Touring the Emerald Isle in 11 Days

Days 1-4: Galway, Inishmore, and Kylemore Abbey/Diamond Hill (Connemara National Park)

Kaitlin and I arrived in Dublin on August 17th following 14 hours of flying from Boise. We hit the ground running and immediately drove 3 hours to Galway to get our trip started off right in our stick-shift hatchback Dacia Duster. Despite a few kissed curbs and getting used to driving on the opposite side, the drive was relatively safe and uneventful. On our first day in Galway we walked around the downtown and the waterfront to become familiar with the area. We stumbled on a nice cheese store named Sheridans, purchased a few varieties of tasty cheeses, and then went upstairs to a charcuterie place owned by the same family. They threw together a mean combination of cured meats, fresh jellies, and other pickled vegetables that hit the spot perfectly. We also added a glass of prosecco to the meal to celebrate our arrival and first vacation since the summer before.

After dinner we took off for a waterfront stroll. Jet lag was knocking at the door but we knew we had to fight it off as it was only 6pm local. While strolling we discovered a bush of Fuchsia, the first of MANY beautiful wildflowers during our time in Ireland. I had never seen these two colors together in nature before and was flabbergasted by the vividness of the petals. Wild flowers constantly captured my attention throughout our time in Ireland and the abundance of them in summer is astonishing. Later on in our travels, one of the workers at an Abbey we visited told us that the Irish word for Fuchsia translated to “tears of the gods”. I think the name is perfectly fitting, wouldn’t you agree?

On day two we drove west of Galway 45 minutes to catch a ferry to the largest of three Aran Islands in the Bay of Galway, Inishmore. The Island is only 8 miles long and 2 miles wide, which makes it the perfect destination for biking around. We arrived before lunch and were greeted by a steady and driving rain-the lovely Irish weather we were promised. It proved to be on and off for much of the day but we made the best of it. On the island there’s a nice beach, an ancient coastal fort sitting high on the cliffs, and a few clusters of stores offering the local specialty-Aran wool sweaters. The island has apparently hosted the Redbull cliff diving competitions a few times, which is unsurprising when you see just how sheer the cliffs surrounding the island are. We biked to the fort at the southwestern end of the island and spent some time in the wool market getting gifts for family members. Kaitlin insisted I get a sweater to myself to which I insisted it wasn’t worth it and that I would never wear. She won, and surely enough I wore the sweater everyday for the rest of our trip.

For day three we planned to drive up to Connemara National park and check out a recommended town named Clifden. We made it close to Clifden, but not quite there. Instead, we drove up first to a popular hike inside the park named Diamond Hill. It took about 1.5 hours to get there from Galway in moody weather. We arrived there around 10am and were greeted by a packed parking lot at the trailhead. The terrain was reminiscent of the New Hampshire portion of the AT in many ways- wet, rocky, and low visibility. Our chose route climbed and descended around 1200 in 4 miles and had an upper section climb of around 600 feet in less than a mile that I decided to loop back and do again. The two laps were completely different, one with an open sky and panoramic view of the surrounding area-the other socked in and spitting rain at 30-40mph. Both summits were windy, at times so much that I was forced to lean with all of my weight in the direction of the wind just to stay upright. I returned to my car 1.5 hours later happy as a clam and ready to start the rest of the day.

Next up was Kylemore Abbey, a wealthy doctors estate (castle??) in the late 1800s that became an abbey for Benedictine nuns in the 1900s. The abbey was literally 4 minutes from the trailhead (made me so happy). The abbey is this EPIC castle nestled into the foot of a peak named Doughruagh that rises several thousand feet above it. The grounds were stunning and hosted a tea garden, a garden garden, and a location for Notre Dame students to study abroad. The grounds also had Connemara ponies, a mausoleum in memory to the original owners wife, and a beautiful lake on the premises to walk around. We started off by visiting the Connemara ponies for a bit and snapping some killer pictures of them with mountains in the background. After that we partook in our newly adhered to tradition of teatime in the tea house. We had some tea, scones, and soup to warm up and fill the caloric gap left from our respective runs. Then we enjoyed the walled “Victorian Garden” next to the tea house, which had recently been rebuilt in the late 1990s and sported beautiful configurations of flora both native and nonnative to the area.

