Ireland pt. 4: Inishmore, Doolin, Bunratty Castle, and more Dublin

 

One of our top experiences from the whole trip was our visit to Inishmore in the Aran Islands. We took a ferry over from Doolin and spent the day exploring on E-bikes. The weather didn't look promising for the day, but we were happy we got to go at all. It was extremely windy that day, so the boat ride made a lot of passengers on our boat sick. We felt fine though and lucked out with no rain for the day even though we thought it would be pouring on us all day! It was seriously incredible. The wind made it pretty crazy, but we loved it. We road all around the island and loved exploring the ruins.

I think this is the view from Dun Aengus.

And I think this is the wormhole that's naturally formed. They did a big diving competition here a few years back. It was hard to find and we basically wandered through a field til we found it.

We literally almost missed our boat ride back because we thought we'd have time to visit the black fort ruins. We were panicking and barely made it back in time.

We ended up with an awkward amount of time left that night stumbled upon this incredible concert in Doolin called "Doolin Music House". (Doolin is famous for being the Irish music capital.) It felt like we'd stumbled into someone's family home evening and felt like the most special thing. These two men grew up in Doolin making music and spent the night playing traditional music for us. Their wives even did some dancing for us and they had some friends visiting from the US that joined in too. 

Just the most beautiful sunset in Doolin.

We wanted to break up the drive from Doolin back to Dublin on our last day, so we stopped at Bunratty Castle. 

We headed back to Dublin for our final evening and visited Christ Church Cathedral. We lucked out big time and they happened to be starting the most gorgeous Evensong concert right as we got there. It was absolutely stunning and felt like such a tender mercy since Cameron and I love choral music like that so much.

The cathedral from the outside

River Liffey in Dublin

Temple Bar area in Dublin. Wild and crazy and fun.

Our hotel in Dublin (Wilder Townhouse) ended up having the most amazing breakfast. If we're ever in Dublin again we have to go back just for the food. (Surprisingly we had so much great food on this trip! We really enjoyed every single meal.) We absolutely fell in love with Ireland and definitely want to go back! The most magical country with beautiful scenery, kind people, and delicious food.

Ireland pt. 3: Dingle, Slea Head Drive, Cliffs of Moher

Our next stop was Dingle and wow did we LOVE it. By far my favorite city. Totally charming. Awesome music. Cute boutiques. Really fun to just walk around in.

We stumbled on "The Fish Box" for lunch and it was incredible. I would have gone back the next day, but it was closed. The absolute best fish tacos of my life.

After lunch we did the Slea Head Drive. Absolutely beautiful with lots of fun stops. And we lucked out with awesome, clear weather.

This is from Denmore Head (I think). This is where the filmed some Star Wars scenes once they couldn't film on Skellig Island anymore.

Next we went on a hike and it was so stunning. And it felt like we were by ourselves. It was so beautiful. And you could see the Skellig Islands really well, which we were excited about because it was too cloudy to see them when we did the Ring of Kerry.

Gallarus Oratory (old ruins)

Kilmalkedar (more old ruins)

The next morning we went on a hike up to Eask Tower. We loved it! The views of Dingle were beautiful.

We left Dingle that day and made our long drive to the Cliffs of Moher. We got there pretty late at night (like 8 PM), and so we basically had the whole place to ourselves. It was very very windy, but we the visibility was great. It was just as spectacular as I remembered!

Isn't the coloring spectactular?

We had plans to hike the path all the way to Doolin, but it was way too windy for that to be enjoyable. But we enjoyed walking a mile or so of it.

Ireland pt. 2: Killarney National Park and the Ring of Kerry

 

This was one of my absolute favorite days! We started the morning renting bikes to ride through Killarney National Park. It was absolutely beautiful and felt like a hidden gem. 

We turned the corner and found the gorgeous Muckross Abbey Ruins.

Torc Waterfall

We finished up touring the beautiful Muckross House and ate in the surprisingly delicious cafeteria there. (We were so surprised at how delicious all the food on the trip was!)

From here we left and started the Ring of Kerry drive. It was a little bit of a foggy day, but it was still beautiful and the scenery was absolutely stunning.

I think this might be from when we stopped in Sneem? (A cute little village)

Staigue Stone Fort

And I'm pretty sure this is in Waterville, where we stopped for dinner.

We stopped by the Cliffs of Kerry the next morning on our way out and basically had the place to ourselves. It was absolutely magical. And we'd been worried we wouldn't be able to see anything, but it was completely clear and stunning.

Ireland pt. 1: Dublin, Ticknock, Kilkenny Castle, Rock of Cashel

 

Cameron and I went to Ireland for a week and had the most wonderful trip. We started in Dublin for a very jet-lagged first day. We were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day, but it was such a cool city. This pic is at Trinity College.

Doing a Dublin Rick Steves walk, looking like a real tourist.

We saw all the craziness of the Temple Bar area and went to a pub to hear cool music. It was definitely a lively crowd on a Friday night, but such a fun energy. 

Dublin Castle had officially closed, but we walked around the grounds.

We woke up in the morning feeling like new people after a good night's rest. We picked up our black VW golf and headed out on our week of driving! We started at Ticknock mountain biking. The course was definitely harder than I anticipated and it pushed me. Both technically and athletically. But it was so gorgeous and such a cool experience.

After our ride we headed to Kilkenny and grabbed a delicious quick lunch and headed to the castle.  

Inside the castle

We headed to the Rock of Cashel next. Rick Steve's got the times wrong and it was closed. :( But we walked around the outside. It's breathtaking!

And the city of Cashel is so pretty.

Sooo we thought we were heading to Cork that night. Then we realized our hotel was in Charleville IN County Cork. County Cork and the city of cork are pretty different. And then we also realized that staying in Cork made no sense either and there's nothing to see there. So...we headed to Charleville and actually had an amazing dinner that almost made up for staying in the most random non-tourist city. I still remember that vegetable soup. It was my favorite from the whole trip.