Dublin City Tour

In the U.S. we have the Grey Line buses and in Ireland they have Hop-On-Hop-Off buses. We took advantage of this bus to get a tour of the city and thought we would do some hopping but we found that every thing we wanted to see was just a 10-20 minute walk from wherever we were. Since it is Sunday morning there were very few people getting on the bus so we ended up with an almost private tour.

We boarded the bus at St. Stephen's Square, a lovely garden park. In the early 1800's until the late 1800's the typical house was constructed in the Georgian style. They looked like apartment buildings three stories high and were made of red brick with tall windows and an arched doorway. Windows on the top floor were considerably smaller than the rest of the floors as to give the impression of it being a taller building. A  tax could also have been the reason for the small window as the government assessed a tax on the number and size of all windows in a building. 

Trinity College was built in 1591 as a place of education for Anglican priests. In was a male only college until 1900. This is where we visited the library yesterday. The Bank of Ireland currently resides in a building which used to house the House of Commons and the House of Lords. We drove by St. Patrick's Cathedral aka The National Church of Ireland which has been on this site since 1432. Dublina, part of Dublin Castle is attached to St. Pats. 

Phoenix Park is two times bigger than New York's Central Park.  Many ball fields, bike and walking trails, gardens and homes are located here as well as the zoo and the U.S. Ambassor's residence and Ireland's presidential residence. 

Following our tour we were dropped off near Temple Bar which is an area full of pubs, bars and restaurants and the original bar for which the area is named. Jameson's Irish Whiskey Museum is near here. Our tour time was not until 4 pm so we walked to Christ Church Cathedral and explored the neighborhood. 

Our tour and tasting at Jameson's was a much better experience than at Guinness. We even got to compare the taste of Jameson's to scotch and Jack Daniels. Jamison's is distilled three times which makes it smoother and better tasting than the other two whiskeys. 

After dinner we said our farewells to Mickey and David. They will visit Belfast, Scotland and London before heading home. We fly off to Sweden in the morning.

Dublin

This morning eight from our group of 20 rode the train into Dublin.  Most of the others were headed home, flying out of Cork.  It was a very crowded train for the three hours it took to get to Dublin. The scenery was so pretty along the way.  I'll never get tired of the green hill sides lined with rock walls and dotted with sheep and cows.

We are staying in a converted schoolhouse that was built in 1861 as St. Stephen's Parochial school. It closed in 1969 but was re-opened in 1998 as The Schoolhouse Hotel, restaurant and bar.  Our rooms are actually in the basement but they are very nice.

The eight of us started out together after settling in from the train ride and had a nice lunch before walking to Trinity College and visiting its library where the Book of Kells is located.  This is an illustrated (colorfully decorated) book of the Gospels - Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.  It is written in Latin and richly decorated, most likely produced in the early 9th century by the monks of Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland. The book was sent to Dublin around 1653 for security reasons and came to Trinity College in 1661.

The library where the Book of Kells is located was built between 1712 and 1732. One floor that is open to the public is called The Long Room.  It is 65 meters in length and houses 200,000 of the library's oldest books.

From here the Floyd's and us grabbed a taxi and went to the Guinness Storehouse where we learned all about how Ireland's famous beer is brewed.  John got to pour a pint and we tasted a couple as we toured the building and walked up to the Gravity Bar for a spectacular view of the city.  It's too bad it was so busy and so noisy!!

Kinsale

We parted company from our guides, Katrin and Eileen, Friday morning.  It was sad to say good bye.  They had another tour starting on Sat. so they needed time to prep for it. The group is on their own for today and then we all go separate ways on Saturday.

Our driver, Mike took good care of us including stopping to take pictures of an old castle in Macroom.  Our city guide was waiting for us when we arrived in Kinsale around 10.  She did a great job of showing us the town and showing us its history as a port city including pointing out where the water used to come along the streets and the marks on the cathederal door where clansmen would sharpen their swords before entering for mass. John got a lot of good pictures of this quaint town. We loved that our room overlooked the harbor.

John and I found this great wine bar called The Black Pig.  They had a fairly nice selection of wines mostly from France and Italy along with some Irish cheeses served with rhubarb chutney.  Yummy!

