An independent exploration of Ireland

by Barb Hartwell; St. Petersburg, FL Every few years, beginning in 1984, my husband and I would give in to our longings and book another flight to the land of shamrocks and shillelaghs, for a total of eight wonderful adventures to Ireland. During our 26 years of marriage, we traveled to many fascinating parts of the world, but, always, Ireland held our hearts. We explored (mostly in the Republic of Ireland) on our own or with a family member or friends, and we traveled there in the spring, the summer, the fall and the winter. When my husband died a few years ago, I really didn’t think I’d be returning to Ireland again. But then my friend Leonor made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, volunteering her frequent-flyer miles for our round-trip airfares if I would plan an itinerary and book our lodgings. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I immediately began planning!

Dublin

We flew to Ireland in early May 2011 and toured for two weeks, beginning with two nights in Dublin. Leonor used her Hilton HHonors points to secure our room there. So far, no expenses except for food! In Dublin we each purchased a 3-day Freedom Ticket from Dublin Bus Tours (available at the city’s tourism office). This gave us access to the city bus, the Hop-on/Hop-off sightseeing bus and about 30 attractions plus a bus ride to the airport, if needed. The cost was €25.50 ($34) each, which turned out to be a good deal for us, as we did the city tour and used both bus systems to get around Dublin. The ticket also got us into most of the attractions we visited. Our time in Dublin was brief, but we did manage to tour the Guinness Storehouse and spend time at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Stephen’s Green and Trinity College (with its Book of Kells), to name a few. We also had the good fortune to attend a performance of “Pygmalion” at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre (phone +353 [0] 1 87 87 222), the national theater of Ireland. I had booked the tickets online before we left home for a price of $91 for one regular admission and one senior. For anyone who has a few days in the city, I highly recommend attending a performance in this beautiful, old theater.

To Thurles

On the morning of our third day, we picked up our 4-door Ford from the Hertz agency. We chose a vehicle with automatic transmission to make the adjustment to driving on the left easier for Leonor, who agreed to take on that task. We also chose a car with a trunk, as hatchbacks seem to be more attractive for “smash and grabs,” something I know from personal experience. Since our round-trip flight didn’t cost us anything, we splurged and bought the complete insurance coverage for our rental. That meant that anything from a tiny scratch to a total smashup would not cost us a penny! (Our credit card’s coverage for CDW was not valid in Ireland.)

The total cost for the car rental, including the insurance, was $1,030 for 12 days. We left Dublin and drove directly to Thurles in County Tipperary. Thurles is a good base for touring. In the two days we were there, we visited the Rock of Cashel, attended Mass at the 13th-century Holy Cross Abbey and drove to Kil­kenny, home to Kilkenny Castle and Kilkenny Design Centre. While in Kilkenny, we stopped by Kytelers Inn (also known as the Witch’s Pub), established in 1324 and purported to be one of the oldest pubs in Ireland. Speaking of pubs, if you happen to be in Thurles on a Thursday, be sure to ask around about Jim O‘ the Mill, an authentic Irish pub experience that takes place in a farmhouse just one night a week. Locals gather there each Thursday for spontaneous amateur entertainment that is purely Irish. You’ll likely hear a tin whistle, a plaintive song, a fiddle or a recitation. It is a magical experience!

Getting around

Our accommodations for the remainder of our trip were in farmhouses or country homes — all B&Bs, with most found in the guidebooks furnished free of charge by the Irish Tourist Board (Fáilte Ireland). I ordered our copies from the New York office (800/223-6470), but you can also pick them up at one of the tourist offices in any town in Ireland. These guides were very helpful and even included a photo of each place next to its complete description. I usually try to book houses that are 150 to 300 years old; they are so much more interesting, and the rooms are usually larger. Right around the beginning of this century, and just prior to her recent economic downturn, Ireland spent a lot of money on a modern highway system. That made for fast and easy travel from one place to another. The downside to this is that the journey from town to town has lost much of its previous charm. Not only did I find the unspoiled scenery missing, so were the sheep and cows that always seemed to be wandering across the road and bringing one to a complete standstill. On our trip, we followed the advice of a friend and drove straight through each day to our next scheduled B&B, dropping off our luggage before meandering along the byways and country roads and visiting any special attractions we discovered. This turned out to be a good plan and enabled us to travel from coast to coast, and even as far as the border with Northern Ireland, within our allotted time frame.

