This image was taken from our room at The Herons Rest bed and breakfast in Galway. Chris and I stayed in the beautiful Galway Bay Panorama room and soaked in the incredible view of this sunset from our balcony window. I’ll post more about where we stayed throughout Ireland shortly, but in the meantime I can say that I wholeheartedly recommend The Herons Rest if not for this view alone, then definitely for the gourmet breakfast. Stay tuned for details!
As noted in a previous post, I ignored the advice of so many other travelers to base ourselves in one or two spots in Ireland, and instead I spread our route across the south, the west, and the far north. Our route from Galway to Donegal was designed simply to move us farther up the island because Giant’s Causeway and the Carrick-A-Rede Bridge were must-see items on my list. That said, I’m glad we got to see both Galway and Donegal albeit briefly.
I have to confess, I was a wee bit frustrated with Galway. I’m going to chalk it up to timing and lack of research. From the photos I had seen prior to the trip, I thought Galway would be more compact and easy to navigate like so many of the quaint little towns we explored earlier in the week. I now know that Galway is the forth largest city in Ireland! We arrived during heavy rush hour on a weekday (technically Day 3 of our road trip) and we were up against a deadline trying to arrive at our B&B for check-in, so some of the very busy one-way streets flustered us. If I had known it was so big, we would have timed our arrival differently to avoid the traffic. Once we were settled and walking around the city center though, I discovered the vibe that so many people love about Galway.
City size aside, we were especially excited about checking out the live music scene in Galway. After dinner and drinks, we headed straight for Tig Cóilí based on so many recommendations. The pub was filled to the point of standing room only, but we eventually made our way to the front for a prime spot. The band’s lively trad session kept Tig Cóilí packed and full of craic.
After sleeping in a wee bit the next morning, we took off on Day 4 for the three-hour drive to Donegal without much of a plan except getting to our destination. We had been having good luck with winging it and discovering points of interest, little villages, and great pubs in which to grab lunch, so I didn’t research the route ahead. We didn’t end up stumbling onto any food around lunchtime, and after several rounds of, “maybe the next town?” we gave up and ate fast food. At least it was something new to us – Ireland’s answer to the drive-thru, Supermac’s.
When we arrived in Donegal, we found the town center to be a little sleepy, but interesting nonetheless. Fifteenth-century Donegal Castle sits right in the middle of town, though it was just about to close by the time we wandered over to it.
We saw our third traditional Irish session of the week at The Reel Inn where the owner played accordion accompanied by a friend on the guitar. Their hilarious stories and commentary entertained a huge crowd and I could have listened to those two guys all night (except we were exhausted and only lasted until about 10:30pm).
It would have been nice to have more time in County Donegal, nicknamed the “wild child” of Ireland. We enjoyed staying in the Arches Country House and visiting the town, but we only experienced a sliver of the area and I would have loved to see the Slieve League Cliffs. We gave the cliffs a miss in order to get on the road towards Northern Ireland (especially since we had already visited the Kerry Cliffs and the Cliffs of Moher), and I’m glad we did – more on that in the next post!
Out of all the must-see sights in Ireland recommended by blogs, guidebooks, and friends/family who have been to Ireland, the Cliffs of Moher ranked high on everyone’s list, and now Chris and I know why! After staying in Killarney for two nights, we hit the road early and made our way up the west coast toward Galway with a plan to spend the afternoon at the cliffs.
But first, we stopped in the sweetest village, Adare, on the way. Famous for its thatched-roof cottages built in the 1820s, friendly little Adare charmed my socks right off. Chris and I wandered the village, ate a leisurely lunch, and enjoyed a take-away bakery dessert while sitting in a beautiful park nearby. Our road trip might sound like a crazy whirlwind with a lot of mileage, but we had plenty of serene moments where we soaked in our surroundings. This was one of them.
After our lovely time in Adare, we continued onto the Cliffs of Moher. I admit I didn’t know what to expect other than a long stretch of rocky walls along the ocean that I had seen in pictures. Photos simply do not do the dramatic coastline justice; it has to be experienced first-hand along with the crazy winds! I also didn’t realize you can walk the length of the cliffs on the Burren Way, and because we had such a beautiful day that’s exactly what we did.
