Head - 8/10
Established all the way back in 1198, The Brazen Head claims the oldest pub in Dublin title. As busy as you’d expect, but they pour a good Guinness.

Murrays - 8.5/10
Our first pub to end our first day in Dublin. Sleep deprivation may make me impartial here, but the food, beer, service and atmosphere was fantastic.

The Long Hall - 9/10
A Victorian-era pub near the center of town. Incredibly well preserved, and a real joy to drink a pint in.

The road trip

Our time in Dublin came to a close at Europcar Car Rentals in Dublin City Center. Here we picked up a car we’d use to tour most of the rest of the country. After some predatory sales tactics, and shrugging off most of the upsells, we were on our way. The route we had planned took us on a lap around the country, which we’ve mapped out:

Day 1 - Dublin to Tinahely

Our first day in the car saw us heading through to Tinahely, a small farming town in County Wicklow. Our drive there was jam-packed with things to see and do, with our first stop being Powerscourt House and Gardens - once home to a wealthy Irish politician who didn’t much like living in Dublin. Here we explored some manicured gardens, before stopping for a bite to eat at the resident distillery - a delicious toasty and some trout patê on toast! The whiskey was quite good too.

Our route then took us through Wicklow national park, via an old military road carved by the British a couple hundred years ago. This skinny single-track was a bit of an introduction to the roads we’d need to get used to driving on, and certainly dusted off the cobwebs from having not driven in months. Along the way we stopped at a waterfall, but chose to keep going soon afterwards to arrive on time for check-in.

Tinahely was a quiet wee town, where we stayed in one of the couple of pubs. Our meal that night was a delicious steak and mash, with a full Irish cooked breakfast the following morning.

Day 2 - Tinahely to Blarney

Next up came the long drive to Blarney, where we had a reservation at a pub across the road from the castle. Along the way we made a few stops, the first of which was in Kilkenny. We wandered around the town and some of the grounds of the castle between spurts of rain, before hopping back on the road towards our next stop - the Rock of Cashel.

Rock of Cashel is one of Irelands most historically significant castles, dating back more than a thousand years. Originally the seat of the kings of Munster, according to legend St. Patrick himself went there to convert King Aenghus to Christianity. Brian Boru was crowned High King at Cashel in 978 and made it his capital.

We wandered the grounds and marvelled at the age of the place, but were a little disappointed with the experience given the price. After checking out Cashel, we hit the road yet again on our way to Blarney.

Next up came a stop at the Midleton distillery, the location where almost all Irish whiskey is created in a large partnership with all major brands. We opted for a tour here too, seeing a lot of the historic whiskey production buildings, experiencing the delicious smell of the inside of a warehouse housing full barrels, and ending with a comparative tasting between bourbon, scotch and Irish whisk(e)y. Our guide described the smell of Johnny Walkers Black Label as “wet ashtray”.

In Blarney we stayed in a pub. However given the size of the pub, proximity to the castle, and the fact that it was a Saturday we were set for a much busier evening.

After checking in and getting settled, we popped downstairs to the bar for a drink before dinner. This introduced us to Beamish, a stout poured with nitrogen, which I can only describe as “craft” Guinness. This paired nicely with a round of lamb shanks. While dining we were treated to some rugby on the telly, watching Ireland versus Italy. Luckily for us Ireland won, and the crowd went wild.

Day 3 - Blarney to Kerry

The following day we had breakfast, checked out, and immediately went across the road to Blarney castle and gardens. This allowed us to arrive well ahead of tour busses, which meant no line for stone-kissers! Baylee opted out, but Jamie couldn’t resist a bit of yoga and a kiss of a slimy old stone.

The grounds were arguably far more impressive than the castle itself, and we spent the next hour wandering around. The sun had come out, and we had a nice stroll around the forest and country side areas on the property.

We stopped briefly in Cork for a spot of light lunch. The city wasn’t massively inspiring, but the skinny roads were pretty, and the pride festival going on at the time made it very colourful!

Our port-of-call that evening was in the middle of nowhere in Kerry, down the road from a little village called Cromane. This being a decent distance away, we drove straight through to Killarney for groceries, before finishing the final 40 minutes of driving to get to our accomodation - an old cottage amongst farm land on the coast. Here we were greeted by a farmer/our host, and a couple of dogs - one cautious and yappy, and the other old and wanting pats. We settled in for the next few nights, cooking up a load of chowder which would serve as dinner for the next two.

Day 4 - Exploring the Ring of Kerry

One of the main tourist destinations/journeys in Kerry is the so-called Ring of Kerry, a three-hour long coastal drive around the Iveragh peninsula. Our first full day in Kerry saw us hitting the road to see the sights.

Our drive saw us stopping in a few different places, exploring some ancient stone forts, tetrapod prints, cliffs looking out across to Skellig Michael, and stopping in Derryanne beach for a spot of tea. While being a frustrating drive at times due to the sheer number of terrible drivers out there, the sights were fantastic.

Day 5 - Torc Mountain

On our second full day in Kerry we tried to get out for a hike while the weather looked more favourable. Not having the kit for some of the larger walks we opted for the Torc Mountain walk, which was more a good bash up a hill than a mountain climb. Despite this, we got some photos through the gaps in the clouds.

Afterwards we found a wee pub in Killorglin for a beer, checked out some cute shops, and made our way back to the accomodation for a quiet afternoon with a book.

Aside: The struggles of farming in Kerry

That afternoon, once we’d gotten back to our accomodation, our host & local farmer popped by to check we had everything we needed. We got chatting, and it was then that we learned that the quiet rural area we were in was once a thriving community, with hundreds more houses than are there currently.