Blarney

Our next stop after Thurles was the Maranatha Country House (phone +353 21 438 5102) in Blarney, County Cork. The owners, Olwen and Douglas Venn, charged €45 ($60) for a double room and €49 for what they called a superior room or the Honeymoon Suite. We had decided ahead of time that we each would have our own room, which made for a very easy, comfortable trip. The rooms were large and beautifully furnished.

The B&B prices, of course, included a substantial breakfast — anything from a full Irish breakfast to cereal, pastries and lots of my favorite brown bread. At this house, the breakfast room was a beautiful, glassed-in conservatory full of spring flowers and decorator touches. Maranatha House’s location was handy for our obligatory stop at Blarney Castle, where Leonor had to kiss the Blarney Stone, though the bestowing of the “gift of gab” in this case might have been redundant! Blarney Castle and the surrounding grounds, including the Poison Garden (full of things like foxglove and other types of plants thought to be poisonous), is a beautiful spot and was well worth the visit. A short walk away is the famous Blarney Woollen Mills, where we had a glass of “the black stuff” (Guinness) and a tasty lunch before spending a good bit of time and money in that impressive store, which offers high-quality wool sweaters, caps and scarves as well as Irish crystal, household goods and souvenirs of all types.

Killarney

Gleann Fia Country House (phone +353 64 6635035) in Killarney was our next stop for two nights. We were welcomed by Conor and Bridget O’Connell and shown to our rooms (€45 each). Like all of our accommodations on the trip, our rooms here were en suite. From our base in Killarney, we decided to spend one full day on the Dingle Peninsula and one day seeing some of the sights around Killarney plus a tiny bit of the Ring of Kerry. We drove the mile or so from our B&B into Killarney, then drove a short way through Killarney National Park, going as far as Ladies View on the Ring of Kerry. Ladies View is a lovely scenic overlook and a good place for a spot of tea or an Irish coffee. On our way back to Killarney, we stopped to see the Torc Waterfall, another beautiful spot in Killarney National Park, then spent a delightful few hours visiting Muckross House & Gardens, a real showplace with its 19th-century home surrounded by stunning gardens and pathways.

The next day we set off for the Dingle Peninsula. It was a beautiful, bright day — the first time I ever saw the Dingle in sunshine! We stopped to explore some of the area’s prehistoric beehive huts and the Gallarus Oratory, a 1,500-year-old stone chapel, along the way. The Dingle is one of the few places in Ireland where Irish is spoken widely and shop signs and road signs are in Irish. It is a bit wilder than the Ring of Kerry, making it, I think, the more intriguing of the two. In Dingle Town we discovered Dingle Crystal (Green St.). The owner/designer was formerly with Waterford Crystal, and his creations are every bit as special. We stopped in Dunquin for lunch at Dún Chaoin Pottery Café, a little tearoom that I first visited in 1985. I was thrilled to see that it was still in business. Leonor enjoyed the homemade fish chowder there. Across the road from the tearoom is Blasket Sound and a great view of the Blasket Islands. We caught a glimpse of some basking sharks and enjoyed the view of the cliffs, the turquoise water, the crashing waves and the patchwork look of the green, green countryside. On the way back to Killarney, Leonor drove fearlessly through Conor Pass, which has a well-deserved reputation as being a very twisty, narrow, dangerous road.

Between B&Bs

Leaving Killarney the next morning, we drove to Tarbert, where we took the ferry across the River Shannon, then drove to our next B&B, Castleview Farmhouse (Cliffs of Moher Rd; phone 65 7081590) in Liscannor, County Clare. This time our cost per person was €35. Our hostess, Patsy O’Connor, and her husband, Tommy, made us feel very welcome in this pretty little house within close proximity of the spectacular Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, with its 5,000-year-old Poulnabrone Dolman. The Burren, located a bit south of Galway, is an area of about 250 square kilometers of, mostly, limestone. Although it looks barren and desolate, kind of like a moonscape, it is an amazing ecosystem of all kinds of microscopic plants and flowers. On the road again, we stopped at Kinvara and had a look at Dunguaire Castle, one of the few castles in the republic that feature medieval banquets. Bunratty is perhaps more famous for its banquets, but I always felt that Dunguaire was a little less “touristy.” Unfortunately, our schedule didn’t allow time to lift a glass of mead at the castle, so we continued on to St. Anne’s B&B (phone +353 93 51337; st_annes_bb@hotmail.com), in Milltown/Tuam in County Galway, where we stayed for two nights with the very gracious owner, Mary Birmingham. Our charge here was €40 per person per night.