By that time it was half past 3 and the castle closed at 5 so we decided to start checking it out. I’m not usually a sucker for old aristocratic stuff in Europe, but this castle really was sick and had been created/owned by someone who was not royalty originally (which was surprising to me). The creator of the castle ended up living there year round, raising his 9 kids on the grounds, and becoming an advocate for the impoverished local community throughout his life. After touring the castle, we walked the grounds for a bit and threw three rocks over an ironing stone that’s reported to bring luck to all who do so. By that time we were mighty hungry for a real meal and the abbey was closing, so we packed up and called it a day.

For day 4 we had our first big transition day: we packed up from Galway to head 3+ hours south to Dingle but decided to stop and run the Cliffs of Moher along the way. The day was amazing, but the driving sucked(4.5-5 hours of tedious, narrow, winding, and sketchy backroads). We decided to run the Cliffs of Moher for a few reasons:

1. ITS FREAKING EPIC

2. It looks like it’s being begged to run

3. We had a car and could choose where we started the route to optimize our time there and (kind of) avoid the crowds.

The decision was not regretted, and we started at the southern tip of the route in a parking lot in the front yard of a local who only charged 5 euros for parking (bless). The weather turned out to be surprisingly pristine (sunny, clear and modest winds), so much so that I was worried I didn’t have enough water and would have to filter from one of the creeks along the route. Fortunately this didn’t happen, and I decided to run north for about an hour and then turn around to run back. After ten or so minutes I ran into Kaitlin and we had a super friendly Irishman snap our picture with one of the most epic backdrops along the entire route. We chatted with him for a bit and then returned to our car to chow down on some of the assorted Irish potato chips that we purchased for sampling throughout our runs in Ireland. Nothing tastes quite as prime as a quality bag of potato chips (or crisps, excuse me) after a long and water deprived run. The potato chip flavors in Ireland were cheddar and chive oriented. The chips themselves literally looked like little slices of potato’s with the skins of the still on the edges which was neat.

We began our 3 hour drive to dingle and hit up a roadside drive through ice cream/ sandwich place where I got a pretty mean and affordable pesto panini. While there we also spotted a vending machine that offered fresh milk in different options. It was only 2.50 to try a liter of chocolate “milkshake” option to which I promptly said “hell yes” and filled my Nalgene. The milk was frothy, chocolatey (but not overly sweet, more like hints of melted chocolate ice cream), and delicious. My only mistake was that I should’ve gotten a .5 liter serving as I reckoned that the tummy ache that developed along the drive likely came from the liter of whole milk that I downed in a very short timeframe. We arrived in Dingle Sunday afternoon, grabbed dinner, and called it a day.

Days 4-7: Dingle, Dingle Peninsula, and Killarney National Park 

For day 5 we tried to go on a boat tour west of the peninsula to an island where puffins and whales could be spotted, but the weather was too poor. Instead, we booked a tour at the local Dingle Distillery which produces whiskey, gin, and vodka. Our tour guide was a delightful lad who literally looked like Harry Potter if he had red hair (I guess if Harry and Ron had a kid?). He did a wonderful job of telling us of the small distillery’s history. Although the goal was to bring small whiskey operations/industry back to tiny town of dingle, the distillery needed cash up front to exist the first few years. It did so through the production of gin and vodka, both of which take less than a week to produce compared to whiskey’s minimum 3 years. This strategy, along with a clever way to sell shares in the company called “founder’s shares” kept the company afloat in the early years when they first opened in the wake of the 2000s recession. Eventually their gin would go on to be voted the best in the world in 2019 and the rest is history. Following our tasting at the distillery, we walked back downtown to Dingle and decided to partake in the recommendation from our tour guide. He recommended that we grab a meal to go from a restaurant named fish box and then eat it along with a pint at the local bar “Dick Mack’s” right across from the church. The recommendation was top notch and the food from fish box was delicious and inexpensive.

