Last weekend, Dan and I left Amsterdam and headed to Ireland. With just a few days notice, we had very little time to plan.
We knew we wanted to see as much of the beautiful Irish countryside as we could, so instead of booking roundtrip flights we booked a one-way into Cork with a return departing from Dublin. This allowed us to do a three-day road trip around south-west Ireland without having to backtrack and another two days in Dublin itself.
I’ve included a map of our route at the end of the post in case you’d like to follow along!
Day 1
Once our flight landed in Cork, we quickly picked up our car and made our way to the first stop, just 45 minutes from the airport: the famous Blarney Castle. We waited in line and each had a chance to lean upside down and backwards for a kiss of the famous Blarney Stone.
After gaining the gift of eloquence, we went for a walk around the property. The castle itself isn’t much to look at, but the grounds were surprisingly lovely and could easily consume the better part of the day.
After a quick stop by the gift shop, we continued on to our next destination: Killarney National Park.
Killarney is the starting point for a famous scenic drive called the Ring of Kerry. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for the full loop on this trip (if we had one more day this would be the first thing I’d add to the itinerary), so we used what time we had to visit the park instead.
The center of the park is the Muckross House, a nineteenth century Victorian mansion on the shores of Muckross Lake. We hired a Jaunting Car, aka a horse and carriage, just outside the house and were taken on a tour around the property and lake, including a visit to the nearby Torc Waterfall.
Afterward, we did some exploring on foot of the gardens, greenhouses, and Muckross Abbey ruins.
We then drove the rest of the way to our Bed and Breakfast, Emlagh House in Dingle.
Our hotel was just a five-minute walk from the center of Dingle, an adorable fishing village known for its brightly-colored houses and pubs with traditional Irish music.
We were still full from lunch, so we had a pint of Guinness for dinner at the local pub O’Flaherty’s.
Day 2
After a hearty Irish breakfast of eggs, porridge, beans, and bacon, we checked out of the hotel and started our driving tour around the Dingle Peninsula.
We saw rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, and miles and miles of green farmland — it was a beautiful drive and one of my all-time favorites. The drive (known as Slea Head) starts and ends in Dingle, so we made our way around the loop and then onward to the Conor Pass, which cuts north-west across the peninsula.
From the peninsula, we headed for the Cliffs of Moher, using a car ferry to cross the Shannon estuary (saving us 45 minutes of driving time).
We arrived to the cliffs in the late afternoon and parked at the southern end of the cliffs. We walked north for an hour or so, stopping to take pictures along the way.
Despite the strong winds, we managed to survive the walk along the cliffs’ edge and made our way to the Cappabhaile House bed and breakfast just an hours drive north in Ballyvaughan.
Day 3
After breakfast, we drove to the Burren National Park for a morning hike.
Not knowing what to expect, we were blown away by the variety of landscapes we encountered on our two-hour hike. We traversed the rugged exposed limestone of the Burren itself and wove our way through the more fertile moss and fern-covered pathways.
The particular route we chose, the Lough Avalla Farm Loop, isn’t a part of the National Park, although the trailhead is located with the other park trails.
The path was on private property and went through several working farms, which meant we had a chance to meet several farm animals along the route, including goats, a donkey, and both baby and adult Belted Galloways (also known as Oreo or Panda Cows).
After our hike we drove directly to Dublin, stopping only for lunch along the way in Shannonbridge, near the Clonmacnoise monastery, which makes for a nice stop at about the halfway point.
Up until this point in the trip, we had only driven on small two-lane country roads. There are very few highways in Ireland, but luckily there is a relatively new motorway connecting Galway to Dublin, making it possible to travel between the two cities in just 2 1/2 hours.