For most of the trail along the cliffs towards Doolin there are two paths – one is right along the ridge, and one is down low alongside a short wall (see photo below). We chose the perilous option for the views, although on a rainy, slippery day I might have opted for the protection of the wall! A sign warns visitors that this part of the cliffs are on private farmland and while you are allowed to walk there, the farmers are not liable for your fate. (Gulp.)
It was so windy! This isn’t a good look for me.
The one thing I did plan very specifically was the timing of our visit. I aimed to photograph the cliffs in the afternoon when the sun (if not behind clouds) would be shining into the side of the cliffs. The lighting was incredibly gorgeous while we were there (around 4-5pm). We absolutely lucked out with the weather and enjoyed sunshine for nearly two hours; it only started sprinkling just as we were leaving.
I had also hoped to see The Burren on the same day as the Cliffs of Moher if the schedule allowed, and we did drive through the national park, but we were indeed short on time and didn’t get to see any of the attractions found deeper into the park. So The Burren goes onto the list for a future trip when we can give it a proper amount of time. The reasons to go back to Ireland are adding up!
I have publicly admitted that history isn’t my strongest subject (see #1 on this list), and one of the reasons I push myself to travel is to learn more about the world and its past. Every once in a while while traveling though, I get a bit history-ed out and I completely fail to take in any facts at all about a certain place especially if the visit is brief. I learned a ton of stuff on our Ireland/Scotland trip, but gave a complete miss to the history of Ross Castle pictured below. I knew it wasn’t far from the B&B where we stayed in Killarney so I at least made a point to pop by and take a photo, but as I’m writing this post, I can’t tell you a thing about this particular castle. We didn’t tour it, and I didn’t read about it so I’m going to go Google it now.
(Ah-ha…15th century tower house, O’Donoghue clan, dude may have jumped out of a window, possibly haunted.)
As part of our Ring of Kerry day, I originally wanted to take a boat trip out to Skellig Michael, a small island home to sixth-century monastery ruins. We quickly realized that the five-hour trip to Skellig Michael would take the better part of the morning and afternoon and we would have to either rush through the rest of the Ring of Kerry or skip a lot of it since we only planned one day for the ring. So, Skellig Michael ended up on my list for next time.
We did, however, have time to add the Skellig Ring into our schedule. If you’re driving the whole Ring of Kerry, I highly highly recommend including this 20-mile loop for even more diversity in jaw-dropingly gorgeous Irish landscape. The turn is just after Waterville if you’re following the clockwise direction.
I admit to being extra motivated to drive the Skellig Ring if only to visit Skelligs Chocolate. I had heard of Skelligs from my trip research, but didn’t know much about the factory other than they have good chocolate (that’s all I needed to know). So imagine my surprise and delight when I walked into the shop to find out that they offered free tasting sessions! We stood at the counter in front of the production line while a woman sliced up sample after sample of chocolate bars and truffles. Step aside beer and whiskey; this is a tasting I can get into.
Would you believe it though, I didn’t take a single picture of the chocolate? My apologies for that – I was pretty occupied with consuming all of the samples. We purchased a mixture of the truffles that we tasted, and even more importantly, I tried my first scone ever at the cafe. Delicious!
My most favorite non-food-related spot on the Skellig Ring was easily the Kerry Cliffs. The spectacular cliffs are the closest vantage point on land to see the Skellig Islands. We lucked out with a clear day and could easily spot Little Skellig and Skellig Michael out to the west. There is a small fee to enter the park, but we felt like the price of 4 euros each was worth it for such stunning views. It’s a nice walk to a lengthy viewing point where you can watch birds circling above the waves crashing against the rocks. Simply breathtaking.
Also along the Skellig Ring? The fishing village of Portmagee and a super picturesque little isle nearby called Valentia Island. I only learned about Valentia Island after we got back home and I think we would have enjoyed stopping there, so I will add that to my growing list of things to see on our next Ireland trip. I’m excited to have so many reasons to go back!
But we did check off a few more must-see items in Ireland, like the Cliffs of Moher, and that post is up next.