For day 6 we drove to western tip of the peninsula to check out the scenery along the route and hit up a beach named Coumeenoole on the western tip. Along the way there was an unexpected roadside animal petting opportunity that we decided to stop at. They gave you a plastic container of animal pellets for a few euros and you could feed any assortment of animals that they had on the farm. There were alpacas, pigs, sheep, miniature horses, goats, and some baby lambs that had just been born that spring. It sounds super basic, but it was easily one of the best investments all trip. It brought us a ton of joy watching the pigs scare off the other animals for food and the baby lambs sprint towards the sight of milk and then chug the bottle like frat boys on spring break. The lambs wool was sooooooo soft. We pulled up to the Coumeenole beach around lunch and headed down to the beach. The North Atlantic waters are known to be freezing and the tides sketchy, but I saw people swimming so I decided I had to go for a dip. It was cold, salty, and had a wicked current. I left the water pretty cold but was lucky to have sunshine to dry me out. We strolled out to a point on the peninsula where they filmed a scene from one of the new Star Wars films and then headed back ton home base. The wildflowers along the dingle peninsula roadsides were amazing.

Day 7 was another big driving/transition day which included a drive east to Killarney National park to run at Torc mountain/waterfall and a visit to the Muckross House (castle, basically). This day was very similar to our previous run/boogie castle visit combination from earlier. We arrived in the park late morning and then did our respective runs up/around Torc mountain and waterfall. The gnats were pretty bad here (midges, as they call them) but the greenness of the scenery and the epic wooden bridges strewn across the marshy parts made up for it. I topped out at the top of torc mountain after an hour or so and was rewarded by a panoramic view of the surrounding park. Once done with our runs, we drove to the Castle (only 6 minutes away, love it) and changed into our fancier clothes to visit the castle in. We enjoyed another quality tea time, this time with a sizeable selection of 3 pastries to sample from. Once we were all carbed up we decided to set out and explore the house. It was also well equipped with a garden, sizeable land on the water, and even played host to Queen Victoria at the height of its importance. We had a nice chat with one of the employees who told us about the origins of Fuchsia’s name in Gaelic and other facts about other flowers in Ireland. Once finished, we had a three hour drive back to Dublin to be back to pick up Kaitlin’s Dad from the airport.

Days 8-11: Dublin, Notre Dame Football, and A little bit of Belfast

These days all kind of blend together in my head and are harder to sort out. I had the least new camera of the three of us, which meant I didn’t take as many pictures and that my timeline is a bit blurry. We picked up Kaitlin’s dad from the airport in the morning and toured around Dublin the first day. One of the days we went to the Guinness museum which was quite enjoyable and cooler than the Heineken tour in my opinion (even though Heineken is far tastier). We spent a day driving up to the Giant’s Causeway along the Antrim coast and then having a nice dinner in Belfast on the way back. We also met up with my aunt and uncle who were in town to see the football game. Dublin was swarmed with people in Notre Dame gear more and more as the game approached. Navy fans showed up a bit later in the week and had far fewer people. We went to the Emigration museum which was right next to our hotel and thoughtfully curated. Come game day, we bar hopped and spent a bit of time at the oldest bar in Dublin, the Brazen Head, which had a cool ambience and good outdoor seating. The game was at 7pm local. This rather sucked since we had a 6am flight out to Edinburgh the next day. We made it to the game, the stadium was pretty well sold out, and Notre Dame destroyed Navy convincingly. We left early in the fourth quarter to get back in time for a smidge of sleep before getting picked up at 4am and taken to the airport. Our time in Ireland was done, and it was off to Scotland for the next eight days.