As it turns out, farming took off a century or so ago in the area after the introduction of nitrogen-based fertilisers. The boggy, moorish land was transformed into grass, which were used to graze cattle. Over time however, the price of nitrogen has risen, driving families out of the area and returning the land largely to bog. This farmer and his land don’t make a complete living, and so include things like AirBnB to supplement their income.

This was a bit of a revelation, as it really opened our eyes to just how good we have it in NZ. Sure, not all land is arable, but livelihood doesn’t often come and go with the price of nitrogen.

Day 6 - Kerry to Limerick

Packing up the car, we again hit the road, this time on the way to Limerick. Our route took us out to Dingle along the Dingle peninsula, a beautiful town and area in general. We stopped in Dingle for a walk around, and had an ice cream by the marina.

Continuing on from Dingle, we made our way through to Limerick, where we were staying at - you guessed it - a pub! This was probably the worst pub we’ve stayed at, being just a bit run-down. The food wasn’t fantastic, but they had Beamish on tap, so it wasn’t all bad. Little did we know, it wasn’t just the pub that was kinda average - the rest of Limerick was as well.

Day 7 - Limerick to Doolin

We packed up and headed into the Limerick city center for a look around. Limerick’s main claim to fame is a castle on the river which runs through the city, which served as a stronghold during some old conflict in the area. While walking around we saw a number of shady characters, spoiling our mood and angling us straight for the car to get out of there. We hit the road earlier than expected, with a destination of Doolin.

Doolin is a small, touristy town right next to the Cliffs of Moher. Our accomodation this time around was not a pub, but a restaurant! We settled in early, before heading out to a local pub - McGanns - for some grub.

Dinner was great, and the pub was heaving! Full with not only tourists, but locals, we had a couple of beers and drank in the ambience. Live music was scheduled for every night, but we were planning an early night to be able to catch the 7am bus up the hill the following day, so gave it a miss and pledged to come back the next night.

In leaving a little earlier than usual, we were treated to a ripper of a sunset on the way home.

Day 8 - The Cliffs of Moher

Day 8 was an early start, with a goal of catching an early bus up the hill to the Cliffs of Moher. These cliffs were spectacular, allowing us to get up close while following a walking route which ran all the way along the edge of them and back to Doolin.

After a celebratory coffee at a local cafe we realised there wasn’t much more to see, so spent the rest of the day doing “work” - planning more travel and pursuing job prospects for winter.

We decided we’d try the other pub in Doolin for dinner, McDermotts. The food here was equally as good, but the atmosphere was much more family-oriented and therefore less fun. After dinner we headed down to McGanns and settled in for some live music!

Day 9 - Doolin to Galway

Galway was our next port of call, just a short drive up the road. We didn’t have anything planned along the way, so went straight into the city to explore. The old city of Galway was beautiful, unlike any other city we’d been through in Ireland up til this point. Walkability was comparable to the older cities in Europe, and we got straight to exploring. Along the way we stopped in at the Galway distillery to get a taste for their gin - pretty good!

After a wee while it was time to check in, so popped down the road to our accomodation in Bearna.

Day 10 - Beaches and Bogs around Galway

Our last full day in the Republic of Ireland was a quiet one, which mostly included a drive up the coast from Galway to check out some of the national parks in the area. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time in the day to make it all the way through to Connemarra, but Coral Strand beach was a nice picturesque spot to stop for a walk around.

Our drive back took us through bogland, finally arriving back at our accomodation in the late afternoon. That evening we had a meal at the local pub, got back and packed our bags, and prepared for an early morning the following day.

Day 11 - Galway to Dublin

We’d set our car drop-off time at 12-noon, but what we hadn’t considered was the three hour drive between Galway and Dublin! Thankfully almost all of it was on motorways with 120km/h limits, so it felt fast even though it took yonks.

We’d somehow kept the car flawless despite the large number of blackberry bushes we scraped in to while letting other vehicles squeeze past, so dropped it off an immediately made our way to the Dublin Connelly train station. We passed the hour of wait time at a bar, for our last pint of Guinness in Ireland.

Our train took two hours to cover the distance between Dublin and Belfast, marking our move back in to the UK and the end of our time in the Republic of Ireland.

Belfast

Belfast was a relatively quick stop on our way through to Scotland, with three nights booked to see everything there is to see and do.

In true Irish form, we couldn’t not check out the pubs. One afternoon saw us check out the Duke of York, a lovely bar down an alleyway where you could have a pint on a bench outside. One evening we’d made a reservation for a “snug”, a closed-in booth in a pub where in the 18th-19th century women, or patrons wishing to be discrete would go for a beer in privacy. Both were great experiences, and a fitting way to end our time in Ireland.

While in Belfast we also took the time to do the obligatory Titanic thing. The Titanic Experience was an interesting visit, with artefacts from survivors, and many stories relating to the vessels construction and untimely demise.

When our time in Belfast ran out, we hopped on a train our to Larne, where we boarded a ferry and headed to Cairnryan, Scotland.

That’s all for now

We thoroughly enjoyed Ireland, and actually feel like we saw 80-90% of what the country has to offer - from learning about a history steeped in conflict, to enjoying fantastic beer, food and hospitality, and taking in beautiful scenery. There’s so much to see by road, and we’d highly recommend getting out of the cities and hearing the story of some of the locals.

We hope you enjoyed the road-trip format of this blog post, as there’s another right around the corner! Talk soon.

Cya,
Jamie & Baylee