Ring of Kerry - Kerry Way

If we were driving it would be called the Ring of Kerry Drive but we are walking so it is the Kerry Way.  We cover just a small portion of the trail on the southern side of the peninsula but the views from here were spectacular especially since we had a gloriously sunny day.

The path we walked is also known as the Old Butter Road when the locals whould walk this way to take their butter to market in Kenmare.  My favorite part was the walk on a grassy lane lined by low rock walls.  We also walked down a rocky farm track and into open moorland near Caherdaniel overlooking Derrynane Bay.

Derrynane House was the vacation home of Daniel O'Connell who is considered the father of the Irish emancipation from the Church of England. This was during a time when the Irish were immigrating to the Americas, Scotland, Australia and England, numbering in the millions. The potato famine played a large part in the immigration but so did the English tyrany of the times when they allowed no schools, no worshiop, no savings and no land ownership by the Irish. O'Connell felt change had to be made by negotiations and not by violence and uprisings.  And he accomplised his goal of allowing catholic worship by the Irish in the mid-1800 but then the famine hit and the Irish left home to start anew in the US and other parts of the world.

Derrynane is a large park with a sandy shoreline, fairy houses in the forest, a museum, a garden and an old cemetery.  The remains of the building date back to the 500's. Tombs, cripts and burial grounds have taken over the old church and its surrounds with families laying to rest on top of their ancestors.

We had our farewell dinner tonight with toast presented by each person to another person in the tour.  There were lots of laughs and good feelings, but sorrow upon our parting ways.

Kenmare - Gleninchaquin

Early this morning we walked through the weekly farmers market and marveled at the vegetables, honey, ceramics, leather goods and yarn. The we boarded the bus for Gleninchaquin Park.

Prounced Glen-inch-kin, this park is actually all on private property, and it is a working sheep ranch. The group split so that 8 climbed up to the top of the waterfall and the others walked the fields, followed the river and bottle fed some lambs. The views from the top could have been spectacular but the weather prevented us from seeing it. 

            From the top of the waterfall. 

The rain began falling early last evening and must have fallen all night and was still coming down this mornig.  In Ireland the rain is very often just a very heavy mist, not rain drops like we find at home. None the less we needed rain coats and rain pants to keep dry.  The clouds were laying on top of the waterfall and prevented us from seeing some of the scenery but just as we got to the top they lifted very briefly so that we could see up the valley all the way to the bay.  I loved seeing the rock walls, white sheep dotting the fields and all the shades of green.  We truely saw why Ireland is refered to as The Emerald Isle.

On the bus ride to the park we learned a little of Irelands history from 3000 years ago to current times.  If you want to read about it, I have posted it at the bottom of this blog. Before the hikes began we stopped at a "Famine Cottage".  This small, thatched roofed structure was a typical homes of the poor Irish potato farmers.  They rented their land from a landlord and raised crops, chickens and milk cows to pay their rent with very little left over for themselves.  The walls were stone and the roof was sod overlaid with thatch. Their farm animals sometimes shared the one room with the family or were kept in an adjacent stall.  One family might have up to 10 children who all worked the land in one way or another.  When the potatoe blight of 1840 ruined the one money making crop these folks had, they were soon left destitute, unable to pay their rent and kicked off the land.

This evening we dined in the hotel restaurant with entertainment provided by some local children performing Irish dances and singing.  If you have ever seen River Dance, this is what they were doing in and among all the tables of diners.They were amazing!

History:  2500 Years ago during the Iron Age and into the Iron Age the peoples populating this island erected stones in a circle with a main stone in the center which is speculated to be a burial stone.  The circle was possibly dedicated to the furtility gods as it is aligned with the vernal equinox or the autumnal equinox.  A stone cirlce in Kenmare is dated to 2500 years ago and pre-dates Stonehenge. During the Bronze Age Celtic peoples from Germany, Spain, Slovakia, Normandy and Wales migrated to this island bring with them their language, calendar, stories and history, all passed down by word of mouth.  In 400 AD the Christians arrived and brought with them the ability to turn word of mouth into a written language. The Celts who marked the Irish the most were English who arrived in the 1100's.   Celts were of a warrior class and based their societies on rank, they used slaves and loved nature. 

