We arrived in Dublin early afternoon on the 2nd of January. For some reason most places were still closed, but we were able to make our way by bus back to the airport to pick up the rental car, essentially retracing our first steps in Ireland. After bringing all of our luggage out to the remote Hertz rental location, we find out that they are not willing to rent us a car, as we're under the 25 year old age limit, and although the website lead us to believe that we could pay an extra fee, that was only if you were 24...
Their suggestion was to try Enterprise, which was located back in the airport terminal, and after a while we were able to secure a car reservation with Enterprise. But we had to wait till 4, and I was the only one who could drive manual. It was winter time so by the time they drove us out to the car at 4:15, the sun was looking to set and we still had to drive clear across the country. This was also my first time driving on the "wrong side of the road." And my first time driving stick, left handed. And it was dark. And raining. And at best you could say we didn't know exactly where we were going.Forutnately the Irish highway system is very straight forward, with M_ being highways, N_ being primary roads, and N_ _ _ being secondary roads, we were able to find our way without too much trouble. Navigation for most of the driving trip was actually quite easy and it's a real credit to the organization of the Irish road systems. We arrived at our cottage late at night, with difficulty only because it was a remote unlit area, and cold and exhausted, passed out for the night.
Morning from our cottage gave us our first real sense of just how rural the area around us was. On the left is a picture of the view from the bedroom on the second floor of the cottage we were staying in (Ballyvara Cottage). We were surrounded by a hay/livestock farm, and even though it was the first week of January, it was bright, bright green. I woke up to the sound of a farm tractor driving nearby, most likely attending to the barn that was right next to where we were staying. In the distance from the window we could just barely see the sea, our destination for the day.
We set off into town looking for some breakfast, and not finding anything open, decided to start our day's tour of the cliffs and sea-side. It was a day that was to be filled with lots of classic Irish parking (anywhere you please), and in tuen with most of our trip: more exploratory than planned. The first picture, on the left here, was from the black head point, just north of Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher. We were the only people to be on the side of the road at the time, but soon there were other cars and even a bus. We turned around once we had taken a few pictures (shown here) and then drove back into town. My companion saw cows. She went crazy...
As for the cliffs themselves, they were... ok. It was the middle of the day, and since most of the cliffs were to the south of the main tourist area, they were directly in-line with the sun and difficult to photograph. They're quite impressive, but it was also cold and extremely windy that day, so we did not get a chance to wander far. There is one castle-tower that we could see on the cliffs, to warn the locals of sea-borne raiders. They were very much a tourist trap though, which you're warned about in about every guide book and even some of the tourist route maps, but if you're in that area it's hard to avoid at least stopping by. You can park at the bottom of a very long hill if you want to avoid the 12E parking lot fee, but it will take about an hour each way to do the walk.
The next stop after that was the Abbey and Castle of Dysert O'Dea, which is supposidly a rich archeological site dating to the 15th century, though the Castle is still erect, as is the Cross of St. Tola's high cross (both pictured left). The battle of Dysert O'Dea (1318 AD) drove the Anglo-Normans out of that region of Ireland for over 200 years. The castle itself was closed down for the winter (what you get for going in the off season I guess) but the grounds of the monastary next door were open, and according to our guide book they were more interesting than the castle anyhow.
Probably the coolest thing about the graveyard around the monastary turned chapel was the gravestones that were as old as the battle that had taken place there. We found a range of dates from 1360 to 1970. They also had an interesting set of graveyard flowers, which they kept in glass globes filled with water, a cool way of making sure the flowers don't wilt too quickly. After Dysert O'Dea we went to Enniston, but admittedly it was only so interesting there. We bought groceries and then headed back to the cottage.
The next day we decided to venture a little further. It was also the first time we bought gas out there, which for our relativly compact car, cost nearly 50 Euros to top off (about $78!). Our first stop for the day was Bunratty castle, an archetecurally resorted castle meant to appear as it did in the 15th century. It was also surrounded by a village modeled as contemperary to the castle. The keep itself was quite impressive, it would have been quite a formidable place to attack, and even seemed quite comfortable for the time. The only thing that was really difficult about visiting the castle was the very, very narrow and short stairways.
After departing Bunratty, we got back on the N-18 and drove down to Limerick (yes, like the poem, but not where the poem is from). Like many settlements of this area, it origionally dated from Viking times (800s) but was famous for the Norman buildings (such as King John's castle pictured left). We did not have much time to spend here as the night came early there, and my companion wanted to make sure we visited Adare "The cutest town in all Ireland." Analagous to a chick flick, Adare had little other than a few pretty features (some houses with thatched roofs) and not too much historical development behind it (mostly notable for the name, which means something like "river crossing").
Our final day, we left the cottage with a heavy heart (someday to return!) and after packing up the car (quite earlier this morning) we started our trip back to Dublin. But we kinda took the long way...
Our first stop was the infamous Blarney Castle, home of the even more infamous Blarney Stone. Why the stone is so famous (it is on an objective level, a big ass rock at the top of a really cool castle), I will never know, but all the same I think I enjoyed touring Blarney Castle the best. It was one of the most expensive entrence fees we payed (about 6 Euros each I think) but as it was the off season it was easy enough to get to the top of the castle, kiss the stone without too much worry about germs, and get a move on. Actually, for that matter there was no line to get up there and the guy assisting people at the rock said that we were some of the first to visit there that day. The infamous Rock is pictured on the left.
The rest of the castle was very scenic, there was a nice view from the top of the keep and for those mideval warfare buffs, there were lots of castle nooks and crannies to keep things interesting. Murder holes, deadfalls, places they threw boulders, everything was there. There's even a deadfall where the floor falls out when a level is pulled, and the unfortunate victim falls into a pit that has no way out.
Our last stop on our way home was the Rock of Cashel. Cashel was a beautiful town, but the Rock of Cashel was simply impressive. Shown here on the right, the Rock of Cashel was a castle turned cathedral that was a military fortress of the chruch for hundreds of years. The Rock of Cashel was probably the most impressive stone structure that we saw on our entire trip, and it was set upon a huge rock hill. Honestly it was a better stop than Blarney, Bunratty or pretty much any of the other stops that we did out in the countryside.
Overall, I have to admit that for a tourist who usually only gets to stop at the major cities, I really enjoyed the self-guided tour of the countryside. It would be significantly harder to do this kind of trip if we didn't know the local language, but once we had the car and a map, the flexibility and frankly, the ease of the trip was amazing. It helps of course that in relative terms of distance, Ireland is really not spread that far apart, even in the more rural parts.
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