Is it still the same sun I’m used to? Its glow is so much softer, somehow warmer, yet miraculously iridescent, illuminating the bright pops of yellow flowering over the hills, rolling up the green fields, spilling onto the white-tan limestone, then kissing the blue-grey water with a shimmer and a wave, at last bounding off into the horizon as if late for a party. Even on the overcast days the Irish Sun flutters down and around in this way from behind dark shadows in the sky. These grey days are the most perfect ones—perfect to traipse around the rocky coasts, perfect to sit back in a corner velvet-upholstered seat at the pub and remark on, yet again, an unparalleled cup of seafood chowder, and perfect to wonder if all this enjoyment is only in my head, magnified by the delicate and enveloping warmth of the peat fire beside me and the half-finished pint of Guinness in hand.
Ireland is in some ways its own typecast, pulling through with the promise of green grasses and rainbows and expanses of farmland. But I was surprised to discover how natural I felt being there. It swallows you whole and then you are part of it, free to wander around inside of it and make it your own.
GENERAL ROUTES & NOTABLE PLACES
- Fly into the Shannon Airport
- Shannon to Doolin along coast
- Cliffs of Moher (just do it)
- Ballybunion
- Fenit (lunch at West End Bar & Restaurant)
- Dingle to Conors Pass
- Ring of Kerry
- Pub stop in Kilargren
- Pub stop in Cahersiveen at The Sheebeen (one of our favorite pub experiences)
- Portmagee (amazing town)
- Waterville (dinner at the Lobster Bar)
- Ballaghisheen Pass
- Breakfast at Leen’s Hotel in Abbeyfeale next to turf fire, A+
- Pub stop in Killarney
- Muckross House & Grounds
- Toc’s Waterfall
- Kenmare
- Adare Mansion to Kinsale
- Cork
- Lunch at Iyer’s**
- Local beers at Rising Son’s**
- Kinsale
- Hamlet’s
- The Black Pig
- Kinsale to Waterford
- Lunch at The Reg
- Waterford to Glendalough**
- Ashford to Dublin through mountains
- Lunch at Skinflint**
- Kelly’s Hotel
- Porterhouse
- The Bank
- Breakfast at Kenough
- Chester Beatty Museum**
- Irish Museum of Modern Art**
- Bagel and mineral water in the gardens
- Beer Market
- Bull & Castle** (upstairs for good cocktails, early and well before dinner crowd)
- Bar with No Name
- Breakfast at L’Gouillton
- Botanic Gardens**
- Dublin to Sligo
- Dinner at the Coachman House (accidentally one of my favorite meals of the entire trip: Chickpea Satay)
- Sligo to Clifton
- Clifton: Guys Bar**
- Ennis: Storehouse**
- Ennis to Doolin via Ballyvaughan along coast
- O’Donohues Pub
- Monk’s Seafood