Galway

Our second day in the Galway area had us rising early for an energetic day of touring what I have come to call the “Connemara Circle.” We drove to Kylemore Abbey, one of the most photographed places in Ireland, I think. It looks like an ancient castle but was really built in the mid 1800s by an Irish businessman and his wife. In 1920 it was purchased by the Irish Benedictine nuns and turned into an abbey. We had lunch there and toured some of the abbey rooms that were open to visitors. They have a gigantic gift shop on the premises, too.

We drove on to Clifden, another picturesque and well-photographed spot, then stopped at Ashford Castle for some photos. It has only been in recent years, I believe, that nonguests of the castle-hotel could drive onto that property. We passed through Maam Cross but didn’t have time to stop at the nearby Quiet Man Cottage Museum (Cong, Co. Mayo) and the visitors’ center there. It is a fun place to go, though, if you can. You can have your picture taken with the life-size replicas of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, the stars of the film, and it’s a good place to eat. We did take time for a pub stop in Cong and saw the ancient Irish cross that was featured in the cross-country fight scene in the movie “The Quiet Man.” Then it was on to Headford and the Ross Errilly Friary, which dates, some say, to the 1300s. Aside from a family of three at the site when we arrived, we were the only ones there. It is a most unusual ruin and is like a maze inside. I find it to be a “hidden treasure” — there’s never anyone there, it’s remarkably well preserved, it’s situated out in the middle of a cow pasture and it has no admission fee nor employees. You could easily spend a few hours there, which we did.

On to County Westmeath

Leaving Tuam the next day, we drove north to Ballyshannon and our accommodation for one night, Cavangarden House (phone +353 71 9851365). We had booked two rooms there at a cost of €37 each. This beautiful old house was built around 1750. Ballyshannon is close to the border, so we decided to drive the short distance into Belleek, Northern Ireland, to visit the Belleek Pottery Visitors Centre. We had lunch there and spent a few hours and a few pounds (British monetary system, you know), enjoying the museum and showroom there very much. Back in Ballyshannon, we had our supper in a pub, as we did most nights. On our next-to-last day, we drove to Multyfarnham in County Westmeath, where we stayed at Mornington House (phone +353 44 9372191), the home of Anne and Warwick O’Hara. Built in the 17th century, it has been in the O’Hara family since 1858 and is one of the most beautiful country houses in Ireland. The rooms were quite large, and the furnishings, including the linens, were lovely. Mr. O’Hara is a master chef, and his breakfasts were quite wonderful.

Our rooms there cost €62.50 ($83) each, but we received a special discount; I’m not sure if it was because the rates are always lower on a Monday, as we were told, or if it was just because I had stayed with them 25 years ago with my husband. In any event, it was the most expensive place we stayed, but I think it was a good place to splurge. The gardens are beautiful. We were served tea in front of a turf fire in the drawing room and talked for quite a while with Anne about the history of the house. That night we went in search of Irish music and were directed to Sean’s Bar, another pub that claims the distinction of being the oldest pub in Ireland. Yes, they had music. Country music! (Sigh.)

Winding down

Up early the next morning, we drove to Newgrange, a 5,000-year-old passage grave. Older than the pyramids in Egypt, this is quite an amazing site, one I would recommend highly. The tour took us inside the central chamber of the tomb, where a demonstration allowed us to see what it is like during the winter solstice, when the sun’s rays penetrate the passageway and suffuse the inner chamber with bright light. On Dec. 21 each year, this illumination lasts about 15 minutes and then recedes back along the passageway, leaving the chamber, once again, in darkness. On our last night we stayed in Malahide, a suburb of Dublin, at the Pebble Mill Guesthouse B&B (phone +353 1 846 1792). Our cost was €45 each. We dropped our luggage off, then drove the short distance to the airport to return our rental car. Taking the bus back to Malahide, we stopped for dinner before returning to the B&B to pack and get to bed early. Touring Ireland on our own, staying in farmhouses and country homes, was a very inexpensive way to see just what we wanted to see. It allowed us to tarry as long as we liked when we found a great spot and to really get to know the Irish people, the friendliest, warmest, most generous people on Earth!