Last Day in Killarney

Our tour group split up today so that each of us could take in whatever we wanted to see.  Some walked into town to see the cathedral, some chose to walk and shop, Mickey wasn't feeling well so she holed up in the lounge at the International Hotel. David and John visited the Killarney Golf Club and then hung out at a pub. I joined Linda and Rebecca for a walk back to Ross Castle in Killarney National Park. We all met back in town for lunch and then a group activity.

We were not able to grab a tour of the inside of the castle as we had hoped but we did enjoy the two mile walk along one of the very many trails through out the park.  Instead of walking the two miles back to the main gate, we hired a Jaunting Car and enjoyed a pleasant ride with Pat, our jarvey (driver) and Rosie, the horse. St. Mary's Cathedral is just outside the park gate. Even though it looks old it is relatively new since they started building it in 1842 with a final completion in 1914. It was renovated in 1973 and the windows were restored in 1987. The spire in 285 ft tall and it seats 1400 people. We still had time to shop before rejoining VBT.

This afternoon we were invited to visit Denis Kissane's childhoon home and his current home and farm.  His family has owned this land for the past 6 generations.  He is retired now but he used to have 24 milk cows.  We toured his barn and milk room, walked around the cottage where he was born and then his wife invited us into their home for scones and tea. They are very nice people and it was informative to see how he lived 50 years ago which is indicative of the many Irish landowners in this part of the island.

Tonight we are staying in Kenmare on the Ring of Kerry road.  It started misting rain on our drive, the second time it has rained this trip.  We have been very lucky to have such good weather thus far.

Killarney - Kerry Way

Today's hike took us along the Kerry Way which is the walking trail along the Ring of Kerry.  If you want to join all the tourist in the 30 or so busses that drive the Ring of Kerry that's fine but the walking path is very quiet with breath taking scenery. The biggest problem is that it is 270 km long (167 miles). We will only travel a very short distance on it. Today we covered about 7 miles. 

Our walk started in Killorgin. Every year for the last 400 years they celebrate the Puck Fair in August. A wild goat is caught, caged and placed in the middle of town. He is then crowned King Puck. Singing, dancing, horse & cow shows, markets and festivities commence and last for three days. They then release the goat back into the wild. Some say it's a fertility ritual and others claim the goat warned the town of Cromwell's approach and saved them even though he never got that far across Ireland. 

We hiked up Seefin Mountain, walked through Windy Gap and descended into the town of Glenbeigh where we had a delightful lunch. 4.75 miles. 

From there we walked 2.5 miles thru forest beside an old railroad track down to Dingle Bay. We were sprayed by the waves crashing on the rocks as some gathered colorful rocks. 

This evening a native of Kerry, Denis Kissane, who has traced his ancestors back at least 4 generations presented a power point about growing up in the country up to and during the 1950's to date. He was very entertaining and informative. He still lives on the family farm and his two sons live in the 200 year old house where he was born. 

Killarney National Park - Gap of Dunloe

Today's walk began with a story about Kate Kearney who was a well known beauty in Ireland before the Great Famine in 1845-49.  But she was also well know for her poitin - Kate Kearney's Mountain Dew which was "very fierce and wild, requiring not less than seven times its own quantity of water to tame and subdue it" (better than Kentucky white lightening!!).

Our walk took us between the Purple Mountain and the Macgillycuddy's Reek (a reek is a new, craggy mountain) on the Dunloe Gape road.  These are Ireland's highest mountains at about 3400 feet. This used to be the only way to travel between Killarney and Kenmare and was guarded by British soldiers to prevent gun running and poaching. But the people tollerated their presence and continued with thier illicite activities and there wasn't much they could do about it and live to see another day. 

We passed Black Lake and Auger Lake and then up, up into the Gap.  A jaunting cart followed us all along our hike with offers of short rides to rest out legs.  Us laggers used it the most but everyone got a chance to ride. One of our leaders, Eileen, was fond of saying "I've been for a jaunt with a jarvey in Killarney!"  A jarvey is the driver. Then we went down into Black Valley, all the while enjoying the mountains, wild flowers, sheep, and occasional red deer.

At the end of our 7 mile hike we had a pleasant picnic lunch at Lord Brandon's Cottage.  We dined on strawberries, salad, brie, Irish cheeses, smoked salmon, cold cuts, brown bread and cake.  Delightful!

