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A 13-day adventure by Sheryl Read more
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  • Sheryl BurgessGoing to greener pastures
    Day 1

    Dublin

    October 2, 2017 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Arrived in Dublin at lunch time. Flight was pretty good from Dubai but it was good to get off the plane after traveling 30 hours from Townsville with connecting flights. The weaterr was sunny and 11 degrees when we arrived but it was pretty windy,. We had purchased a Dublin 3 day pass before we left so we activated it at the airport by catching a connecting bus to the city at Oconnell bridge at Temple Bar not far from our hotel.
    We are staying 2 nights at the Paramount Hotel in Temple Bar.
    The afternoon was spent checking into our accomodation and wondering around the liffy looking around a bit. We headed over to Dublinina which was located at the rear of the old Christ Church Cathedral. This was actually a great way to start as we found out about Dublin's early history and how it was founded by the Vikings. The Cathedral was on the way out from the Viking ehibition. A beatuful old church that had rooms below it dating back to 12 century.
    After leaving the Cathedral, we heeaded down and along the liffy just for a look and tried to find Jamiesons distillary even though it is closed for renos at the moment we thought we might find it. We were unsuccessful as Clin't map didn't have it shown on it so we will try again tomorrow. We were getting hungry so decided to head back to a place called the larder. Lovely little place that we stopped into before heading off to the hotel (we coulldn't find the entrance to hotel and Clint needed to go to a loo). I needed a cuppa tea and we needed to get our bearings. This is the place we went back to for dinner. It is a lovely little place and the food is good as well as the people very friendly. We had dinner there and the chicken wings were amazing as well as the steak very tasty and headed back to the hotel as we were starting to get a bit spent from traveling.    Read more

  • Sheryl BurgessGoing to greener pastures
    Day 3

    Dublin Day 2

    October 4, 2017 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Spent the day exploring. Headed off to the Guinness Factory for a tour. Spent a few hours there. going through the distillary building. Great tour. From here we caught the hop on hop off bus and traveled around for a bit on it. We got of at Trinity College as we wanted to look at the old harp and the book of kells. The place was packed with people but mostly uni students and it was like a mad house so we didn't hang around. From here we walked up the road a bit and came across Molly Malones statue. Onwards from here we headed to Dublin castle which has the State rooms open for viewing. Very interesting place and they even went to details about the make up that the woman would wear that contained lead. Needless to say they did not live long as they died from lead posioning. They had lead in the white powder that was used to colour the hair white to. The price of vanity and status. From the castle we went up past St Patricks church to Teillings Distillary were we did a wisky tourn. This was good to and Clint got to have my share of the wisky so he had a double helping. The road we travelled along to get to and from the distillary was fantastic. Its a place I would enjoy living in i reckon. For dinner we went up to Dublin's oldest pub, the Brazen Head. It was established in 1198. We had the Irish Stew which was delicious and we struggled to eat it all. Weather was lovely today. No rain and the temp was around 11 degrees.Read more

  • Sheryl BurgessGoing to greener pastures
    Day 4

    Day 3 Dublin to Bru na boinne

    October 5, 2017 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Started the day at St Patricks Cathedral. There had beem a church on that site sice 800's. The new church on that site was constructed in 1191 and has many crypts inside it like the author of Gullivers travels, Harry Swift.
    We checked out of the Paramount Hotel today and jumped on the hop on hop off bus and travelled around to the old jail were we got off and walked a little ways to the Budget car hire place and we picked up a little car. From here we navigated out of Dublin taking a few wrong turns tring to get used to the Map.me app that is an offline app that proven to be very useful and it is a free app. We made our way to Bru na boinne which was around an hour up the road. A little longer as we took a couple of wrong turns and ended up on the M1 rather than the M50. We got there.
    We pulled into the visitor centre and when on a tour. Lucky for us today they were doing tours for free. Bonus! We got on the bus and went up to Bru na boinne or Knorth site were we walked around the site and found out about the Neolithic people that were at the site building these carnes between C.3000 - 2000BC. The carns were used to bury their dead in them, that much they know. Other than what they have discovered from excavating the sites they know very little else as information had not been passed down through the generations. Interesting place and quiet amazing how they managed to engineer such sturctures that the roof does not leak even to this day. They were constructed around the time pyrimids in Eygpt were constructed.
    We checked into Newgrange Lodge for the night and went to Slane Castle for dinner. Dinner was excellent and a great recommendation from the Lodgings.    Read more

  • Sheryl BurgessGoing to greener pastures
    Day 4

    Day 4 Traveling to Magherafelt N Ireland

    October 5, 2017 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    The day started magnificently with a beautiful morning. We headed off to Trim Castle located in the town of Trim. This castle was used in the Braveheart movie. The castle was constructed in the early 1100's. From here we headed up to Kells. Here we seen the celtic cross and some old cathedrals. We had lunch here in a little cafe and headed up to our accomodation for the next two evenings. The accomodation is Dewhamill B&B. Lovely place and our room overlooks the lake. Highly recommend it. For dinner we headed to the Elk.Read more

