Greg and Deb's Travel Blog

We woke to beautiful blue skies and sunshine. A little cloud drifted in but it had the makings of an amazing day to do the Ring of Kerry.

We drove from Dingle along the coast to Inch Strand Beach. Funny thing about that name, in Gaelic Inch means Strand, so it is Strand Strand Beach or is that Inch Inch Beach? It is the second most popular surfing beach in Ireland. There wasn’t much surf around but there was a surfing school in operation down on the beach.

We woke to dark but promising skies. The weather apps always give mixed message when compared to what you can see out the window. All clear on the app (and yes, we have tried them all #IrishWeather) but rain out the window!

We woke to a beautiful sunrise but a cold windy morning. The weather map showed a huge rain band coming in and it wasn’t wrong. As we left the rain started and continued.

Not long after we left we passed a Trump golf resort. In a few villages around the course there are lots of American flags flying. Apparently in one small village the Trumps sons shouted the town drinks, now they are local heros.

We were on the road at am in pouring rain. That was a good start for our day of mainly outdoor activities. But hey, it is Ireland. ?

It was another good day to travel with intermittent rain all day, sometimes very heavy, but only for short periods. We really enjoyed our farm stay, Eddie was a great host and it was great to relax for a full day. It was the first day since we left London in June that we hadn’t at least sat in a car.

Today we had a mainly travel morning with quite a few stops to look at the sites. Our first stop was to have a look at, not climb, Crough Patrick, a steep mountain pilgrimage site with church on top. Many of the faithful often ascend the mountain in bare feet, walking up very steep paths over sharp stones. The ascent is around 2hrs and it takes 1hr to get back down. Apparently some Popes and Mother Teresa have made the pilgrimage we viewed the mountain from a park dedicated to The Famine of 1840/50. The is a large bronze model of a ”Coffin “Ship in the park. It was in ships like this that many Irish fled the country for the promise of a better life, bound for the USA, Canada and Australia.

We had a great morning with Eddie Doonie as he showed us around his farm and introduced us to some West Ireland farming/living experiences.

We started off looking at Eddie’s vegetable garden. Everything seemed to be jumping out of the ground. He had loads of potatoes and kale, a huge rhubarb plant, and hidden away in a hot house he had lots of herbs and he was trying his hand at tomatoes. He was given some seeds so he thought he would give them a go. No fruit on them, but plenty of flowers, probably too late to get any tomatoes this year, but he should get some next season now he understands them a bit better. Eddie went off and got a shovel, dug up a potato plant and gave us about 1 ½ doz spuds, and some kale for an early lunch. ? He then introduced us to the family pig. She was a big old sow, apparently Eddie wanted to eat her a few years ago, but his youngest daughter protested. Now the sow is way too old for eating and has become a pet.

We left The Lough Eske Castle and drove to Donegal for a look around. Donegal township has a unique town square, it is Triangular! It looks strange but works. We had a drive by look at the castle, again like all castles here it has had a very interesting history.

We started our day at 9am with a visit to the St George’s Market. A smallish market with good produce, fruit & vegetables, meat and seafood, plus other miscellaneous stores. We love visiting other cities markets, it’s a great way to see how the real people live. This market reminded me of a small version of Sydney’s Paddy’s Market. A great little market.

We were picked up by our cabbie Tom, from Belfast Mural Experience, at 9:30am and we began what was a really interesting day.

We spent the morning criss-crossing the “Peace wall”, a barrier that started life as a wire mesh fence separating the “Unionist” north from the “Republican” south. It was later “improved” to a concrete barrier to save the cost of patrolling it, and to protect the Constabulary that patrolled it. It extends for a total 23 to 25 miles through Belfast (but is not continuous).

And so it begins, our road tour of The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Martin from Little Gems picked us up and we were on our way at 9:30am. We headed north, with our first planned stop being the Newgrange in the Boyne Valley of County Meath, possibly the best known Neolithic Irish passage tomb Cairn. We arrived at 10:30am but couldn’t get on a tour until 12:30pm.