Trip Reports Home | My Trip Reports | Create Trip Report | Recent Reports | Search Trip Reports

Report 1922: Coasting Through Ireland on Pints of Cider

By Green Dragon from FL, Spring 2011

Page 21 of 21: Recap and Reflections

Ireland remains my magical retreat, the place where I feel free and alive. This is my fourth trip, and it will never be my last trip. Someday I hope to move there. The people remain friendly and incredibly helpful, like Pat at the Riverside B&B, PJ at Joe Watty's or Jerry at O'Donnabhain's. The food is delicious, and so full of seafood choices, it's like heaven. The scenery is sublime, and getting easier to access. The wild parts are still wild and wonderful. While I didn't visit Dublin this trip (the first time I didn't visit Dublin on an Ireland trip) I'm sure it's changed as well, as it had changed so much between my previous visits.

I did notice many roads were wider than I remember. Did the EU put that much money into infrastructure, or am I just getting used to Irish roads? It could be both. It took me longer to get used to driving on the right side of the road again when I returned than it took getting used to being on the left.

All in all, we had three days with no rain at all, two days of all rain, and most of the rest were a mix between the two. Most of the mix days were 10 minutes of rain followed by an hour of no rain and some sunshine. Not the worst weather I've had for vacation, but not the best, either. We evidently missed three weeks of glorious, sunny, dry weather just before we got there.

Our favorites were as follows:

Scenery: Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Glenariffe Forest and Waterfalls, the Dark Hedges, Cliffs of Moher, Sliabh Liag cliffs, the sand dunes near Ardara, Keen Bay on Achill Island, Dun Aengosa, Slea Head on Dingle, Connor Pass, Healy Pass, the forest near Ardgroom, sticking our feet in the water in Ardara.

Surreal: those sand dunes near Ardara, the forest near Ardgroom, the Dark Hedges.

Pubs: Nancy's in Ardara, Joe Watty's on Inis Mor, O'Donnabhain's in Kenmare.

B&Bs: Riverside in Cushendall, Bay View in Ardara, Man of Aran (except being so far from Kilronan and Joe Watty's!) in Inis Mor, O'Donnabhain's in Kenmare. The view was exceptional in Oceanville, as well.

People: Pat McKeegan in Riverside B&B, Everyone at Nancy's Bar in Ardara (the McHughs that run it as well as Lauren and Angus), Debe, Dee and Jackie in Westport, Joe /Maura in Man of Aran, PJ/Grace at Joe Watty's, the Dublin 40 (Jeff, Maria, Declan, Ken, etc.), Seamus, and Jeff/ Vanessa/Michael at O'Donnabhain's.

Thank you for joining me vicariously on my journey – I love comments and suggestions for this report or the next trip!

Go raibh maith agat! (thank you)