Our short train trip from Dublin to Cork had us rolling through the green countryside passing plenty of old castle ruins along the way. Arriving Cork (pronounced by locals as “CARK”), we made our way through town to our hotel for the next two nights. As luck would have it, S’s mom and dad were in town along with 6 of their closest friends – so we met up with their crew and had a round of drinks at a local pub in town. S and E ordered a shot of Jameson and Bushmills (White Bush) for a side-by-side taste test. We also horseraced Murphy’s Stout vs Guinness. Have you tried each of these? Which would you prefer? For us, there was no contest. Guinness over Murphy’s. And sorry Northern Ireland – we preferred Jameson (but more on this later). Afterwards we had dinner with mom and dad at the number 1 rated restaurant in town, an Indian restaurant. It was indeed excellent.
Go for Blarney Castle, stay for the grounds! The next morning, we took a public bus to Blarney Castle, which is a Medieval castle dating back to 1446 (the original structure was built in 1220). We made sure to arrive early to avoid the crowds and managed to be the first people in line for the day. This meant walking into the grounds with the perfect, tourist-free, photo of the castle, and no line to kiss the famous Blarney Stone. We made our way across the grounds and up the spiral staircase tower to the top of the castle and over to the Blarney Stone. Even with all the rumors of how dirty the stone is (we don’t need to mention details here), S did kiss it – and is still alive and well!
The gem of the day was walking through the beautiful grounds. The castle itself only took us ten minutes, but we could have stayed the entire day for the grounds. There were trails meandering through old rock formations, waterfalls, forest and lush gardens. We did stroll through Poison Garden – featuring all sorts of nasty plants that will cause everything from stomach distress to death. Notable was a difficult to access area dedicated to cannabis.
We were also lucky enough to visit during the summer months, the only time when The Blarney House opens its doors for private tours. This is an occupied residence – the owners travel for the summer months. We could clearly see evidence of people living there, with dog beds in the corner of the great room, and several personal photos displayed throughout the house. If you’re a Downton Abbey fan, this house would have felt familiar to you. The house is owned by Sir Charles St John Colthurst, the 10th Baronet of Ardrum, as is Blarney Castle and the surrounding grounds.
Our next stop on our Ireland adventure was Limerick. As we strolled to our accommodation from the train station, we quickly fell in love with the feel of this small city. It seemed much more-quaint than Cork, with cobblestone streets and pubs/shops lining the narrow roadways. We spent our first afternoon on a self-guided walking tour, taking us through the old town area where we walked by St. Mary’s Cathedral and King John’s Castle. We unfortunately did not get an opportunity to visit the castle as they closed early that day for a concert. Wait – a concert you say…at a 13th century castle? Yes, please. We tried to score tickets until we learned they sold out the morning they went on sale and none ever get re-sold. Plenty of notable bands have played here including U2. What an amazing venue to see a show! You owe us one, Limerick!
Our reasoning for stopping in Limerick was to visit The Cliffs of Moher – just a two-hour drive from the city. It’s easy to see why this is one of Ireland’s most popular tourist attraction. These magnificent cliffs were formed over 300million years ago and are over 14 kilometers long. Walking along the trail, it was extremely windy day – we didn’t want to venture too close to the edge, as it’s a long way down into the cold rough sea. Although it was a wonderful visit, and we enjoyed walking the coastline; we couldn’t help but compare these cliffs to our recent walks in Australia (especially The Great Ocean Road). There are no losers here and both are to be experienced but the coastline of Australia is just too perfect.
Belfast – On our final train journey in Ireland from Limerick to Belfast (via Dublin) we watched our google map as we crossed from The Republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland by rail. No, we did not have to show our passport, but we did have to take out local currency (British Pound). The Republic of Ireland uses The Euro. We also talked in great length about how Brexit would affect Ireland as a whole. For those of you who are not familiar, Ireland is divided into two nations. Most of Ireland is The Republic of Ireland and part of the European Union. The northern-most part of Ireland (about 25% of the area in the north-east) is Northern Ireland, and a part of the United Kingdom. Once Brexit finally takes place, there will be a lot of confusion in Ireland as a whole.