From there we boarded open wooden fishing boats and rode 14 miles on Upper, Middle and Lower Lakes, each connected by rivers. Upper Lake is also known as Loch Lein.  At one point we had to disembark and walk so that the boat could ford a very shallow crossing.  

We landed at Ross Castle which was built sometime between 1200 and 1400. The Anglo-Normans who crossed into Engrland and Ireland from France in the 1200's built the castle on the edge of the lake with the thougt that it could not be breached from that direction which made the land side easier to defend.  But in the mid-1500's Oliver Cromwell figured out a way to move his cannons to the castle on the lake and the castle was surrendered without a shot being fired.  It sat empty after that until 1974 when money was found to refurbish the castle as it is seen today.

Killarney National Park - Day 1

Today is the official beginning of our walking tour of Ireland with VBT (Vermont Bicycling Tours).  20 people joined our guides Eileen and Katrin on the van ride to Killarney.  Ireland is the land of saints and scholars so many places are named for saints (not martyrs) or learned peoples.  Places that start with the word 'bally' means the site or area of and what ever the other name is;  if it starts with 'Kill' it means church; and many of the towns are named after chieftans of old.  

After our 90 minute drive we were dropped off at the end of the lane leading to Muckross House, a short 1 mile stroll.  We dined at the restaurant near the house, explored the gardens and then hiked over 7 miles around the lake.

Muckross (muck meaning pig or boar and ross means penninsula) is a mansion built in the late 1800's by Arthur Vincent.  Near its completion, Mr. Vincent invited Queen Elizabeth to spend the night in hopes of becoming a knight but shortly after her visit, her husband died and Vincent was forgotten.  His visions of the area becoming a tourist destination were dashed and his house lay vacant for many years.  In 1932 the house and its 8000 acres of land was turned over to the state and the first national park was born in Ireland.  The house still lay empty until 1964 when it was opened by a private organization as a museum of Kerry folk life.  Its gardens are extensive and the view from the house across the penninsula on which it sits overlooking the lake is grand and at the same time peaceful.  The house is sometimes refered to as the 'Calendar House' because it has 365 windows and 52 chimneys.

Near the house is what appears to be an old castle.  It started out as a friary in the 1200's and was added to sometime in the 1400's by the Romans who called it a 'keep'.  Our walk took us around Lough (pronounced 'lock') Leane (Irish) or Loch Lein (English) which means Lake of Learning.

Occasional bicyclists and jaunting cars (two wheeled carts pulled by one horse) passed us on the road. Early summer brings out the flowers in Ireland.  We spotted fusia, Killarney Ash, calla lillies and rhododendrons.  Rhododendrons are so prolific that it is considered a nusance plant and the conservationists are trying to find ways of killing it off and controlling its growth.

Tonight we are staying at Loch Lein Country House which overlooks Loch Lein and is about 3 miles from Killarney.  

Day 2 in Cork

Following breakfast we walked out of the town center and up a steep hill to the Cork City Goal (pronounced Jail).  This prison was used in the late 1800's to early 1900's.  Hardened criminals were imprisoned here along with the poor who committed crimes just to get arrested. It was a crime of poverty that sent many criminals to jail. During times of great famine, people (men, women and children) would be starving but they knew that if they were in prison they would be fed, clothed and have a bed to sleep on.  Later it was used as a political prison before being closed down due to unsanitary conditions.  We listened to a well done audio tour while walking in and out of cells.

Since it was close to lunch time by the time we got back to the English Market, we bought sausages and ate them in the nearby Mutton Lane pub accompanied by a local brew. This pub claims to be the oldest in town.

It was then that we decided we had to nearly run to the train station to catch a ride to Cobh (pronounced Cove) to experience the last port-of-call for the HMS Titanic. Cobh was once named Queenstown. When the Titanic pulled into this harbor she sent  people to shore and picked us 123 souls, most Irish immigrants going to America.  Two days later she sank. The 3rd class tickets cost about $650 in today's dollars while the1st class ranged up to $150,000.  Of the 123 who boarded only 44 survived.

The town skyline is dominated by the spires of St. Colman's Cathedral but the quaint lines of colorful homes makes it feel very old world and inviting.  HMS Lusitania was torpedoed not far off these shores and a memorial is prominently displayed to honor those deaths.

We walked over 8 miles again today!