  • Sheryl BurgessGoing to greener pastures
    Day 6

    Day 5 Dewhamill, Northern Ireland B&B

    October 7, 2017 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Day started off with a fantastic breaky at Dewhamill B&B. This was a lovely B&B and we highly recommend it. From here we headed off to the Dark Hedges were they shot the last seen of season 2 of the Game of Thrones. From here we went to the Giants Causeway and then onto Bushmills Disillary. Both the Causeway and Bushmills were worth a visit. We stayed a second night at Dewhamill and dinner at the Elk.Read more

  • Sheryl BurgessGoing to greener pastures
    Day 6

    Day 6 - Travelling to Bettystown

    October 7, 2017 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Made a late start to the day as we stayed chatting to Margret and Patrick who owned the B&B at Dewhamill. Had a delicious Irish Breaky which kept us full most of the day. We headed to Carlingford which is an old medieval town that is thriving with eateries, pubs, hairdresses etc. Stopped for a cuppa and a very light lunch before we headed off to Bettystown. The day was mostly drizzly but only cold when the wind was blowing at Carlingford. We had to fill up with fuel for the first time since leaving Dublin here. (40 Euro).Read more

  • Sheryl BurgessGoing to greener pastures
    Day 8

    Day 7 - Battle of the Boyne

    October 9, 2017 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Today we left Bettystown after a crappy nights sleep at Reddans Bar and Grill B&B. Headed to the Battle of the Boyne location at Oldbridge in Meath. This was an interesting site and it was suprising to know this was where the biggest battle in Ireland and English history took place. The old Oldbrige house is a beautiful renovated estate that has the gardens as they were originally. Worth a look.
    From here we headed off to a old ruin that was an early roman cistercian order called Mellifont Abbey. They were constructed in 1142. It was the first roman catholic order in Ireland and this is where Catholiithism was first started in Ireland. We then travelled onto Monasterboice to the site of the earliest know christians in ireland. This is long before Roman Catholics days in Ireland and is thought to date back to the first century AD 521.    Read more

  • Sheryl BurgessGoing to greener pastures
    Day 8

    Day 8 - Hill of Tara and back to Dublin

    October 9, 2017 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Headed off this morning to the Hill of Tara. Always wanted to see this after reading about it being the old pagan site were they did sacrifices for many years and also were it was the ceramonial place for the Kings of Ireland. The King that held the seat of Tara was the high king of Ireland. This site predates Christ but was still utilised over the centuries and modified until Christianty came along even and built a church on the site. We had a drizzly day today but cleared up after we took the car back in Dublin. Stayed at the Harding hotel tonight. This has been the most luxurious accomodation we have stayed in though I think Dewhamill B&B was by far the best digs we had and the Paramount was pretty good in comparison to the Harding also. Commencing our tour tomorrow. Spent the afternoon in Dublin walking around Temple Bar. Got a couple of souviniers and had a pint of Killkenny for me an Irish pub with the live Irish music playing. Great.Read more

  • Sheryl BurgessGoing to greener pastures
    Day 9

    Day 8 - Wolfhound - Cashel, Blarney

    October 10, 2017 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Caught the Wolfhound tour today. 3 Aussies and 9 Americans. Left Dublin and headed off to Dunamase Castle. A fortress that Lord Strongbow ended up the charge of. Impenatrable. From here we headed to the rock of Cashel and the Hoare Abbey. A beautiful little abbey near Cashel castle. We had lunch at a forgotten Abbey in the middle of a paddock on route to Blarney. Instead of going to the Castle at 20 euro each, Clint and I went to the pub. Clint had a Murphy's stout here. It is Guiness'e rival in Ireland. The weather started coming in pourly and when we were arriving to our accomodation the weather turned nasty. Raining and Windy. Gougane Barra Hotel is out in hte middle of nowhere. It has been in the family for 6 generations. Lovely place and lovely food.Read more

  • Sheryl BurgessGoing to greener pastures
    Day 10

    Day 9 - Guagan Barra Forrest,

    October 11, 2017 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    The day started very windy and wild with terrential rain but after having a great breakfast we headed off up into the Guagan Barra Forrest for a walk. This forest reminded me of the Star Wars movie where you see the Ewoks or something that you would expect to find a fairy or two in. By the time we were getting to the end of the walk, the weather cleared just like that and it turned into a beautiful day. We left Guagen Barra and headed down into the penninsula. Stopped at a pub called McCartheys and had lunch. After lunch we headed down to the cable car over to the island and waited while a few of the group went across. Nice penninsular. Onwards we went to a stone circle and to get to it we had to tramp through the paddocks that had become spongy and boggy becuase of the recent rains. Heallys pass was the last location we looked at on route to our evening B&B and we did a long hike up the mountain to see the views. Spectacular.Read more

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