We went on a political tour during our stay here and learned more about the conflicts that took place up until about twenty years ago. We visited Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods and saw murals memorializing the past violence along with tributes to those that lost their lives. Although Belfast is at peace, the bright lines of segregation remain. The Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods still have walls separating the two communities (even taller than The Berlin Wall was) and the authorities lock the gates connecting the two communities overnight and on weekends. Even the children attend schools largely with kids of their own faith. But there are other uncomfortable signals as well. As if the conflict between loyalty to the crown (the Protestant side) vs loyalty to self-rule (the Catholic side) wasn’t sufficient, one continuing sign of discord is Israeli flags flying in the Protestant communities and Palestinian flags flying in the Catholic communities. While there has been talk of tearing down the walls, the majority of residents still believe the walls are necessary.
With that said, the momentum is on the side of peace and the outlook remains positive. One hopeful sign is the booming commitment to tourism. Belfast currently has 32 hotels under construction vs the current total of 20 hotels. We thoroughly enjoyed the vibe, food scene and friendly residents and wish we had more time to spend there.
On one of our unscripted days in Belfast, we took a day trip to The Giant’s Causeway. We didn’t book it to necessarily see The Giant’s Causeway, but because we’d also drive by The Bushmills Distillery. Ahem. Boy, we were pleasantly surprised. The Giant’s Causeway is a magical area on the coast with over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns. These columns of varying height reminded us of the old arcade game Qbert – we were able to mimic this character hopping and walking from one column to the next, up and down in all directions. They jut outward into the sea and folklore has it that these columns once reached the coast of Scotland.
Speaking of Scotland, it’s just 12 miles at the closest point to Northern Ireland. From various points during our day, we could see Scotland on the horizon.
The Bushmills Distillery!! As noted above, we swung by The Bushmills Distillery (the oldest licensed distillery in these parts) after visiting The Giant’s Causeway. If you know Bushmills as one of the two commonly available Irish whiskey brands, then you need to head to their distillery in Northern Ireland. We enjoyed a nice lunch of Irish stew accompanied by a pint of Guinness – quickly followed by a whiskey tasting. We fell in love with Bushmills. Our favorite was Black Bush, which is finished in Sherry casks vs American Oak for the commonly found Bushmills Original (or White Bush). We also enjoyed the 10 year which is a blend of whiskey aged in bourbon and sherry barrels. The 16 year is also a blend of whiskey aged in bourbon and sherry barrels but includes the added step of spending a few months at the end of the ageing process in port barrels. Needless to say, we have new appreciation for Bushmills and apologize to all Bushmills fans for our earlier comments that we preferred Jameson over Bushmills.
On an adventurous and final note, we walked over the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge – which is not too far from The Giant’s Causeway. The bridge is only 20 meters long and is about 30 meters above the water below, but for two people scared of heights it was quite the challenge. Good thing we filled up on liquid courage at The Bushmills Distillery first! E swore the whole time as she crossed – S thinks she had a religious conversion because there was a lot of holy this and holy that. S had his camera out and took video of the crossing. Thankfully without incident. The bridge connects the mainland with a small island that was formerly used for cow grazing. For PG-13 reasons, we can’t show the video but we can share some of the spectacular photos of the views.
Combined with our Dublin post, this was our adventure in Ireland and Northern Ireland. We missed the west coast of Ireland but decisions had to be made given the constraints of time. We have a fervent desire to return to this part of the world and we are certain that we will. The Emerland Isle is wondrous and the history is rich and deep. Plus the live music is extremely good. The street busker scene in Dublin legendary but the bars throughout almost always have live music of some sort. Perhaps more optimistically, we also want to participate in the new story that Belfast is writing. Belfast is firmly on its way up and we loved it.
Wearehere 
Enjoyed your blog on Ireland. Are you going to write next on Scotland and scotch tasting in Islay?
LikeLike